British author Josh Silver comes to Auckland this May as part of the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki 2026, with his visit supported by British Council New Zealand and the Pacific.
The Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki is one of New Zealand's most celebrated cultural events. Each year the Festival gathers more than 220 of the world's finest writers and thinkers across over 200 public events, bringing together local and international voices in contemporary fiction and non-fiction, alongside poets, scientists, economists, journalists and public thinkers. For 27 years the Festival has enriched the cultural life of Aotearoa and established itself as a major Australasian event, known not only for the calibre of its guest authors but for the enthusiasm and engagement of its audiences and the warmth of Auckland as its setting. Its programme is driven by the desire to spark ideas, open conversations and give audiences a place and time to engage with the world.
Josh Silver grew up on a farm in the Lake District before moving to Manchester with his family, where he spent his teenage years loving the city. He trained as an actor at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and went on to perform in the West End and on Broadway. After deciding to change careers, Josh now works with teenagers as a mental health nurse. He lives in Manchester.
His debut novel HappyHead has been shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal. His latest thriller, Traumaland, follows Eli, a teenager whose near-fatal car crash leaves him with memory loss and emotional numbness, and who joins an underground club offering virtual-reality simulations of nightmarish scenarios. His new adult novel Fruit Fly explores ambition, exploitation and the ethics of storytelling, tracing the collision between a privileged writer and a young, queer struggling addict.
In Who Gets to Tell the Story? (Saturday 16 May, Hunua Room, Aotea Centre), Josh joins RF Kuang and moderator Victor Rodger to discuss their sharp, propulsive novels exploring tokenism, exploitation and the fraught ethics of telling another person's story. Yellowface by Kuang and Fruit Fly both pose powerful questions about who gets to tell a story, who profits from it, and the dark consequences of ambition and greed in publishing.
In Dystopia as Protest: Write the Future that Fights Back (Sunday 17 May, Vault, Q Theatre), Josh explores how dystopian fiction questions the present and disrupts the status quo, and why imagining dark futures can be a powerful act of protest.
In Thinking Differently (Sunday 17 May, Loft, Q Theatre), Josh joins David A. Robertson and Karina McHardy to discuss navigating neurodiversity and mental health, and the ongoing fight for better understanding and support.
As part of the Auckland Writers Festival Schools Programme, Josh presents two sessions for secondary students (Years 9 to 13) titled Alive Again (Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 May, Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre). He shares the inspiration behind Traumaland and its chilling, near-future narrative, and speaks about creativity, wellbeing and why dystopian fiction can help young people make sense of the world they live in.