In her 2025 NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Lecture, Charlotte Grimshaw will report from the frontlines of fiction and memoir, discuss veracity, integrity and clarity in a so-called “post-truth world,” and share ideas she’s formed about authenticity after a whole life lived in fiction.

Grimshaw will describe her ongoing quest for answers, including a recent personal discovery of material in the Turnbull Library archive that shattered some final illusions, and fuelled her determination to go on expressing ideas and writing accurate human stories, no matter what. Don't miss this one-off, very special event.

Presented in partnership with New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa (PEN NZ) Inc, and National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.

This event is free to attend, and will be followed by supper and light refreshments. Please register to secure your place. All welcome.

Charlotte Grimshaw spent two decades publishing fiction after growing up in the family of a writer. In 2021 she published a bestselling memoir, The Mirror Book, about her experiences in the literary family. She described this as an account of the creation of her authentic self. In her latest novel, The Black Monk (March, 2026), she has continued her exploration of authenticity, blending the “micro” interior world of guilt, truth and lies with the “macro” world of geopolitics and history. Charlotte is the critically acclaimed author of eleven works, including novels, two outstanding collections of linked stories, a best-selling memoir, journalism and book reviewing.

Charlotte Grimshaw is The NZ Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa 2025 President of Honour. This prestigious honour is bestowed on a senior writer and long-serving NZSA member in recognition of their contribution to writing, writers and the literary arts sector in Aotearoa. Each year the NZSA President of Honour delivers the Janet Frame Memorial Lecture.

Charlotte Grimshaw: The annual NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Lecture

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