Verb Wellington is thrilled to present bestselling American writer Neal Shusterman for a one-off event on Friday 16 May.

Shusterman is the bestselling author of more than fifty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults. His latest novel, All Better Now, is a thriller about a world where happiness is contagious but the risks of catching it may be just as dangerous as the cure. "The plot twists keep coming all the way to the enigmatic, jaw-dropping conclusion in this exquisitely rendered work" ― Publishers Weekly. All Better Now was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Shusterman is a much loved, compelling author with legions of followers. He can ignite a passion for reading, storytelling and engaging with the challenges and triumphs of our world through imagined dystopias. Shusterman is particularly passionate about getting teenagers enthused about writing, reading and being entertained by books.

Enjoy a wide ranging conversation about writing thrillers for young adults, and why dystopian fiction is so gripping for younger and older readers alike. There will be book sales and signings afterwards, thanks to Unity Books.

Presented in partnership with Walker Books and National Library of New Zealand.

About the writer
Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award, Courage to Dream, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, Scythe, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, the Unwind Dystology, which won more than thirty domestic and international awards, and the highly acclaimed novels, Dry, and Roxy which he co-wrote with his son, Jarrod For his body of work, Neal won the 2024 Margaret A. Edwards Award, and the ALAN Lifetime Achievement Award. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. For his body of work, Neal won the 2024 Margaret A. Edwards Award, and the ALAN Lifetime Achievement Award. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves.

We are delighted to have Lauren Keenan interview Neal for this event. Lauren Keenan (Te Āti Awa ki Taranaki) is a writer of creative non-fiction, novels, short stories and popular psychology. Lauren was a winner at the 2017 Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers and a finalist in the 2019 awards. She was also a participant in Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her short stories have appeared in Huia Short Stories collections in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In 2020 her book The 52 Week Project: How I Fixed My Life by Trying a New Thing Every Week for a Year was published, and in 2022 her children’s novel Amorangi and Millie’s Trip Through Time was published. It was a finalist in the 2022 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and longlisted in the ARA Historical Novel Prize. It also won the 2023 Book Lovers Award. Her debut historical fiction novel The Space Between (Penguin Random House, 2024), set against the backdrop of the New Zealand Wars, is a national bestseller. Lauren has a Master of Arts in Taranaki Māori History.

Janhavi Gosavi will be interviewing Neal for a special Secondary Schools event. Janhavi Gosavi is a journalist and creative from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She got her start in writing at Salient Magazine while she was a student at Victoria University of Wellington. Janhavi is a journalist at Re: News and has written for outlets like The Spinoff and Ensemble Magazine. She spends her spare time crafting or cooking while listening to audiobooks and loves watching bookish content online.

Contact the host of Neal Shusterman: All Better Now

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