ABOUT
Samesame but different, Aotearoa New Zealand’s first LGBTQIA+ Writers Festival, was launched by the writer Peter Wells in 2016. Peter’s goal was for the festival to be “an exciting event that makes people think about sexuality, difference and community, stretches their understanding, gives them a few laughs and creates a slightly magic space for two days in February.”
Since Peter’s death in 2019, samesame but different has been run by an energetic group of volunteers who have continued the festival’s tradition of bold events, strong attendance and stimulating conversations.
As well as providing a platform to amplify the voices of LGBTQIA+ writers, we use our funding to pay all the writers and moderators who participate in our discussions.
Founder
Peter Wells founded the samesame but different LGBTQIA+ Writers Festival in 2015, having already co-created the Auckland Writers Festival in 1999.
An award-winning author and film-maker, Peter consistently broken barriers in both publishing (his collection of short stories, Dangerous Desires, was the first gay-themed book to be published in New Zealand under the author’s own name) and film (Jewel’s Darl showed transgender characters in a sympathetic light as early as 1986).
His subsequent writing career embraced both fiction and New Zealand history, and he received many accolades for his work in both areas.
In 2018 Unity Books gave Peter Wells a $20,000 award for his ‘body of work but also his long-spansocial justice activism … His strong sense of social justice combined with his literary achievements has nourished, sustained and encouraged readers in Aotearoa.’
On being told he had cancer in 2017, he chronicled his experience of living with the disease in a series of Facebook posts which he later turned into his last book, Hello Darkness, published shortly before his death in 2019.
BOARD Members
Michael Giacon
Board Member
Chye-Ling Huang
Board MemberChye-Ling Huang is a Chinese-Pakeha writer and director for film and theatre and co-founder of Proudly Asian Theatre. Her award-winning original plays include Orientation and Call of the Sparrows. (more…)
Hiraani Himona
Board Member
Izzy Robinson
Board Member