On Friday 10 May a group of Year 9 and 10 students were lucky enough to attend a ‘Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival’ session featuring two remarkable authors, John Boyne and Marcus Zusak. We were entertained for two hours, as they shared with us their stories and their experiences.

Marcus Zusak has written six books, but is best known for the one that catapulted him into the book sales stratosphere, The Book Thief, which sold 16 million copies worldwide. In a most entertaining presentation, he showed us clearly his knack for making ordinary stories extraordinary. John Boyne shot to fame when his book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas became a global bestseller and sold around 10 million copies. He gave us, in an equally riveting session, his ‘16 pointers’ for successful writing and some rare insight into where to find inspiration.

The common messages from both these authors were that the best writers also read extensively, that successful writing requires perseverance, and that every one of us ‘has a story in us’!