The Athenaeum Blog

On Saturday the library was heaving with young people all enjoying the theatre of live performance poetry. Brave young poets bared their souls to a supportive audience and by the end of the night it was hard to tell which group was more elated by the experience.

The Dunedin Readers and Writers festival had a stunning run of warm sunny days and this was especially welcome for the outdoor unveiling of the Dan Davin plaque in the Octagon writers walk.  The plaque is placed by the famous statue of Robbie Burns for those of you wanting to go check it out. People… Read More

This years Chain Reaction mass book launch was poetry based and for some reason many people are afraid of poetry so it was good to see that the numbers for this years event were still high. Overcoming any poetry phobia was well worth it as the audience was entranced by the recited poems. David Eggleton spoke… Read More

The Athenaeum Library held an open day on Saturday 2nd of May to encourage new members and as an early kick off for the Writers and Readers Festival. Jim Sullivan came in and gave an informative and amusing talk about the early years of the Athenaeum in Dunedin.  As self deprecating as ever Jim was pleased… Read More

Normally the Athenaeum is closed in the week-ends but by a strange coincidence our open day overlapped with the 24 hour film challenge and one team took advantage of our opening to shot some scenes in the library and for some reason a shark was member of the cast! The completed short film will available… Read More

We are thrilled that Dunedin has been recognized as an International City of Literature.  Annie Villiers the Chairperson of the Athenaeum is also a member of the committee that organised the wining bid. Annie has kindly agreed to be interviewed on the Athenaeum’s radio show Wireless Books on Otago Access Radio 105.4 FM giving an… Read More

The Athenaeum Library was the venue for Chain Reaction a book launch for five Otago authors.  New works by Vincent O’Sullivan, Owen Marshall, Paddy Richardson, Breton Dukes and Kay McKenzie Cooke were featured as well as short speech from David Eggleton in his role as editor of Landfall.  The event was hosted by the University… Read More

On Thursday 28 November, the Athenaeum library hosted the launch of the recently completed history of the Athenaeum & Mechanics’ Institute “Reading Matters’, written by well known Dunedin broadcaster and historian, Jim Sullivan.  Over 50 members and friends of the Athenaeum attended the launch including the Deputy Mayor, Chris Staynes,  who officially launched the book… Read More

The library is doing a radio show called Wireless Books.  For half an hour once a fortnight we talk about the history of the Athenaeum Library and Dunedin in general; chat about books and also review the latest books added to the libraries collection. It plays on Otago Access Radio at noon every second Saturday but… Read More