Sunny Nelson is one of those places on our ‘must-see’ list, and its impending Arts Festival is looking irresistible.

It will run from 13 to 23 October and launches with a Masked Parade & Carnivale, followed by over ten days of theatre, literary lunching, dance, comedy, music, sculpture, workshops, openings and closings. Yum.

One of the cornerstone events is the Woollaston Estates Readers and Writers series, which has expanded to eleven lively and informal events this year. It brings together established and emerging writers and poets, including Pommie import Joe Bennett (pictured).

Further south and also kicking off on 13 October is the Otago Festival of the Arts. This opens with an unveiling of a writers plaque recognising poet Cilla McQueen at the Writers Walk, Upper Octagon.

The line-up for the Otago weekend includes Julie Le Clerc (pictured) and Jenny Pattrick, Brian Turner, Lloyd Jones and Emma Neale.

If you can’t make those two tempting festivals, don’t forget you can always hang out with like-minded literary souls at the online New Zealand Book Forum. It’s trucking along nicely with 69 members and over 400 posts already.

Meanwhile, the Complete Review takes a look at the Nobel Prize in literature - due to be announced in a couple of weeks - and the odds being offered by Ladbrokes. Will Thomas Pynchon win and travel to Stockholm for the award ceremony? That’s 30/1, sir.