The festival will be back for three days next month with more than 50 authors speaking across more than 30 different events.
Festival co-director Kitty Brown said this year’s theme was Ahi Ka, or "keeping the home fire burning".
"We are riffing on the theme of fires and warmth and the cosy home fire hearth and what it takes to keep that alive and keep that nourished in a world where things are a little bit moving to an online space and not so much about reading."
Only a handful of the authors were attending from outside Dunedin and there was a real focus on the local scene this year, Ms Brown said.
Chidgey would be discussing her latest novel, The Book of Guilt, and "fiction’s power to illuminate the shadows of human nature".
She would also be hosting a workshop on creating child narrator characters.
Former deputy prime minister and finance minister, and current University of Otago vice-chancellor, Grant Robertson would also be discussing his new political memoir Anything Could Happen.
Other events included panel discussions on post-apocalyptic world-building, publishing Pasifika stories and turning lived experiences into art.
Reading was important and something not enough people were doing, Ms Brown said.
"Looking to the past is often actually the way through the future, so having books and reading is a great way to ground oneself and to navigate the future, too.
"In kind of turbulent times, what better to do than curl up with a book, right?"
The festival runs from October 17-19.
