Applications open for Writers’ Centre residencies

Applications open for 2016 Michael King Writers’ Centre residencies

The Michael King Writers’ Centre invites applications from New Zealand writers for four supported residencies in 2016, with stipends ranging from $8,000 to $30,000.

The residencies are at the Michael King Writers’ Centre which is based in the Signalman’s House, a heritage villa on Takarunga Mt Victoria in Devonport.

The residency programme aims to support New Zealand writers and promote the development of high-quality New Zealand writing. Projects can be in a wide range of genres, including non-fiction, fiction, drama and poetry. Previous resident writers include Man Booker prize-winner Eleanor Catton, who wrote the final draft of her novel The Luminaries at the centre, and Rachel Barrowman, whose biography of Maurice Gee was published in July to critical acclaim.

Writers selected for the 2016 residencies will have free accommodation at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport, use of the writer’s studio and receive a stipend:
Summer Residency, eight weeks (stipend $8,000)
Autumn Residency, eight weeks ($8,000)
Maori Writer’s Residency, eight weeks starting in May 2016 ($8,000)
The University of Auckland Residency, six months from mid-July 2016 ($30,000 stipend/salary)
The eight-week residencies are open to emerging or established writers. The six-month residency, offered in partnership with the University of Auckland, is for an established author who will benefit from the academic environment. Writers must be working on a specific project in fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction or non-fiction. Writers from all over New Zealand, including those who live in Auckland, are welcome to apply. The residencies are offered with the assistance of Creative New Zealand.

Application forms and further information are available on the centre’s web site
www.writerscentre.org.nz or from the centre. Applications close on Friday October 2, 2015, and the selections are expected to be announced in November.

Thirty-three New Zealand writers have held residencies at the centre since 2005. The current writer in residence is playwright and librettist Rochelle Bright. Writers who do not qualify for the supported residency programme are able to apply to be a visiting writer on a paying basis.

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