First International Recipient Of Writers Residency Announced

Melbourne-based writer and essayist Shu-Ling Chua has been selected as the inaugural recipient of Dunedin’s new Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Residency.

Shu-Ling Chua

The writers residency, organised by the Caselberg Trust and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, was launched on 3 March 2023 to mark International Writers’ Day.

It will be offered every second year to writers from the other 41 UNESCO Cities of Literature, and solely to applicants from Ōtepoti Dunedin and across Aotearoa every other year.

City of Literature Director Nicky Page says the judges were delighted by the quality of the 42 applications received from candidates in 22 Cities of Literature across the world.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Shu-Ling Chua as our first recipient. The judges were very impressed by the high standard of all the applications, but Shu-Ling’s work stood out for them in a talented field.”

Shu-Ling’s success means she will reside and write in the Caselberg House, in Broad Bay, on Dunedin’s Otago Peninsula, for six weeks from October to mid-November 2023.

“Having the space to focus on her extremely interesting essay collection in the beautiful Caselberg House will no doubt make for an enriching Residency for Shu-Ling, and enriching for our City of Literature too – we can’t wait to welcome Shu-Ling and introduce her to our wonderful Ōtepoti writing community.”

Shu-Ling says, “I'm thrilled and looking forward to meeting other writers and readers in Dunedin in October. I'm sure my time at the Caselberg House will be beautifully inspiring. I’m grateful to the late Margaret Egan, the Caselberg Trust and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature for their generosity.”

While her current preferred form is lyric essays, she has also written nonfiction, criticism, poetry and fiction for various publications, including Peril Magazine, Meanjin, Going Down Swinging, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Vogue China and 4A Papers.

Her essay collection, Echoes, explores nostalgia, inheritance and small joys. It jointly won the 2021 Small Press Network Book of the Year Award. Other recent achievements include being shortlisted for the 2021 Deakin University Nonfiction Prize and 2018 Woollahra Digital Literary Award.

Shu-Ling has presented and performed at a range of festivals, and was a board member of Peril Magazine, producer of Noted Writers Festival and Voiceworks nonfiction editor.

During the residency, she will work on a full-length essay collection on “art, intimacy, longing, and the blurry boundaries between private and public”.

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