Writers-IN-RESIDENCE

2009 residents – Vincent O'Sullivan, David Eggleton and Ian Wedde

Three writers have been selected for residencies at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport 2009.

Prominent Wellington poet, fiction writer, editor and biographer, Vincent O’Sullivan, and Dunedin writer and poet, David Eggleton both held eight-week residencies in the first half of the year.

Vincent O'Sullivan has published an extensive range of poetry, fiction and drama, as well as academic books,. He was at the centre between February and April working on a biography of artist Ralph Hotere.

David Eggleton is a poet and writer who lives in Dunedin. He is a popular and dynamic performance poet, has written books and been selected as the Montana reviewer of the year. He has been described as "one of New Zealand's more engaged contemporary poets and cultural commentators" (Critic, July 2007). He was at the centre between April and June, working on a collection of poems drawing on Polynesian myths and legends.

Both writers used their time in Auckland to carry out research in the area, as well as to write.

These short residencies were offered with the assistance of Creative New Zealand.

In the second half of 2009, Ian Wedde has been selected for a six-month residency. The residency is a partnership between The University of Auckland, Creative New Zealand and the Michael King Writers’ Centre. It aims to foster New Zealand writing by providing an opportunity for an established author to work full-time on a major project in an academic environment, together with free accommodation and a studio working space at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport, Auckland.

Ian Wedde is a distinguished Wellington poet, novelist and critic. He has published a large number of poetry collections and novels, and his poems appear in numerous journals and anthologies. He was editor of the 1985 Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, co-edited with Harvey McQueen, and has won many distinguished awards and fellowships. His work as an art critic led him to curate a number of key exhibitions and work as the arts projects manager at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa from 1994 to 2004. In 2005 he was the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellow.

Wedde's latest publication is a major book about the artist Bill Culbert and he has another book due out later this year.

In 2007, Wedde received a Distinguished Alumni Award from The University of Auckland. These annual awards honour alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their professions, to their communities, and to the nation.

While he holds the 2009 residency, Wedde plans to work on a new novel, a book of poems and a book-length essay about the meaning of home.

Biographer Rachel Barrowman will hold the first of two eight-week residencies from January. Martin Edmond, a writer of non-fiction, has been awarded the second residency from mid-March.

Rachel Barrowman is a Wellington-based writer and historian. She is the author of a number of works in the field of New Zealand cultural and intellectual history, including histories of the Alexander Turnbull Library and Victoria University of Wellington, and, most recently, Mason: the life of R.A.K. Mason (Victoria University Press, 2003), which won the Montana New Zealand Book Award for biography in 2004. In 2006 she was the recipient of the Michael King Creative New Zealand Writers’ Fellowship for her current project, which is a biography of novelist Maurice Gee.

Martin Edmond was born in Ohakune and grew up in small North Island towns. He studied at The University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington. He spent five years touring internationally with the avant garde theatre group Red Mole. Since 1981, he has been a freelance writer based in Sydney and an occasional taxi driver. Several of his screenplays have been produced as award-winning feature films.

Four of his books have been shortlisted in national book awards. The Autobiography of My Father (AUP, 1992) placed in the 1993 Wattie’s Book Awards and his memoir/travelogue of the mind Chronicle of the Unsung (AUP, 2004) won the 2005 Montana New Zealand Book Award for Biography. His most recent works include Waimarino County, The Evolution of Mirrors, The Supply Party and Luca Antara, described by J M Coetzee as ‘a booklover’s book, a graceful and mesmerizing blend of history, autobiography, travel and romance.’ 

Martin Edmond was the Writing Fellow at The University of Auckland in 2004 and in that same year was the joint winner of literary journal Landfall’s prestigious Essay Competition. He won a CLL Writers’ Award in 2007 to support the completion of his latest book Zone of the Marvellous (AUP). Works in progress include Dark Night: endless yet never, on Colin McCahon’s disappearance in Sydney in 1984, and The Isinglass Redaction, the story of a mysterious asylum seeker cast up on Antipodean shores.

The residencies, which are supported by Creative New Zealand, mean the two authors have free accommodation and use of the writer’s studio at the Devonport centre and each receive a stipend of $8,000.