Born in Whanganui and raised on farms around the North Island, Bren MacDibble incorporates her love of the land into her environmentally themed children’s books. Bren did the big OE in her mid 20s and moved to Melbourne for the next twenty years. A house fire prompted her to move on and she lived in

We welcomed Rachael not only as our final writer-in-residence for 2020 but also, by wonderful coincidence as the 100th writer to take up a residency at MKWC.Rachael is an award-winning author with three novels under her belt: The Sound of Butterflies, which was published internationally and  trans

Amy is a New Zealand writer of Rarotongan descent. She has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland with first class honours, and won the Sir James Wallace Prize in 2017. She enjoys being a perpetual student, taking ten happy years to complete a Bachelor of Arts in English and Hi

Our 18th writer-in-residence, Maria is a published writer of stories for adults and children. Born in Wellington and of Cook Islands descent, her stories offer a Pacific perspective that she hopes Pasifika audiences can relate to and all people can enjoy. Her adult stories have appeared in literary

Our 17th writer-in-residence; Tom is an author, academic and journalist. He has written two books about the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire disaster, Hazelwood (Penguin Random House, 2020) and The Coal Face (Penguin, 2015, winner of the Oral History Victoria Education Innovation Award). He has also written

Pip has published a collection of short stories, Everything We Hoped For (VUP, 2010) and two novels, I’m Working on a Building (VUP, 2013) and The New Animals (VUP, 2017). The New Animals won New Zealand’s top fiction prize in 2018, the Acorn Foundation Prize for Fiction. Her work has appeared in li

Jane is a poet, writer and editor who lives in Wellington with her family. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, a Diploma in Publishing from Whitireia Polytechnic, and a Master of Arts in English Literat

Ko Māori me Airihi me Kōtarina ngā iwi o ōku tīpuna.I whakahautia ahau e ngā ngahere o HoutūI amoamohia ahau e ngā wai o MangakahiaI whakatā ōku waewae kei runga te puku o TītokiI whānaua ahau e a Ōtautahi engari i tipu ake ahau i wīwā i wāwāHe ngā wāhi o Te Puke, o Whāngarei, o Mangakāhia

We welcome our 12th resident for the year – Tina writes essays, novels and short fiction. Her latest novel is The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke and, alongside Witi Ihimaera, she is co-editor of Black Marks on the White Page, an anthology that celebrates Māori and Pasifika writing. During her resid

Aroha is the first resident since the interruption of Covid-19, to be able to enjoy his full residency with us – he is our 11th writer-in-residence for the year.Aroha (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Porou, Niuean), is an award-winning journalist and playwright and a former producer for Māori TV Show Native Aff

Because of the Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions, Albert started his residency from home and was able to take up residence as we moved to Level 2. He is our 10th residency recipient for the year.Albert began his career as an actor before writing for stage and screen.  An award-winning international pl

Fifi is our ninth resident for the year and the first to be affected by Aotearoa’s Level 4 Alert status for Covid-19. This means Fifi will be ‘working from home’ for her residency. Whilst we are sorry not to be able to welcome her to the house we are very happy that she will still receive her stipen

Penny joins us for our eighth residency – she is an Art Historian having held roles in public art galleries in New Zealand.The author of Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey (2008) and The Brown Years: Nigel Brown (2009),  she has contributed to The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and several

Megan is co-editor of The Spinoff art section. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she graduated with distinction.A former video artist who also writes widely on visual art, her first book, Tinderbox, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2017.Megan

We have welcomed Hera to the centre as our sixth resident for the year. She has published two books, ‘Hera Lindsay Bird’ with Victoria University Press and ‘Pamper Me to Hell & Back,’ with The Poetry Business. She was a 2018 Arts Foundation New Generation award recipient, and was the 2017 winner of

Jeff is our fifth resident for the year and is the author of five books. His interest in Māori and Polynesian cultures has produced the titles Ngā Waka o Neherā: the first voyaging canoes, The Discovery of Aotearoa, Maori Weapons in Pre-European New Zealand, Waka Taua: Māori war canoe and the biogra

David edited Landfall  and Landfall Review Online between 2010 and 2018. He is a recent recipient of a Janet Frame Literary Trust Award, an Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry, and the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry. His most recent poetry publication, Edgeland and other poems, was published

Josh (JP Pomare), (Ngā Puhi), grew up the youngest child of four, on a farm outside of Rotorua. After high school, he studied politics, media and creative writing briefly at university before heading abroad.He continued to write and hone his craft having a number of essays, reviews and short stor

Tru, (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Te Tarawa, Ngāti Kahu o Torongāre)  is a choreographer, curator, and poet working across performance and writing disciplines. She is a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, and former company member of Mau Dance.Tru’s international career has taken her to festiva

We have welcomed Rose as our first writer in residence for the New Year.  Rose says her aim as a writer ‘is to produce books that readers can’t put down’. Her first novel, a contemporary thriller about a jealous identical twin, is set in Australia, Thailand and the Seychelles. Entitled The Girl in t