Writers in Residence
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The Centre's selection process is overseen by an independent panel, guided by its commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and celebrating diverse voices.
"Reading and assessing this year's applications was an enormous privilege for the selection panel," says Melanee Winder, selection panellist and Chair of the MKWC Trust. "We were energised and impressed by the quality of writing across a wide variety of projects."
Emma Neale, a 2025 recipient, reflects: "I am enormously grateful for the way my time at the centre encouraged and catalysed my new project. The centre should be treasured by all Aotearoa writers and lovers of literature."
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The Michael King Writers Centre is proud to support 18 New Zealand writers through its 2026 residency programme, hosted at the historic Signalman's House in Devonport, Auckland. Selected from over 150 applicants across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and writing for children, this year's recipients are:
Anne Kayes, Cassie Hart, Cello Forrester, Chris Tse, Claire Baylis, Connie Buchanan, Emma Hislop, Gina Butson, Jordan Hamel, Josie Shapiro, Kirsten McDougall, Kirsty Powell, Liv Sisson, Rebecca Hawkes, Sarah Ell, Sue Wootton, Trina Elkington-Ball, and Vincent O'Malley.
For eligibility, stipend and accommodation details, see About our Residency Programme.
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For a list of our alumni from 2005 to 2026, by first name see here.
Since the Centre opened in 2005, over 200 New Zealand writers have held supported residencies, with international residencies added from 2013 in association with the NZ China Friendship Society and Varuna House, NSW.Alumni include Eleanor Catton (final draft of The Luminaries, 2012), Whiti Hereaka (Kurangaituku, 2017) and biographer Rachel Barrowman, alongside Poet Laureates Vincent O'Sullivan, David Eggleton and Ian Wedde, and writers Gina Cole, Roger Horrocks, Ashleigh Young, Josh Pomare, Jane Arthur and Pip Adam.
Use the filter to select by year.
Sam Duckor-Jones: 2024 Spring Residency
Sam is an artist and writer from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, now at home in Māwhera. He has published two collections of poetry with Te Herenga Waka Press, People from the Pit Stand Up and Party Legend and will soon be unveiling a third. During his MKWC residency he will be working on a book about his im
Mary-Anne Scott: 2023 Spring Residency
Mary-anne is a musician and writer of children’s fiction and she lives in Havelock North. She found inspiration for her first two books, Snakes and Ladders and Coming Home to Roost, when her four sons were teenagers. Her next three novels, Sticking with Pigs, Spearo and The Tomo are adventure-based
Erik Kennedy: 2022 Spring Residency
Erik is the author of the poetry collections There’s No Place Like the Internet in Springtime (2018) and Another Beautiful Day Indoors (2022), both with Victoria University Press. The former was shortlisted for best book of poems at the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.With Jordan Hamel, Rebecc
Tom Doig: 2020 Spring Residency
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
Tracy Farr: 2018 Spring Residency
We are delighted to welcome Tracy back to the centre for a residency – she was a visiting writer in 2009 and worked on her first novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt during that time. In 2014 Tracy won the Sunday Star-Times Short Story Award and in the same year her debut novel (as above), appeare
Anthony Byrt: 2017 Spring Residency
Anthony Byrt is a regular writer for Metro, a contributing editor to Paperboy, and the New Zealand correspondent for Artforum International. In 2013 he was Critical Studies Fellow at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, and in 2015 was New Zealand’s Reviewer of the Year at the Canon Media Awards. His