Nadine Hura is of Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi and Pākehā whakapapa. She grew up in South Auckland but has spent much of her adult life living and working overseas. With a background in kaupapa Māori research and journalism, Nadine’s narrative essays explore themes of language, identity and belonging.Nadin

Allan is our first writer in residence for 2018 and is working on some contemporary short fiction.Allan recently completed his PhD in creative writing at Victoria University of Wellington. He writes mostly fiction, but also poems and non-fiction. His work has been published in journals and antholo

Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) will take up the Māori Writer’s Residency to work on the final draft of a new novel for adults Kurangaituku which retells the story of Hatupatu from the bird woman’s point of view.Whiti holds a Masters in Creative Writing (Script writing) from the Interna

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

The six-month University of Auckland Residency at the MKWC was awarded to Frankie McMillan for a book of small narrative forms, mainly prose poetry and flash fiction. A postcard of a chimpanzees’ tea party, pasted by Anne Frank on her bedroom wall in Amsterdam has been the starting point for this ne

Anna has written and edited a number of academic books on topics ranging from Gothic children’s fiction to verse biography in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and has published six collections of poetry with Auckland University Press.Anna will spend her eight-week residency working on her latest

Hannah August is a writer, editor and researcher based in Wellington. She has written for publications such as the Times Literary Supplement and Metro. She has a PhD from King’s College London and has been a Commonwealth Scholar, a Fellow of the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women, and was last

Elspeth has published eight novels, two collections of short stories and written numerous plays for radio (RNZ and BBC) and television. Her stage plays have been performed in England, the United States and New Zealand. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including the ONZM for services to

Briar Grace-Smith descends from Ngā Puhi and is an award-winning writer of plays, screenplays and short stories.Her first play Ngā Pou Wāhine won the 1995 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award and Purapurawhetū won Best New Zealand Play at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. Her other plays include Whe

Vivienne Plumb graduated from Victoria Universityof Wellington, with a B.A. in English and Art History (1997) and an M.A. in Creative Writing (2001). She then completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Wollongong, Australia (2013). Her thesis focuses on time, and public and personal space in r

Roger Horrocks was founder and head of the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at Auckland University, the largest department of its kind in New Zealand, and is Emeritus Professor. Ten years ago he retired early to write full time. He has written on many aspects of film, television, lit

Rochelle Bright is an exciting voice in New Zealand theatre. She works in crossover drama, which blurs the boundaries between plays, music, cabaret and opera. She has written lyrics, librettos, play and film scripts, music and even circus with Gothenburg band Next Stop: Horizon.Rochelle wrote play

Philip Braithwaite has been writing plays since 1999. In 2000 he won the New Zealand Young Playwrights’ Award. Amongst his other credits are the BBC World Service/British Council International Radio Playwriting Award 2001, and the Adam NZ Play Award 2013, for his play The Mercy Clause.Phil’s work

Mere Whaanga is a writer, illustrator, historian and academic. She is of Ngāti Rongomaiwahine and Ngāti Kahungunu descent. Raised on an isolated sheep station near Gisborne, she was inspired by her father’s dedication to the land and his love of Māori history and mythology.She has written several

Kelly Ana Morey has written four novels and three social histories, and a childhood memoir, as well as poems, short stories, criticism and journalism.Born of Pakeha and Ngati Kuri descent in New Zealand’s Far North in 1968, she had a peripatetic childhood in Papua New Guinea, which she has describ

Anne Kennedy, who holds the 2014 University of Auckland residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre, is a poet, fiction writer and scriptwriter. She holds the residency to work on a new novel.Her previous novel The Last Days of the National Costume, published by Allen & Unwin in 2013, reached nu

Alice Miller, who is a poet, fiction writer, essayist and playwright, has been awarded the Summer Residency 2014 to work on her new novel called The Tower. It is about “poetry, beauty and the occult”, interweaving two stories, one about a contemporary New Zealand would-be opera writer and the other

Judith Bryers Holloway has Ngapuhi, French, Norwegian and Irish/English ancestry, was brought up in King Country and Whanganui. She has lived most of adult life in Wellington but now lives in Levin.Judith trained as a teacher and has taught, off and on, all age groups from 5 year-olds to polytech

Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize for Literature, held the 2012 University of Auckland Residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre. She worked on the final draft of her winning novel The Luminaries during her residency.This is what she wrote about her experience at the centre:

Sarah Laing, from Auckland, will use her residency to complete her latest work, a novel which explores aspects of cultural identity. Titled Dead People’s Music, it will be published by Random House in April 2009.Sarah Laing, from Mt Albert, has written short stories, taken part in spoken word perf