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.
Gigi Fenster: 2019 Easter Writers Residency
Gigi’s first book, The Intentions Book was shortlisted for the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards and long-listed for the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her second book, Feverish was published in 2018, and she has published work in various literary journals. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and two Masters deg
Dominic Hoey: 2019 Early Autumn Writers Residency
Our ninth resident for the year – Dominic is an author, playwright and poet based in Tamaki Makaurau. His debut novel, Iceland was a New Zealand bestseller and was long-listed for the 2018 Ockham Book Award. His autobiographical play Your Heart Looks Like a Vagina, a dark comedy about living with au
Meagan France: 2019 Emerging Writers Residency
Meagan is an Auckland based writer of European and Māori descent born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She moved permanently to New Zealand in 2005, where she has lived with her partner and two children since. Meagan has been writing adult fiction for four years, and her work has been publish
Gary Henderson: 2019 University of Auckland Residency 1
We have welcomed Gary as our seventh resident for the year, he is a playwright, director and writing teacher whose work is produced locally and internationally. His scripts have been published by Playmarket in NZ, and by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in London. In November 2013 Gary received the Playmark
Diane Brown: 2019 Late Summer Writers Residency
Diane is a novelist, memoirist, and poet who runs an online and face to face creative writing school, Creative Writing Dunedin.During her residency – our sixth for the year, Diane is working on a poetry biography, All the Women [working title] based on her maternal ancestors. She says ‘Although th
Ivy Alvarez: 2019 Late Summer Writers Residency
Ivy has been awarded a late summer residency, our fifth for the year and is working on a multi-volume collection, Diaspora.Ivy says ‘Diaspora is my project of reclamation, a way to honour my culture, through poetry. Through this project, I want to braid old and new threads into a fresh understandi
Colleen Maria Lenihan: 2019 Emerging Māori Writers Residency
Colleen is of Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi and Irish descent. After returning to New Zealand in 2016 after fifteen years in Tokyo and one in New York City, she decided to pursure her childhood dream of being an author. She began work on a collection of linked short stories.“These haunting tales from the mar
Steven Toussaint: 2019 Summer Writers Residency
Steve is working on his third full-length collection of poetry that explores the climate of reproach and apology that pervades our public discourse today and says “the Michael King Writers Centre commands an unrivalled view of the city and the surrounding harbour, is a few minutes’ walk from the vib
Yvette Walker: 2019 Emerging Writers Residency
Yvette, our second resident for the year is a LGBTQIA writer who was born in Australia and is now a New Zealand resident living in Northland.Her debut novel Letters to the End of Love (University of Queensland Press, 2013 won a 2014 Western Australian Premier’s Book Award and was shortlisted for a
Rachel O’Neill: 2019 Emerging Writers Residency
We have welcomed Rachel as our first writer-in-residence for the year.Rachel is a filmmaker, writer and artist based in Te Whanganui-ā-Tara, Aotearoa. Their debut book, One Human in Height (Hue & Cry Press), was published in 2013. They are developing several book projects, including a book of fict
Serie Barford: 2018 Established Pasifika Writers Residency
We have welcomed Serie as our fourteenth and last resident for the year.Serie was born in Aotearoa to a migrant German-Samoan mother and a Palagi father. She has published three poetry collections: Plea to the Spanish Lady (Hard Echo Press), Glass Canisters (Hard Echo Press) and Tapa Talk (Huia).
Pala Molisa: 2018 Emerging Pasifika Writers Residency
Pala Molisa is a Ni-Vanuatu academic who has recently finished teaching at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Accounting and Commercial Law. His PhD looked at the role that accounting practices play in helping to exacerbate and perpetuate many of the major social and ecological crises we
Trevor Bentley: 2018 Established Pasifika Writers Residency
Trevor was educated at the Auckland and Waikato Universities and has a special interest in researching, teaching and writing about the interaction of Māori and Pakeha in pre treaty New Zealand. Based in Tauranga with his wife Helen, his interests include reading, music and travel. Trevor has written
Karyn Hay: 2018 Late Spring Residency (2)
Karyn Hay is an award-winning novelist and broadcaster: her debut novel Emerald Budgies won the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2001. She was awarded a Frank Sargeson Fellowship in 2004; and is a literary advisor to the Fra
Mark Broatch: 2018 Late Spring Residency (1)
Mark Broatch is the author of several non-fiction books, short fiction and poetry. He was deputy editor at the NZ Listener and culture editor at the Sunday Star-Times, and a recipient of a Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship in 2011. He has just launched his latest book Word to the Wise: Untangling t
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
Kelly Joseph: 2018 Emerging Maori Writers Residency
Kelly Joseph (Ngati Maniapoto) is a writer and artist currently living in Westland with her two daughters and husband. She has previously had stories published in Huia Short Stories 5,7,8,10, and 12; in the anthology Black Marks on The White Page; and in journals such as Hue and Cry, Takahe and JAAM
Jacquie McRae: 2018 Māori Writers Residency
Jacquie McRae (Tainui and Ngāti Koata) is working on a project that is a fictional novel based on facts about the colourful history of the campaigns for the prohibition of alcohol in New Zealand, and the resulting illicit trade of home brewed whisky.Jacquie says, ‘I have chosen to transport the re
Ian Wedde: 2009
Ian 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 disti
Vincent O’Sullivan: 2009
Vincent published an extensive range of poetry, fiction and drama, as well as academic books. He was at the centre between February and April 2009 working on a biography of artist Ralph Hotere. He used his time time in Auckland to carry out research in the area, as well as to write.Ralph Hotere: T