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 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

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, 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

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

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 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 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 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 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

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 (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 (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 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 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

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 200

William (Bill) Direen is a writer and a well-known figure in New Zealand music circles. Originally from Christchurch and Dunedin, Direen has recently been living in Paris and previously spent several years in Berlin. He is best known as a poet and musician, but he has also written theatre scripts, l

Rachel Barrowman worked at the centre for eight weeks from early 2010. She 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 o

Martin Edmond held an eight-week residency from mid-March to May, also offered with the support of Creative New Zealand. Edmond was born in Ohakune and grew up in small North Island towns before studying in Auckland and Wellington. He spent five years touring internationally with the avant garde the

Bradford Haami was selected for the first ever Māori residency at the centre, for eight weeks from May. Based in Waitakere, Bradford Haami has written extensively about Māori history and culture, as well as being a documentary and drama writer, a director and producer, and a researcher at Te Papa in