Cello Forrester is a musician and writer.

Based in Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland, and shaped by an upbringing spent between rural Australia, the American Midwest, and Pōneke, their work is often focused on queer experience, hidden inner worlds, and the quiet passing of daily life.

During their residency they are working on their first novel.

Gina lives in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2023.

Her debut novel, The Stars are a Million Glittering Worlds, was published in 2025. During her residency, our 14th for the year, Gina is working on her second novel.

‍Kirsten is the author of three books and numerous short stories; her best-selling novel She’s a Killer was long listed for the Dublin Literary Award. While in residency at the Michael King Centre she will be working on a novel which has roots in her short story ‘Walking Day’ which won the 2020 Sunday Star Times short story competition.

Jordan is a writer, performer, and Fulbright Scholar. He holds an MFA from the University of Michigan.

His debut poetry collection Everyone is Everyone Except You, was published in New Zealand by Dead Bird Books in 2022 and by Broken Sleep in the UK in 2024.

Sarah was born and raised on Auckland’s North Shore, and trained as a newspaper journalist before working in magazines and book publishing. She has a Bachelor of Arts in New Zealand history from Massey University and a Master of Creative Writing from

Kirsty has published two novels – part historical novels and part contemporary and has published short stories and poems in anthologies. She won the 2020 New Zealand Book Lovers Award for best adult fiction.Whilst on her residency Kirsty is delighted

Chris is a poet and editor based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington. He is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (winner of the 2016 Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book

Trina descends from Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Whawhaakia and Pākeha whakapapa. She grew up in Kirikiriroa and has lived in Tamaki Mākarau, London and Geneva. She has been a Primary School Teacher, Bookseller, Autism Coach, and in 2025 c

Cassie (Kāi Tahu/Pākehā) is an award winning author, editor, and mentor living under the watchful gaze of Taranaki Maunga. She writes primarily adult speculative fiction and personal essays, but loves stories for all ages. Working as a youth libraria

Claire is a Rotorua writer whose first novel Dice was published in 2023 by Allen & Unwin (Aus/NZ). Dice, a literary courtroom drama, drew on Claire’s research into juror narratives in sexual violence trials. Dice was part of her PhD thesis, from

Connie is a Hamilton writer, who works as the Deputy-Editor of E-Tangata magazine. Her short stories and essays have been published in Landfall, Newsroom, Takahē, Headland, E-Tangata, NZ Geographic and elsewhere. She completed the creative writing wo

Dr Vincent O’Malley FRHistS FRSNZ is a Wellington writer and historian who has authored many bestselling and acclaimed works on Aotearoa New Zealand history, including The Great War for New Zealand: Waikato 1800-2000 (2016) and The New Zealand Wars/N

We have welcomed Josie, our eleventh writer-in-residence – she is a fiction writer who lives in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland. Josie is the author of two novels published by Allen & Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand: Good Things Come and Go and Everything

Anne completed a Master of Creative Writing at AUT in 2014. Two years later, she won the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award with Tūī Street Tales, (Scholastic), which is a collection of inter-linked stories for 8-12-year-olds. The following sequels, Tūī

Emma, (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a writer living and working in Taranaki. Her first book of short fiction, Ruin, was published in 2023 with Te Herenga Waka University Press and won the Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction at the 2024 Ockh