International Exchanges

The Michael King Writers Centre runs two residency exchanges with writing communities overseas: one with the Shanghai Writers' Association in China, and the other with Varuna, the National Writers' House in NSW, Australia.

  • New Zealand's literary exchange with Australia is available through a partnership between Varuna, the National Writers' House in Katoomba, New South Wales, and the Michael King Writers Centre. The programme is supported by Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council for the Arts).

    New Zealand writer Hazel Phillips and Australian writer Nam Le have been announced as the recipients of the 2026 exchange. The three-week residency runs through October and November 2026. Nam will spend his time at MKWC working on his next book, a poetic geography of Melbourne/Naarm, before flying to Christchurch to take part in the WORD Festival. Hazel will work on her debut novel at Varuna and appear at the Blue Mountains Writers Festival; she receives return flights to Sydney, three weeks' accommodation and meals at Varuna, and a festival appearance in November.

    In 2025, the exchange was awarded to Ingrid Horrocks (NZ) and Fiona Murphy (Australia). In 2024, it was Dominic Hoey (NZ) and Kathryn Heyman (Australia). In 2023, Emma Hislop (NZ) and Fiona Kelly McGregor (Australia). Kate Mildenhall was the Australian recipient of the inaugural exchange in 2022, with Gina Cole travelling from New Zealand that same year.

    Find out more about the programme on the Varuna website.

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  • New Zealand's literary exchange with China is available through a partnership between the Michael King Writers Centre and the Shanghai Writers' Association.

    Shilo Kino (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Te Ata) was selected to join the 2025 Shanghai Writers' Association's International Writing Programme, spending two months in Shanghai in September and October 2025 alongside writers from eight other countries. The writers receive air travel, free accommodation and a small stipend for living expenses. Shilo is an award-winning author and journalist whose debut novel, The Pōrangi Boy, won the Young Adult Fiction Award at the 2021 New Zealand Book Awards. Her 2024 adult fiction debut, All That We Know, went to number one on the New Zealand fiction chart and was longlisted for the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.

    In 2024 we welcomed Shanghai-based writer Chen Danyan to MKWC for an eight-week residency, the fifth Chinese writer to be hosted by the Centre.

    Following a break in the exchange during the pandemic, Melinda Szymanik was selected in 2023 as the fourth New Zealand writer to join the programme. Read Melinda's update from Shanghai.

    In 2019 we welcomed Sun Wei, described as one of China's most original and leading voices. Shanghai born and bred, Sun Wei is a former journalist, documentary filmmaker and corporate general manager.

    Since the exchange began in 2013, four other Chinese writers have held a residency at the Centre. Frances Edmond was the New Zealand recipient in 2018; she wrote: "One cannot live in a place even for a short time without it becoming part of the psyche, leaving its imprint on the essence of who you are. The opportunity provided by the Shanghai residency, the experience of living and writing in that enormous, vibrant, hospitable city, is a rare gift, one to be treasured and always remembered." In 2017, Yin Jian Ling, a poet, essayist, novelist, literary critic, illustrator and translator, held the two-month residency. Heidi North Bailey was the recipient in 2016: "I'm having a marvellous, stimulating and productive time. The Shanghai Writers Programme has organised some thoughtful activities for us, including visiting a writer's home, and we have participated in several stimulating cross-cultural literary discussions. But I am also having plenty of time to put hands to keyboard and write. Being here is such a gift." Read more on Heidi's exchange.

    Acclaimed novelist Xiao Bai, from Shanghai, held the residency in 2015. In 2014, Alison Wong became the first New Zealand writer selected to join the programme: "The residency was invaluable as research for my new book, but also for stimulating fresh creativity and inquiry through exposure to a completely different environment, language and culture. The connections made, whether with Chinese or other international writers, were personally and professionally rewarding." The exchange began in 2013, when Huo Yan, a young writing star from Beijing, took up the first Rewi Alley Fellowship.

A traditional Chinese pavilion illuminated at sunset, situated on water with a mountain and distant city lights in the background.
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