Pasifika Writer Awarded Seresin Landfall Residency

Pasifika Writer Awarded Seresin Landfall Residency

Seresin Estate and Otago University Press are delighted to announce poet and fiction writer Serie Barford as the 2011 recipient of the Seresin Landfall Residency.

Barford has been publishing her work since 1985 and first had a short story in Landfall in 1987. After the publication of Tapa Talk, her third book of poetry, she returned to writing short stories and this spring will use the Residency to work on a collection at Waterfall Bay in Marlborough.

Serie Barford says, ‘I’m delighted to be the recipient of the Seresin Landfall Residency. I’ve so many ideas and I’m grateful for the opportunity to establish creative space in a beautiful location. I’ll forget about the demands of my day job and will immerse myself in storytelling for a while. Fa’afetai tele lava.’

The stories in the collection are based on the concept of ‘teu le va’, the Samoan notion of taking care of relationships within and between the visible and invisible worlds. Her working title is ‘Our Stories are Within Us’, the title of a story published in Niu Voices: Contemporary Fiction 1 (Huia, 2006). This story was also translated for publication in Brèves 91, a French journal devoted to short fiction (Atelier du Gué, 2010). Serie is also a teacher and it is hoped that the opportunity to focus on her writing without interruption at Waterfall Bay will see the completion of this collection.

Michael Seresin says ‘the creative world, in all its manifestations, is a tough one to survive in, let alone thrive. I hope the powerful land & seascape of Waterfall Bay will provide a haven for Serie to find some stimulus to help her undoubted talent as a writer and poet. I love her work and know she is deserving of this award.’

Established in 2009, the Residency provides a New Zealand writer with six weeks’ accommodation in either Tuscany or Marlborough, to progress or complete a significant project. The inaugural Seresin Landfall Residency winner was C.K. Stead, who spent six weeks in Tuscany in 2009 working on his memoir South-west of Eden and other projects. Wystan Curnow. worked in Tuscany in 2010 on his forthcoming book on Colin McCahon. Extracts from his Residency journal appear in Landfall 221, which has just been released. In 2010, the entry criteria for the Residency were revised so that it was targeted to support early to mid-career writers.

Entries for the 2012 Seresin Landfall Residency close on 31 January 2012. Criteria for entry are available on the Otago University Press website, www.otago.ac.nz/press
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