Michael King Writers' Centre calls for applications

Michael King Writers' Centre calls for applications for 2013 writers' residencies

The Michael King Writers’ Centre is calling for applications from New Zealand writers for four supported residencies in 2013.

The residency programme aims to support New Zealand writers and to promote the development of high-quality New Zealand writing by providing opportunities for authors to devote time to a major project.

Writers who are selected for the residencies receive free accommodation at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport, use of the writer’s studio and receive a stipend.

There will be four residencies in 2013:

• The Summer Residency, eight weeks from January 7 (stipend $8,000);
• The Autumn Residency, eight weeks from March 11 (stipend $8,000);
• The Maori Writer’s Residency, eight weeks from May 13 (stipend $8,000);
• The University of Auckland Residency, six months from July 10 (stipend/salary of $30,000), to coincide with the University’s second semester.
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The eight-week residencies are open to emerging or established writers, while the six-month residency offered in partnership with The University of Auckland is for an established author who may benefit from an academic environment. Writers must be working on a specific project in fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction or non-fiction. Writers who live in Auckland are welcome to apply. The residencies are offered with the assistance of Creative New Zealand.

Application forms and further information are available on the centre’s web site or from the centre. Applications close on Friday October 12, 2012, and the selections are expected to be made in November.

Twenty-two New Zealand writers have held residencies at the centre since it was set up in 2005. The current writer in residence is novelist Eleanor Catton. The centre is also able to assist writers who do not qualify for its supported residency programme. It has a second bedroom which is let at a modest rate to visiting writers who need a quiet place to work.

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