Calling All Writers! Applications Are Now Open For The 2024 Sargeson Fellowship

The Frank Sargeson Trust is calling for applications from writers for the 2024 Sargeson Fellowship.

The prestigious Fellowship, named in memory of New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson, offers a stipend of $20,000 and, by arrangement, use of the Sargeson Centre flat on Princes St, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, to one or two writers each year.

Former Fellow and multiple-award-winner Catherine Chidgey says the Sargeson Fellowship represented the best of all possible starts to her career as a novelist. “It afforded me recognition and valuable publicity, but more importantly, it granted me the time and space in which to devote myself to my writing. For five serene months I lived in Albert Park, within walking distance of the CBD when I wanted to go to book launches and other literary events, but also a haven of solitude when I wanted to write.”

One of the 2023 recipients, novelist Kelly Ana Morey, says she wrote 340 pages of a new novel in her four-month term as a Fellow: “This is my third attempt, but I reckon this time I’ve nailed it. If I hadn’t had those four months of breathing room to rethink what it was I wanted to do with my writing and this novel, I wouldn’t have got to the place I now find myself.”

Elizabeth Aitken Rose, the chair of the Sargeson Trust, says, “Despite changing economic conditions, pandemics and floods, people keep writing and reading because people need to keep writing and reading. Supporting the New Zealand literary community is still as important as ever.

“We are immensely grateful for the past support of Grimshaw & Co Lawyers, which has allowed us to take the Fellowship into its 36th year, and now look ahead to the 40th year and beyond.”

Applications close on Sunday, 22 October 2023, for a Fellowship commencing February 2024. For further information, the application form, and the terms and conditions, please see: https://franksargeson.nz/sargeson-fellowship-2024/

About the Sargeson Fellowship:

The inaugural Sargeson Fellow in 1987 was Janet Frame, who described the importance of Sargeson’s friendship for her personal and literary life in the second volume of her autobiography, An Angel at My Table. In 2007 the fellowship became the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, and between 2014 and 2023 was the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship under the sponsorship of law firm Grimshaw & Co. Sargeson Fellowship recipients over the years have included Charlotte Grimshaw, Catherine Chidgey, Paula Morris, James George, Hera Lindsay Byrd, Chloe Lane and Nathan Joe.

About the Frank Sargeson Trust:

The Trust was set up in 1983 by Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson’s heir and executor.The Trust aims to continue Sargeson’s lifelong generosity to writers through providing residential fellowships, while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New Zealand’s first literary museum.For further information, see: https://franksargeson.nz/

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