Wairarapa writer Patrick Valdimar White is the New Zealand Writer in Residence at Wellington’s Randell Cottage for 2010. Pat White is a poet, essayist and artist whose work reflects his passion for the natural environment and an exploration of the way individuals relate to the land. He will use the six months in the cottage to research and write a biography of West Coast writer, teacher and fellow environmentalist Peter Hooper (1919 – 1991). Hooper wrote award-winning fiction, as well as poetry and non-fiction.
Pat White is currently writer in residence at the Robert Lord Cottage in Dunedin until the end of January 2010, and he completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters this year with a folio of essays entitled How the Land Lies. He will take up his position at Randell Cottage in April next year.
Pat White says the residency at the Randell Cottage in Thorndon is an exciting opportunity which he is delighted to accept. He says living in Thorndon will facilitate his research at the Turnbull Library and allow him easy access to papers in private hands. White says a biography of Peter Hooper’s life is long overdue. ‘The Randell Cottage residency provides impetus and endorsement of this project. It is important, nearly two decades after his death, that the contribution of this quiet self-effacing man be recognised.’
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust is pleased to announce Pat White’s appointment and to support the Peter Hooper biography. The Randell Cottage hosts a French writer for six months of the year and a New Zealand writer for six months. The current French writer in residence is Iranian exile, journalist and novelist, Fariba Hachtroudi until April 2010.
For more information
On Randell Cottage: www.randellcottage.co.nz
On Pat White: http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/Writers/Profiles/White,%20Pat
On Fariba Hachtroudi: http://www.randellcottage.co.nz/Residents.html#hachtroudi
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