Her acclaimed first book, Etiquette for a Dinner Party: Short Stories, published in 2008, made the long-list of that year’s Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and was listed in the NZ Listener’s Top 100 Books of 2008.
One of her short stories, The Stories of Frank Sargeson, based on her finding a second-hand copy of the book in Dunedin, was published in 2007 and her second story collection, From Under the Overcoat, was published by Vintage Random House on February 18 and is already on the bestseller list.
Orr says she will use the privacy of the apartment to begin writing a novel that she has been framing up for a number of years, an approach that Broatch will also be following, to finish the first draft of a novel that will be dealing with contemporary New Zealand society, blokes, journalism and food.
Mark Broatch will take up his residency in July 2011. Mark is the editor of Culture, the new arts and entertainment section of national Sunday newspaper the Sunday Star-Times. His word-finder book In a Word was short listed in the 2010 PANZ Book Design Awards.
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A Fellowship in review – by Sarah Laing
The residency was invaluable to me. I came in hoping to finish my first draft of my novel, ‘White Light’, and ended up writing two drafts and starting on my third. I also created a blog, ‘Let me be Frank’ (http://sarahelaing.wordpress.com/) which I updated every day with comics. The blog became quite popular, and I received 16,000 visitors in the 5-month period.
I didn’t live there, as my youngest child was 11 months when I started, but I travelled in every day on the bus or the train. That gave me a chance to read and to start thinking about what I was going to work on for the day. I found the environment very stimulating – from the beautiful old architecture of the university, to the environs of Albert Park, and then down to the central city with all its shops, galleries and architectural exhibitions, that served as research for my novel. It made a welcome change from my home in Mt Albert, where I normally write.
Being the writer-in-residence was great for increasing my profile (although sadly I don’t think it affected my book sales, but maybe the next book will sell better?) I had a couple of articles written about me; I was invited to contribute a short story to Metro; I was also invited to teach, mentor, and participate in a couple of local and international literary festivals.
I also had a number of opportunities for my comics: I contributed to the NZ Book Council magazine, as well as Little Treasures.
The stipend was of course very welcome as I didn’t have to take on as many paying jobs as usual. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity – it has been one of my career highlights to date, and I was very sad when the residency came to an end.
Sarah Laing was Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow from July-December 2010.
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From Dame Christine Cole Catley, Chair, Frank Sargeson Trust
I sometimes wonder if those at Buddle Findlay who continue to give such magnificent support to writers sometimes hear a strange ringing in their ears. If so, it is the paean of praise and gratitude still coming from so many who have held the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowships.
After our latest BFS Fellow, Sue Orr, had been in residence in the apartment for a couple of weeks I contacted her to see how she was settling in.
"This is a writer's heaven," Sue said. And Emily Perkins called the experience, "A magical solitude." They were not exaggerating.
From the establishment of the Sargeson Trust, Michael King was its deputy chair. We so often spoke of New Zealand's great good fortune in having the sustained support of such a far-seeing and generous sponsor. Already BFSF writers have been enabled to add so much to our literature, to our understanding of ourselves. Already, too, some have reached the highest ranks with outstanding books continuing to be added to our national trove.
Frank Sargeson would have been pleased beyond measure.
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Catching up with our previous Fellows
STEVE BRAUNIAS (2009)
While holding the Fellowship for half a year, Steve worked on a novel. Well-known as a journalist, several of his columns featured his time in the Sargeson Centre flat. A collection of his Sunday Star-Times columns, called Smoking in Antarctica was published by Awa Press in 2010.
CHARLOTTE GRIMSHAW (2001)
During her time on the Fellowship Charlotte began writing her third novel, Foreign City, which was published by Random House in 2005. Charlotte’s first short story collection, Opportunity, was published to critical acclaim in 2007 and won the Fiction Award at the 2008 Montana Book Awards. Both Opportunity and another short story collection, Singularity (2009) were short-listed for the prestigious Frank O’Connor Short Story Award in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Her latest novel, The Night Book, was published in 2010.
KAPKA KASSABOVA (1999)
During her time on the Fellowship Kapka completed her second novel, Love in the Land of Midas (2000). Since then she has published The Globetrotter Guide to Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, and a third poetry collection, Someone Else’s Life (2004), published in New Zealand and England. In 2002-3 she held the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency and in 2002 she was the co-winner of the Landfall Essay Competition. She won the New Zealand Travel Writer of the Year Award in 2002 and 2004. Her latest collection of poetry, Geography for the Lost (2007) is published in Britain under the prestigious imprint, Bloodaxe Books and in New Zealand by Auckland University Press. Her travel memoir Street Without a Name (2008) was published to considerable acclaim in Britain and New Zealand, and her latest novel, Villa Pacifica, appeared in 2010 and will be published in the United Kingdom later in 2011. Her next book Twelve Minutes of Love, a tango story will be published later in 2011.
PAULA MORRIS (2008)
Paula is the author of Queen of Beauty (2002), a novel which won the best First Book at the Montana Book Awards in 2003. Her other books are the novel Hibiscus Coast and a short story collection, Forbidden Cities (2008). While on the BFS Fellowship she worked on compiling the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009) and a novel for young adults, Ruined: A Ghost Story (2009), which is set in New Orleans, where Paula was living at the time. This novel has had considerable commercial success in the United States. Paula is currently living in Scotland writing and working on a new novel.
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