Wellington poet Kate Camp will spend a year in Berlin from September 2011 as this year’s recipient of the Creative New Zealand $60,000 Berlin Writers’ Residency

Kate will use her time in Berlin to to complete a collection of poetry and explore collaborations with local artists.

“Berlin is such an exciting place for artists in every form. Being able to devote all my energy to writing for the year, and having the chance to collaborate with other writers and artists, will be an amazing blast of creative oxygen,” says Kate Camp.

“When they established this residency, Creative New Zealand had the vision to pick Berlin as the city that would give New Zealand writers and artists unparalleled access to the global arts community. It’s a real privilege to be stepping into that world.”

Camp is the author of four collections of poetry, the first, Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars, won the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry at the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She is now established in the front rank of New Zealand poets, and is also a familiar voice on Radio New Zealand where she discusses classic literature. In 2002 Camp was writer-in-residence at Waikato University.

Established in 2000, the biennial Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency enables a New Zealand writer to focus on a writing project over a sustained period and respond to the life, people and culture of Berlin. It also provides professional development opportunities for the writer to build networks, appear at literary festivals, and give lectures and interviews.

Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright said the residency is highly regarded by the literary sector and contributes to the development and profile of New Zealand writing.

The selection panel - made up of literary practitioners - thought that the high-quality projects proposed by Camp were unique, and through her proposed collaborations she would also be a wonderful ambassador for New Zealand literature.

Kate Camp is the author of four collections of poetry from Victoria University Press: Unfamiliar Legends of the Stars, Realia, Beauty Sleep, and The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls, and the essay collection Kate’s Klassics published by Penguin. Her poems have appeared in anthologies and journals including Brick (Canada), Heat (Australia), Landfall, and Sport. She has had poems selected for Best New Zealand Poems in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2010. In 2003 and again in 2006, she was short listed for the prestigious $60,000 Prize in Modern Letters.

The Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers’ Residency alternates with the biennial Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists’ Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Funded through the Arts Board, it incudes the rental of an apartment in the heart of Berlin, a monthly stipend and travel allowance for the recipient.

Previous recipients are Sarah Quigley, Tina Shaw, Kapka Kassabova, Philip Temple, Tim Corballis, Lloyd Jones and Sir James McNeish.