Denis Welch will be the New Zealand writer in
residence 2013 at Randell Cottage. The Wellington writer is working on a
biography of former NZ Prime Minister Norman Kirk. He will move into the
cottage in July and live and work there for six months. The residency includes
a stipend of $22,000.
Each year the Creative NZ Randell Cottage Writers Trust residency in
Thorndon, Wellington hosts a French writer in the first half of the year and a
NZ writer in the second half.
Welch says the award is a huge boost for him and for the book he’s
working on. “It helps to get the biography on the public radar and will free me
up in the second half of next year to focus on the writing of it, at a stage
when hopefully most of the research will have been completed,” he says. “Having
known previous writers in residence at the cottage, and visited them there, I'm
looking forward very much to living and working in that environment.”
Welch, a
former deputy editor for the NZ Listener, is a media commentator on Radio NZ
National’s Nine to Noon as well as working as a bulletin writer and editor
there. Denis has stood twice for Parliament for both the Values and Green
Parties, and has published a biography of Helen Clark, and a novel.
New Chair
of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust, Sarah Dennis, says she’s delighted with
the choice of NZ writer for 2013. ‘The wonderful thing about the Randell
Cottage residency is the range of writers we’ve had there including poets,
novelists and playwrights. Once again we welcome a biographer in the Cottage
and hope Denis Welch will be able to take full advantage of the Thorndon
residency with its proximity to Parliament, the National Library and other
creative residencies.”
This year
was the tenth anniversary of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust which began in
2002 with NZ writer Peter Wells and has been home to twenty-one writers. The
twenty-second writer is French novelist Estelle Nollet who arrives in
January. She will be followed by Denis Welch.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust is supported
by Creative New Zealand, the Embassy of France, Wellington City Council and the
New Zealand-France Friendship Fund. For more information on the history of the
Cottage and the residency go to: www.randellcottage.co.nz
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