NZSA Auckland Museum Research Grants – Recipient Announced!

The New Zealand Society of Authors is delighted to announce that the NZSA Auckland Museum National Research Grant 2014 has been awarded to Douglas Lloyd Jenkins.

Douglas will use the NZSA Auckland Museum Grant to research a biography of the early twentieth century Auckland photographer Arthur Breckon focusing on the artist’s romantic engagement with the sea. Douglas Lloyd Jenkins said ‘this is a great opportunity to undertake research and writing on an early photographer whose images have long fascinated me.’

Douglas is a full time non-fiction writer and his previous works include At Home: A Century of New Zealand Design, New Dreamland: Writing New Zealand Architecture and The Dress Circle: New Zealand Fashion Design Since 1940, all of which were published by Random House. His most recent book, Architecture of the Heart, co-written with Lucy Hammonds, appeared under the MTG (Hawke’s Bay) imprint in 2013.

The judging panel commented ‘this project was immediately exciting and clearly thought out. Jenkins provided a strong and insightful narrative which will add to New Zealand's historical literature’.

With grateful thanks to the support of the Auckland Museum, the NZSA Auckland Museum National Research Grant 2014 recipient receives a grant of $3,500 and 4 weeks of accommodation at the Michael King Writers Centre. In 2013 the National Research grant was awarded to Jenny Haworth who used the time to research her non-fiction book Behind the Twisted Wire which is a study of how artists reacted to their involvement in World War 1.