Call for entries for New Zealand’s leading literary fellowship

 Applications for the 2016 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship are now open.

In its 28^th year, the fellowship is a national literary award offering published New Zealand writers, both here and overseas, the opportunity to focus on their craft full-time, providing an annual stipend of $20,000 and tenure at the Sargeson Centre in Auckland.

New Zealand author Bianca Zander (right) says being awarded the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship in 2014 was invaluable to completing her second novel, The Predictions, published earlier this year.

Zander says the fellowship was a wonderful boost at the end of a long project. “I was in the final stages of The Predictions, so to have uninterrupted writing time without financial concerns was invaluable.”

“But it was also so much more than that – after spending so much time working on something on your own, in isolation, it can be hard to keep the faith that what you’re working on is actually something worthwhile. The fellowship was the encouragement I needed to keep on going through to the end.”

The advice Zander would offer to any writers considering the fellowship would be to go for it.

 “The Sargeson Centre is a wonderful space to work in. Never underestimate the power of working somewhere where so many amazing writers have been before you.”

Previous winners include Alan Duff, Michael King, Marilyn Duckworth, and Janet Frame. In 2015 the fellowship was awarded to Robert Glancy and Duncan Sarkies.

The fellowship has been recognising and supporting some of our greatest talents for more than 30 years, says Paul Grimshaw, partner, Grimshaw & Co.

It offers vital support to New Zealand writers to focus, uninterrupted, on their work, Grimshaw says. “They are contributing to New Zealand’s literary landscape and we are very proud to support them.”

Applications close Friday 27, November, with tenure due to start 1 April 2016. Download the application form here.

Further information on the Fellowship is available here. Any queries can be directed to Elizabeth Bennie at elizabeth.bennie@grimshaw.co.nz or on +64 9 375 2393.