8 December 2016
Stephen
Daisley Selected as 2017 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence
Perth-based writer Stephen Daisley is to be the 2017
Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing Fellow. Daisley hit New Zealand
headlines last year, when his second novel, Coming
Rain, took out the inaugural Ockham Book Award for Fiction. Although an
unknown quantity in his homeland, Daisley has won or been short- and
long-listed for major Australian literary awards, including the Prime
Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction for his first novel, Traitor, the 2016 Miles Franklin Award and the 2011 Commonwealth
Writers prize for best first book.
Daisley’s Randell Cottage project is a novel with the
working title The River Road: Te Ara au
te Awa, the story of an emotionally damaged veteran of the Vietnam war, New
Zealander Danny Walker.
Selection
panel convener Vincent O’Sullivan says “Stephen Daisley's selection for 2017
continues the tradition of appointing the finest New Zealand writers for this
much sought-after Wellington residency. And now, the bonus of a writer
recognized by the highest awards in both New Zealand and Australia, having the
chance to return to his own country to work on a novel intimately related to
experiences in Asia, as well as in specific events and locations back home.
“We’re
looking forward to welcoming Stephen to the Cottage,” O’Sullivan said.
Daisley says he is delighted to be the 2017 resident and is
looking forward to his six months in the capital. “Being at the Randell Cottage
will be a tremendous boost to this work. On a practical level, there’s the
access to Te Papa, the Turnbull Library and National Archives and the Whanganui
district and awa. But just as importantly, there’s the sense of being at home.”
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust was established in
2002. The restored B-category historic,
gifted to the Trust by the Price family, building hosts two writers a year; one
from New Zealand and the other from France.
It is currently home to Stephanie Johnson. The 2017 French resident, novelist
and advocate Josef Schovanec arrives in Wellington in January 2017.
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