Dunedin-based writer Paddy
Richardson is to be the 2019 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writing
Fellow. Richardson has published seven novels and two short story collections.
Her Randell project, The Green of Spring is the sequel to her 2017 novel
Through the Lonesome Dark. Set in WWI New Zealand, it tells the story of
young mining activist Otto Bader who is arrested as an ‘enemy alien’ and
incarcerated on Somes Island along with others of Austrian and German origins.
Selection
panel convener Stephen Stratford says “Many of us wanted to know what happened
next for the characters in Through the Lonesome Dark, longlisted for the 2019 Dublin
Literary Award, which is right up there with the Booker. For the sequel, Paddy
will be able to research the Turnbull Library’s holding of letters and diaries
of Somes Island inmates. A perfect synchronicity of project and residency.”
Richardson says she is delighted to
be the 2019 resident and is looking forward to her six months in the capital.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust
was established in 2002. The restored Category II historic building,
gifted to the Trust by the Price family, hosts two writers a year; one from New
Zealand and the other from France. It is currently home to Christchurch writer
James Norcliffe. The 2019 French resident, novelist and dramatist Karin Serres
arrives in Wellington in late January 2019.
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