The Michael King Writers’ Centre is calling for applications from New Zealand writers for four supported residencies in 2012.

The residency programme aims to support New Zealand writers and to promote the development of high-quality New Zealand writing by providing opportunities for authors to devote themselves to a major project.

Writers who are selected for the residencies will receive free accommodation at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Devonport, use of the writer’s studio and receive a stipend.

There will be four residencies in 2012:

• The Summer Residency, eight weeks from January 9 (stipend $8,000);
• The Autumn Residency, eight weeks from March 14 (stipend $8,000);
• The Maori Writer’s Residency, eight weeks from May 16 (stipend $8,000);
• The University of Auckland Residency, six months from July 12 (stipend/salary of $30,000), to coincide with the University’s second semester.

The eight-week residencies are open to emerging or established writers, while the six-month residency offered in partnership with The University of Auckland is for an established author who may benefit from an academic environment. Writers must be working on a specific project in fiction, poetry, drama or non-fiction. Writers who live in Auckland are welcome to apply. The residencies are offered thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.

Application forms and further information are available on the centre’s web site  or from the centre.  Applications close on Monday October 10, 2011, and the selections are expected to be made in November. 

See: www.writerscentre.org.nz/how_to_apply.php

Eighteen New Zealand writers have held residencies at the centre since it was set up in 2005. This year the residencies have been held by playwright Arthur Meek, biographer Nelson Wattie, poet Ben Brown and playwright Michelanne Forster.

The centre is also able to assist writers who do not qualify for its supported residency programme. It has a second bedroom which is let at a modest rate to visiting writers who need a quiet place to work. Nineteen visiting writers have stayed at the centre over the past year.

For further information, please call Karren Beanland, Manager:

Ph/fax:   +64 9 445 8451
Email:    administrator@writerscentre.org.nz