Applications are now open for one of New Zealand’s top writing residencies: the 2024 Creative New
Zealand Randell Cottage Writers Fellowship. The fellowship comprises a generous stipend, funded by
CNZ and currently set at $30,582, and six months’ rent-free accommodation in one of Wellington’s
oldest heritage homes. The residency will run from July to December 2024.
“We’re incredibly proud to be offering New Zealand writers an extended period of time to devote to their
work, a generous stipend, a comfortable home for six months, a peaceful garden, and proximity to
Wellington’s research institutions – and to be able to welcome our residents’ families and partners as
well,” Trust chair Christine Hurley says.
The Trust is particularly interested in hearing from mid-career and Māori and Pasifika writers.
Built in Thorndon in 1867, the Cottage has been painstakingly restored and is close to the National
Library, the Turnbull Library and Archives New Zealand. Alongside the annual six-month residency for mid-
career New Zealand writers, the Cottage also offers an annual residency to an author from France in the
first half of the calendar year. The Cottage has provided a peaceful inner-city base for both New Zealand
and French writers from a range of genres: novelists, poets, biographers and more.
The first New Zealand resident was Peter Wells, in 2002. He has since been followed by Tim Corballis,
Michael Harlow, Renée, Beryl Fletcher, Whiti Hereaka, Jennifer Compton, Kirsty Gunn, Pat White, Peter
Walker, Vivienne Plumb, Denis Welch, Tina Makereti, Witi Ihimaera, Owen Marshall, Stephanie Johnson,
Stephen Daisley, James Norcliffe, Paddy Richardson, Michalia Arathimos, Lynn Davidson, Rose Lu and
current 2023 resident Rachel O’Neill. The Trust celebrated twenty years of residencies in 2022 with the
publication of Room to Write (The Cuba Press) a bilingual anthology of writings by previous New Zealand
and French fellows.
The Randell Cottage Creative NZ Writer in Residence is selected by a Trust-appointed committee to
work on an approved project. The deadline for applications is Friday, 10 November 2022. The successful
applicant will be announced in December.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust,
P O Box 25204,
Wellington 6140,
New Zealand
The Randell Cottage residency is supported by Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand France Friendship Fund, the French Embassy, and the Wellington City Council.
Read about the residency and application process, and download the application form.
Contact: Christine Hurley, 021 155 4498
Note: The 2024 fellowship is advertised subject to confirmation of funding from CNZ’s Arts Grants
programme. That decision is expected in late December.