New Zealand Exchange
Varuna the National Writers’ House, Michael King Writers’ Centre (Auckland) and Verb Wellington Festival are delighted to announce the inaugural New Zealand residency winner for this new international residency exchange.
The writer selected for the New Zealand writing residency exchange is much-acclaimed Australian author, Kate Mildenhall. Subject to ongoing travel restrictions, Kate will travel to New Zealand in October 2021 to spend four weeks at the Michael King Writers Centre. At the end of her writer’s residency, Kate will fly to Wellington, where she will participate in the Verb Wellington Writers’ Festival. Kate will be working on her third novel during her residency. In exchange, a New Zealand writer will be selected in the coming months, and will stay at Varuna in February 2022.
The standard of applications for this exchange program was very competitive, and Varuna would also like to congratulate shortlisted applicants Anwen Crawford, Michelle Cahill and Warren Ward whose outstanding applications were highly commended by the judges.
Varuna’s International Writers Residency Program is partially funded by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and we are grateful to these organisations for their generous support.
For more information about this program, see https://www.varuna.com.au/fellowships/internationalnz
Photo of Kate Mildenhall (credit Cat Black)
About Kate Mildenhall
Kate Mildenhall is the author of Skylarking (2016) and The Mother Fault (2020). Skylarking was longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017 and the 2017 Voss Literary Award. The Mother Fault was longlisted for the 2021 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year and shortlisted for the 2021 Aurealis Science Fiction Novel of the Year. Kate co-hosts The First Time Podcast – conversations with Australian writers – a podcast now in its fourth season. She has taught in schools, at RMIT University and State Library Victoria, and has volunteered with Teachers Across Borders in Cambodia. Kate lives in Hurstbridge on Wurundjeri lands, with her partner and two children. She is currently working on her third novel.
