Creative New Zealand seeks applications

3 December 2004

Creative New Zealand seeks applications to its Berlin Writers' Residency

The Arts Board of Creative New Zealand is calling for applications to the 2005 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency, which offers a New Zealand writer the opportunity to live and write in Berlin for a period of between eight months and one year.

The biennial residency includes the rental costs of an apartment in the centre of Berlin, a stipend of NZ$3000 a month and a return airfare from New Zealand to Germany. The selected writer will work on an approved project and must be able to undertake the residency for a negotiable period between August 2005 and July 2006.

Previous recipients are Sarah Quigley, Tina Shaw, Kapka Kassabova and Philip Temple. Temple, who returned to Dunedin from the 2003 residency in late May, worked on two projects while he was in Berlin. The first - a work of fiction/history/memoir - is called White Shadows and will be published by Vintage New Zealand in March 2005. The second project, a novel, involved extensive research.

"Both projects would not have been possible without the residency," he says. "It enabled me to explore themes and ideas that have been with me all my life, and to complete research impossible to undertake from New Zealand."

He also made valuable professional contacts with writers, publishers and literary agents in Berlin, and played an ambassadorial role for New Zealand and its writers.

"Berlin is a terrific base," he says. "It's central for travelling in Europe, and the cost of living and transport is very reasonable. As well, you're exposed to a huge variety of cultural activity."

The residency is open to established New Zealand writers who have been resident in New Zealand for at least three years prior to making the application. Applications close at 5pm on Friday 11 February 2005. Residency guidelines can be downloaded from the resources section of Creative New Zealand's website (www.creativenz.govt.nz ) or by contacting Rosemary Wildblood (Tel: 04-498 0741 Email: rosemaryw@creativenz.govt.nz) or Danielle Tolson (Tel: 04-473 0184 Email: daniellet@creativenz.govt.nz).

ENDS

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