2016 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellows announced

New Zealand writers Diana Wichtel and Breton Dukes are the recipients of the 2016 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.

Wichtel and Dukes will each receive NZ$20,000 (A$17,711) and tenure at the Sargeson Centre in Auckland.

Wichtel, a television and feature writer at the New Zealand Listener, will use her fellowship to work on a memoir exploring the impact of the Holocaust on her own family history. Wichtel’s father survived the Holocaust by jumping from a train bound for Treblinka extermination camp and hiding in the forest.

Breton, a short-story writer, will use his fellowship to work on his first novel, which begins with a helicopter crash and follows a number of characters after the crash.

The Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship, formerly known as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, is awarded annually and is designed to provide an opportunity for a published New Zealand writer to write full-time in residency. More information is available online here.

Category: Local news