Mildenhall announced as Varuna New Zealand residency exchange recipient

Kate Mildenhall has been announced as the recipient of the inaugural New Zealand residency exchange, an international residency program held by Varuna, the National Writers’ House in collaboration with the Michael King Writers Centre in Auckland and the Verb Wellington Writers Festival.

Mildenhall is the author of the novels Skylarking (Black Inc.) and The Mother Fault (S&S). 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.

Subject to travel restrictions, the four-week residency exchange will take place in October 2021. Mildenhall will work on her third novel at the Michael King Writers Centre before flying to Wellington to participate in the Verb Wellington Writers’ Festival at the end of her residency. In exchange, a New Zealand writer will be selected in the coming months to stay at Varuna in February 2022.

Varuna said the ‘standard of applications for this exchange program was very competitive’. The shortlisted applicants Anwen Crawford, Michelle Cahill and Warren Ward were highly commended by the judges.

The Varuna International Writers Residency Program is supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For more information about the program, see the Varuna website.

Image credit: Cat Black

Category: Awards Local news