Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship

The Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers’ Fellowship was established to support senior writers wishing to work on a major project over at least two years. It is the largest writing fellowship available in New Zealand, valued at $100,000.

The fellowship was established in 2003 under the name Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship. It was renamed the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship in 2004, in recognition of the late Dr Michael King, his contribution to literature and his role in advocating for a major fellowship for New Zealand writers.

The fellowship is funded by the government and awarded by Creative New Zealand. It was established as a result of the Government's additional funding of $1 million (inc. GST) per year made available to the literary sector. Part of the funding was also used to establish three Prime Minister's Literary Awards, worth $60,000 each and awarded in the categories of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Previous recipients of the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship include Owen Marshall and Vincent O'Sullivan.

2005 Award Recipient

A novel told through the eyes of Judas Iscariot is one of three projects that Auckland writer C.K. Stead will be working on as this year’s recipient of the $100,000 Creative New Zealand Michael King Fellowship.

As this year’s recipient, Stead has two other projects lined up. He will compile a collection of his poems from 1951 to 2005 and also work on a memoir of his friendships with Frank Sargeson and Allen Curnow, based around their letters to him.

In the 1950s, Stead was pursuing an academic career at The University of Auckland. At the same time, he was writing poetry and was a protégé of Sargeson and Curnow. His 170 letters from Sargeson, 700 items of correspondence from Curnow and his own letters to them are lodged in the Turnbull Library in Wellington.

“This fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to clear the decks and concentrate totally on the three projects,” Stead says. “The collected poems and memoir have been in my mind for several years but I could only have done them with financial support. The memoir, in particular, will involve a fair amount of research.”