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The Randell Cottage Writers Trust was established in September 2001 to promote and foster the development of literature by establishing a writers’ residency scheme and awarding literary scholarships. It works in partnership with the Embassy of France, New Zealand-France Friendship Fund and Creative New Zealand to provide a six month residency each year to a French and New Zealand writer respectively.
Historic Randell Cottage was gifted by the Price Family to be a dedicated writers’ residency – the first of its kind in Wellington and the first to be offered to international writers in the Southern Hemisphere. It also affords a measure of reciprocity with the New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize which sends NZ writers to Menton. This adds an exciting cultural perspective to cultural and literary life in Wellington and to the life in and around the cottage. The French writers are funded and selected separately by the French Government and the New Zealand France Friendship Fund, and the French Ambassador to NZ is closely involved with the cottage.
With Katherine Mansfield being one of my strongest influences, New Zealand has been ensconced in my mind for such a long time. — Nadine Ribault, inaugural French Writer, 2002
The Randell Cottage Creative NZ Writer in Residence is provided with accommodation and a stipend of $2,500 plus GST per month. The successful candidate is selected by a Trust-appointed committee to work on an approved project. Randell Cottage receives generous support from the Wellington City Council for maintenance.
The residency was tremendous. It is extremely rare for a writer to have a period in his or her life free from financial insecurity. — Peter Wells, inaugural New Zealand Writer 2002
Wellington is one of New Zealand’s liveliest literary centres and a research hub. Randell Cottage is located in inner city Thorndon close to the Lilburn Residence [composer residency], Rita Angus Cottage [artist residency], and the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace. This group of houses is known as Arts Residencies Thorndon or ART: an informal arrangement which encourages social and cultural links, and mutual support. The residency is also within walking distance of the National and Turnbull Libraries, and the Wellington Asia Residency.
From the moment I stepped inside the door at Randell Cottage, 14 Saint Mary Street, Wellington, I felt like I was coming home. Everything about the place was familiar – from the New Zealand timber floorboards to the very positioning of the sash windows that looked out to a garden of native trees and hydrangeas. — Kirsty Gunn, New Zealand Writer 2009
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French Iranian writer-in-residence at Randell Cottage, Fariba Hachtroudi, speaks on National Radio with Kim Hill. Listen here.
And she speaks and reads from her work at a PEN press conference on Iran, Monday February 1 at 6 pm at Bats Theatre, Wellington, and will be joined by other writers and politicians. Fariba and Lilburn House composer-in-residence John Rae have collaborated on a piece of music which will premier at the event.
The Randell Cottage Writers Trust is excited to welcome French writer and Iranian exile Fariba Hachtroudi as the new writer-in-residence. She will live and work in the cottage until March 2010. More...
Celebrating Katherine Mansfield
Randell Cottage Trustee and author Vincent O'Sullivan and recently departed Randell Cottage writer in residence Kirsty Gunn in conversation in the garden of the Villa Maria Serena in Menton. Both were keynote speakers at the Katherine Mansfield symposium 'Celebrating Katherine Mansfield' in Menton in September. A summary of Kirsty’s talk is here. Photo: Delia da Sousa Correa
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