Auckland writer Stephanie Johnson is to be the 2016 Creative New Zealand Randell Cottage Writer in Residence. Johnson is the author of several collections of poetry and of short stories, of plays and adaptations, but is best known for her novels. These include Crimes of Neglect (1992), The Heart’s Wild Surf (1996), The Shag Incident (2002), Music from a Distant Room (2004), The Open World(2012), and The Writing Class(2013) and its sequel The Writers Festival (2015). She is a past winner of the Deutz Medal for Fiction (2003), has been shortlisted for New Zealand literary awards and longlisted internationally.

Johnson has held the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship (2000) and in 2001 was Literary Fellow at Auckland University. She has taught creative writing and English at the University of Auckland and Unitec. For the past two years, she’s been a teaching fellow in history at the University of Waikato. She was co-founder and creative director (with Peters Wells) of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

Johnson’s Randell Cottage project is a non-fiction work, West Island: Five Twenthieth Century New Zealanders in Australia. The five are writers Dulcie Deamer, Jean Devanny and Douglas Stewart, journalist Eric Baume, and painter Roland Wakelin. Johnson says their lives provide a series of lenses through which to consider New Zealand’s broader historical and ongoing relationship with Australia.

Selection panel convener Vincent O’Sullivan says this is “an exciting and original project in a much neglected area. It’s a highly topical project that Stephanie, with her own experience of living and writing in both countries, is uniquely qualified for.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming Stephanie to the Cottage,” O’Sullivan said.

Johnson says she is delighted to be the 2016 resident and is looking forward to her six months in the capital. While at the Randell Cottage she will take advantage of the National Archives and Library to research for her book ‘West Island’. ‘The seclusion of the residence will encourage concentrated work, not only on the non-fiction project but also on a novel ‘The Writers’ Retreat’, the third in my trilogy begun with ‘The Writing Class’. I haven’t lived in Wellington for any length of time since I was eighteen and I am very much looking forward to becoming more familiar with the city.’

The Randell Cottage Writers Trust was established in 2002. The restored B-category historic, gifted to the Trust by the Price family, building hosts two writers a year; one from New Zealand and the other from France. It is currently home to Owen Marshall who has shared this year’s fellowship with Witi Ihimaera. The 2016 French resident, novelist Nicolas Fargues arrives in Wellington in January 2016.

The Embassy of France in New Zealand and the Randell Cottage Writers Trust are pleased to announce the new laureate of the Randell Cottage Residency, Nicolas Fargues.

Nicolas Fargues is a renowned French author who has published ten books, including J’étais derrière toi – I was Behind You (Pushkin Press, London) – which has been translated into fifteen different languages.

Nicolas was born in 1972 in the Paris region and spent his childhood between Cameroon, Lebanon and Corsica. He studied modern French literature at La Sorbonne University and completed his master’s thesis on the life and work of Egyptian author Georges Henein. Nicholas’ first novel Le Tour du propriétaire was published in 2000. He has spent the last few years between Indonesia, Paris, Yaoundé and Madagascar.

Nicolas was nominated on the 3^rd of September of this year for the prestigious Goncourt Prize for his latest book Au pays du p’tit (In the land of the lil’).    

The author will arrive in Wellington in January 2016 to enjoy a
five-month residency. While in New Zealand, he will work on a new novel and will tour the country to give a series of talks and readings.

Cultural counsellor at the French Embassy, Mr Raynald Belay shares his enthusiasm at introducing Nicolas to the New Zealand audience: “Nicolas Fargues is an up-and-coming successful writer in the French literature circle, as testified by his recent nomination for the Goncourt Prize. His writing is honest and poignant, with a hint of ferocious irony. He likes to draw inspiration from his own experiences and I know that his stay in New Zealand will provide him with a source of new ventures to explore in writing.”

For its part, the Randell Cottage Writers Trust looks forward to welcoming Nicolas Fargues to Wellington: “Nicolas Fargues is a prolific and well-regarded writer. It will be a privilege to have him as the Cottage’s French writer in residence in the first half of 2016,” Trust Chair Sarah Dennis said.

“Having spent much of his life living and working in other countries and cultures, Nicolas Fargues will find much in New Zealand’s landscape and history and in its Māori and Pacific cultures from which to draw inspiration.”

“I know that the New Zealand French speaking and literary communities will be keen to hear from Nicolas. The Trust and Friends of the Randell Cottage look forward to supporting his public programme,” Sarah Dennis said.

The Randell Cottage welcomes the 2015 French writer-in-residence, David Fauquemberg. David lives in the Cotentin area of Normandy, France. He’s a novelist who has also published in magazines such as XXI, Géo and Long Cours and is a translator from English of Nadine Gordimer, R. L. Stevenson, James Meek, Willy Vlautin and other fiction writers.

David has travelled in Patagonia and Lapland, sailed across the Atlantic, and lived with gypsies in Andalucia. His first novel, Nullarbor (Hoëbeke, 2007), was inspired by two years in Australia and won the Nicolas Bouvier Prize for travel writing. Mal tiempo (Fayard, 2009), which has a boxing theme and is set in Cuba, was awarded the Millepages Prize, the Prix des Hebdos en Région Prize and the City of Caen Prize. His most recent novel Manuel el Negro, published by Fayard in 2013, is the result of his time with Andalucia’s flamenco gypsies.

Haere mai David!

You can listen to the Radio NZ interview with David Fauquemberg here: