December 01, 2014
Ihimaera takes up writers residency
Novelist Witi Ihimaera has been named a Creative New Zealand-Randell Cottage Writer in Residence for 2015.
Rather than a full six month stint, he will occupy the Thorndon cottage for three months, and be followed by short story writer Owen Marshall.
Selection panel chair Vincent O’Sullivan says splitting the residency was an elegant response to an extraordinary number of impressive applications.
Ihimaera intends to work on a second volume of his three volume memoir Native Son, covering the period 1961 to 1990.
It will allow him to consult his own archives at the J.B. Beaglehole Room at Victoria University and also the Foreign Affairs archives at the National Library.
He says walking between the two archives will keep him fit to cope with the mental and emotional rigour of the work.
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