University of Otago announces 2016 arts fellows

The University of Otago in New Zealand has announced the recipients of its 2016 fellowships for literature and children’s writing. The Robert Burns Fellowship, which is ‘designed to encourage imaginative New Zealand literature’, has been awarded to playwright Victor Rodger. Rodger’s plays have been performed in Melbourne, Brisbane, Edinburgh and throughout New Zealand, and his planned works are Jeans, an Irish family drama, and Bethlehem, a ‘dark Kiwi variation of Thelma and Louise’. The Creative New Zealand children’s writer residency has been awarded to Barbara Else, the author of six novels for children and six novels for adults. Else plans to ‘write a children’s novel that begins in ancient times and moves to a contemporary New Zealand sea-side settlement’. The Fellows receive a stipend for between six months and one year and ‘space on campus to indulge in their creative projects’. For more information about the fellowships, click here.

Category: In brief