Applications Invited For 2026 Randell Cottage Writers Residency

By Randell Cottage | Posted: Monday Sep 08, 2025

Applications close Friday 24 October 2025

The fellowship comprises a generous stipend, currently set in the order of $32,000, and six months’ rent-free accommodation in one of Wellington’s oldest heritage homes. The residency will run from July to December 2026.

“We’re incredibly proud to be offering New Zealand writers an extended period of time to devote to their work, a stipend, a comfortable home for six months, a peaceful garden, and proximity to Wellington’s research institutions – and to be able to welcome our residents’ families and partners as well,” Trust chair Christine Hurley says.

The fellowship is open to mid-career New Zealand writers, meaning any writer with a growing body of published work. The Trust is particularly interested in hearing from mid-career and Māori and Pasifika writers.

Find out the full eligibility criteria.

Built in Thorndon in 1867, the Cottage has been painstakingly restored and is close to the National Library, the Turnbull Library and National Archive. Alongside the annual six-month residency for mid-career New Zealand writers, the Cottage also offers an annual residency to an author from France in the first half of the calendar year. The Cottage has provided a peaceful inner-city base for both New Zealand and French writers from a range of genres: novelists, poets, biographers and more.

The first New Zealand resident was Peter Wells, in 2002. He has since been followed by Tim Corballis, Michael Harlow, Renée, Beryl Fletcher, Whiti Hereaka, Jennifer Compton, Kirsty Gunn, Pat White, Peter Walker, Vivienne Plumb, Denis Welch, Tina Makereti, Witi Ihimaera, Owen Marshall, Stephanie Johnson, Stephen Daisley, James Norcliffe, Paddy Richardson, Michalia Arathimos, Lynn Davidson, Rose Lu, Rachel O’Neill, Hinemoana Baker and current 2025 resident Saraid da Silva. The Trust celebrated twenty years of residencies in 2022 with the publication of Room to Write (The Cuba Press), a bilingual English-French anthology of writings by previous New Zealand and French fellows.

The Randell Cottage Writer in Residence is selected by a Trust-appointed committee to work on an approved project. The deadline for applications is Friday, 24 October 2025. The successful applicant will be announced in December.

Application forms and further information.

Note: The 2026 fellowship is advertised subject to confirmation of funding from current fundraising applications, which will be confirmed by December.