2026 Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan UNESCO Cities of Literature Writers Resident: Siobhan Harvey

By Caselberg Trust | Posted: Friday May 01, 2026

The Caselberg Trust is pleased to announce this year’s winner of the six week residency is Siobhan Harvey from Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

The 2026 residency is specifically for writers from Aotearoa and we were delighted to receive applications from across the motu.

The 2026 judge commented, “the applications received were of an incredibly high standard, and so many of the projects posed valuable questions about life in Aotearoa today. I was impressed by the innovation evident in the proposals, and appreciate the writers' time and efforts in making their submissions. The shortlist could easily have been twice as long.”

Siobhan remarks, "Being awarded a residency is taonga to a writer. It's a treasured gift of time, space and support assisting the development of a literary project. I'm humbled to be selected for the recipient of the prestigious Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Residency 2026, and am already looking forward to inspirational time spent in the Caselberg Trust's nurturing creative environment."

Siobhan Harvey is the author of nine books, including the memoir, What We Remember, What We Forget (OUP, forthcoming: May, 2026). A book about family, warrior motherhood, queerness, recollection, disregard, trauma and survival, it was a category winner at 2025 Memoir Prize for Books (US) and highly commended in the 2024 Bridport Memoir Award (UK). Presently, Harvey is shortlisted for the 2026 international Heroines Women's Writing Prize.

We look forward to welcoming Siobhan to the Caselberg House in October.

The Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Residency is run jointly and collaboratively by the Caselberg Trust and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature. Funding from the Caselberg Trust is provided through a generous bequest by the late Margaret Egan.