Resident Siobhan Harvey feels at home in the Caselberg House

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted: Monday Nov 09, 2026

Acclaimed Aotearoa New Zealand author Siobhan Harvey is enjoying her time in Ōtepoti as the recipient of the 2026 Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature Writers Residency. She is living in the Caselberg House in Whakaohorahi Broad Bay for six weeks of writing, exploration and connection.

Since arriving early October, Siobhan has been inspired by the natural beauty of the Otago Peninsula, taking in its landscapes and connecting with the local community while she works on her next creative project.

During her residency, Siobhan is developing a series of narrative poems connected to nature: the landscape, wildlife, water, weather; its longevity and changeability. The new work builds on a few of her poems recently published in literary journals, including Stargazer in Live Encounters.

The peninsula’s distinctive environment offers a rich setting for this exploration, providing opportunities to observe the natural world and reflect on its enduring presence and constant transformation.

Siobhan will be a featured author with Airini Beautrais at the NZSA Otago Southland Salon Reading Series on Monday, November 9th, at 5.30pm, at the Athenaeum Library, The Octagon - all welcome. Her residency runs until mid-November and we look forward to seeing how her time at the Caselberg House, surrounded by the landscapes and wildlife of the Otago Peninsula, finds its way into her new work.

The residency is jointly awarded by the Caselberg Trust and Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, offering writers a unique opportunity to dedicate time to a substantial creative writing project while engaging with Ōtepoti’s rich literary heritage and dynamic writing community. Established through a generous bequest to the Caselberg Trust by the late Margaret Egan, the six-week residency is offered annually, alternating between writers from Aotearoa New Zealand and writers from UNESCO Cities of Literature around the world.

Siobhan Harvey is the author of nine books, including her recent memoir What We Remember, What We Forget (Otago University Press, May 2026). A powerful exploration of family, warrior motherhood, queerness, recollection, trauma and survival, the memoir has received international recognition. It was a category winner at the 2025 Memoir Prize for Books in the United States and highly commended in the 2024 Bridport Memoir Award in the United Kingdom. Siobhan is also shortlisted for the 2026 international Heroines Women's Writing Prize.