We welcomed Rachael not only as our final writer-in-residence for 2020 but also, by wonderful coincidence as the 100th writer to take up a residency at MKWC.
Rachael is an award-winning author with three novels under her belt: The Sound of Butterflies, which was published internationally and translated into nine languages; Magpie Hall, a gothic novel set in Canterbury; and Red Rocks, a junior novel that won the Esther Glen medal in 2014. In 2008 Rachael held the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence position at Canterbury University, which took her to Christchurch for one year, but she never left. She is currently the Programme Director of WORD Christchurch.
Rachael’s residency project is a novel for middle grade readers, aged 8-12, and is a retelling of the Scottish Kelpie myth, about a lake monster that takes the form of a beautiful horse to lure children onto its back and drown them in the lake. It is set in the South Island High Country lakes and is a follow up to her last novel, Red Rocks, which took another Scottish mythical creature, the selkie, and placed it in Wellington.