Duncan Sarkies: 2023
Summer Residency

Duncan Sarkies: 2023
Summer Residency

Duncan Sarkies: 2023
Summer Residency
1876 1867 Michael King Writers Centre

Our second writer-in-residence Duncan is a screenwriter, playwright, novelist, performer and short story writer. He has written film scripts, plays, short stories and novels, touring several shows around New Zealand and abroad. His first book of short stories, Stray Thoughts And Nose Bleeds received excellent reviews and won him the Hubert Church Award for Best First Book of Fiction at the NZ Book Awards. He has written two novels. His debut novel Two Little Boys was published in 2008 to excellent reviews. His second novel, The Demolition of The Century, was released in 2013  through John Murray in the UK and Penguin Random House in New Zealand. It formed the basis for a spoken word show Duncan toured in New Zealand and abroad in 2015, and is currently in development as a film project.

In New Zealand he is possibly best known for writing the hit black comedy Scarfies. He wrote two episodes for the HBO TV series Flight of the Conchords and an episode of What We Do In The Shadows for FX. He has recently written and directed The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, an epic radio series for Stitcher. The series is a collaboration with musician Lawrence Arabia and illustrator Stephen Templer. He is currently at work on a novel about the collapse of democracy in an alpaca breeders organisation.