Residencies at the
Michael King Writers Centre

The Michael King Writers Centre is based in the old Signalman’s House on Takarunga Mt Victoria in Devonport. It is a quiet retreat, set in a reserve with panoramic views of the Waitemata Harbour, yet it is close to the vibrant Devonport village and ferries to Auckland city.

The house has two bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom, and a dedicated writer’s studio in the rear garden for the centre’s supported writer-in-residence. The lounge, kitchen and laundry are shared.

There are two ways writers can stay at the centre.

New Zealand authors may apply for a supported residency. We currently offer around 15 supported residencies each year, each of them are for two to five weeks duration.

New Zealand and international writers may also apply to stay at the centre as a visiting writer on a paying basis, usually for terms from a week to two months.

 Shanghai-New Zealand
writers’ exchange

The first significant literary exchange between New Zealand and China continues in 2014. New Zealand novelist Alison Wong was selected for a two-month residency in Shanghai in September and October this year. A writer from Shanghai will hold a similar fellowship at the Michael King Writers’ Centre in Auckland in 2015.

The exchange follows the inaugural Rewi Alley Fellowship in May 2013, when Huo Yan, a 25-year-old writer from Beijing, took up a two-month residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre with funding through the NZ China Friendship Society.

It is hoped that the exchange will continue after 2015.