Sarah Laing, from Auckland, will use her residency to complete her latest work, a novel which explores aspects of cultural identity. Titled Dead People’s Music, it will be published by Random House in April 2009.
Sarah Laing, from Mt Albert, has written short stories, taken part in spoken word performances and been involved in a number of literary festivals, including the 2008 Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. She won the Sunday Star Times short story competition open division in 2006. Her short story collection Coming Up Roses was published to critical acclaim last year, and the New Zealand Listener magazine described her as New Zealand’s next great short story writer.