The Michael King Writers Centre Trust
The Michael King Writers Centre is overseen by the Michael King Writers Studio Trust. The Trust and the Centre were established in 2005 a year after historian and writer Michael King died in a car accident. The Centre was set up a by the Trust to honour and see to fruition, the long held vision of Michael’s for a national writers centre in Aotearoa – a place where writers could spend time on a residential retreat and focus on their work without the interruptions of everyday life. The founding trustees were: Christine Cole Catley, Gordon McLauchlan, Wensley Wilcox, Witi Ihimaera, Geoff Chapple, Jim Mason, Geoff Walker, Peter Bartlett and Helen Woodhouse.
Current Trustees are listed below. The trust also has a number of specialist advisers who help out with particular projects.
Our patrons are Michael King’s daughter Rachael King and his son Jonathan King. The trust is grateful to them for their support. Rachael King is an award-winning New Zealand writer and author of two books for adults, Magpie Hall and The Sound of Butterflies,. Rachel also co authored Bill Hammond: Across The Evening Sky and has written two books for children, Red Rocks and The Grimmelings. Her work has been translated into eight languages and has garnered critical praise worldwide.
Jonathan King is a film director and screen writer. He began his screen career as writer and director of the New Zealand black comedy movie Black Sheep and was co-writer of the screenplay for The Tattooist. His most recent project is a feature-length remake of the New Zealand television series Under the Mountain, as writer (adapted from the original book by Maurice Gee), director and producer.
The trust is registered as a charitable trust with the New Zealand Charities Commission, registration number CC25972, and has tax exemption status for donations.
Melanee Winder (Chair)
Mel (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāi Tahu), is the Managing Director of Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand and has over 25 years’ experience working for multinational book publishers both in the UK and NZ. She also sits on the Copyright Licensing NZ Board.
The Trust welcomed Melanee as a trustee in December 2023 and as Chair of the Trust in June 2024.
Nicki Fraser (Deputy Chair/Treasurer)
Nicki is a qualified chartered accountant living in Devonport with her family.
While beginning her career in audit with Deloitte, she has worked across a range of industries including investment banking, publishing, and in several countries including the UK, China, and South Korea.
In the last five years Nicki has worked with several not-for-profit entities preparing both management and financial accounts, and in her current role as a Chartered Accountant with accountants Gannaway Mercer, she consults to not-for profits, and small to medium business’s on all aspects of accounting and tax. Her interests outside work include enjoying literature and cooking.
Nicki joined the trust in October 2016.
Madeleine Chapman
Sāmoan, Tuvaluan, Chinese, American New Zealander Madeleine is the current editor of The Spinoff and a former senior editor at North & South magazine. She is the author of Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader and the co-author of Steven Adams’ bestselling autobiography My Life, My Fight.
Madeleine joined the Trust in March 2023.
Jacquie McRae
Jacquie (Tainui) lives in Te Arai, Northland. She is a writer of short stories and novels. She has been published in several short story anthologies, including Stories on the four winds. Her first young adult novel The Scent of Apples, won a gold medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (the ‘IPPYs’) and it was selected by the International Youth Library in Munich and received a White Ravens label. She has a Masters in Creative writing with first class honours. She mentors for NZSA on both the adult and youth mentor programme. She has been a mentee and mentors on the Te Papa Tupu programme. Jacquie has run workshops at the Raglan and South Auckland writers festival and appeared at the Auckland readers and writers festivals. Her novel, The Liminal Space was a finalist in New Zealand book lovers awards for best fiction 2022. It was also a finalist in the PANZ awards for best fiction cover. She has twice held residencies at the Michael King Writers centre and is currently working on an historical novel about two resilient women. One from the Isle of Skye and the other from Te Wai pounamu. It is set in a time of great turbulence for both countries.
Jacquie joined the Michael King Writers Studio Trust in July 2024.
Gina Cole
Gina is a Fijian/Pākehā, queer writer living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her short story collection Black Ice Matter won Best First Book Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her fiction, poetry and essays have been widely anthologized. Her science fiction fantasy novel Na Viro (2022) is a work of Pasifikafuturism. She holds an LLB (Hons) and an MJur from the University of Auckland. She has a Masters of Creative Writing (MCW) from the University of Auckland, and a PhD in creative writing from Massey University. In 2023 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to literature.
Gina held a residency at MKWC in 2021 and in 2022 was the inaugural writer from Aotearoa to travel to Australia for the residency exchange with Varuna Writers House in Katoomba, NSW. In February 2024, Gina joined the Trust.
Eleanor Congreve
Eleanor is an arts manager who has worked across a range of leading arts organisations, funding agencies, festivals, and philanthropic initiatives in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Most recently from 2015 to 2023, she was Senior Adviser (International) at Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, where she worked with key partners, including in the literature and publishing sectors, to develop and deliver international capability, audience and market development initiatives.
Before joining CNZ, she was Associate Director at the Auckland Writers Festival. While in the UK, she held roles at the Tate Galleries as a Senior Patrons Manager and at two advocacy organisations established to increase private philanthropy in the UK.
Eleanor joined the Trust in August 2023.