The Fellowship

To continue the support that Sargeson gave other writers during his lifetime, in 1987 the Frank Sargeson Trust set up an annual literary fellowship to provide assistance to New Zealand writers.

The inaugural Sargeson Fellow in 1987 was Janet Frame, who described the importance of Sargeson’s friendship for her personal and literary life in the second volume of her autobiography, An Angel at My Table. Frame was succeeded as Sargeson Fellow by poet Kevin Ireland, who was also a close friend of Sargeson. Since then, more than sixty New Zealand writers have benefited from the fellowship’s support.

In 1997 the fellowship became the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship when leading New Zealand law firm Buddle Findlay became the commercial sponsor of the fellowship. In 2014 the law firm Grimshaw & Co took over support for the fellowship, which for the next ten years became known as the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship. Grimshaw & Co are leaders in dispute resolution with experience across all areas of civil and commercial litigation. The firm is perhaps best known for representing clients affected by leaky homes and leaking buildings.

The current Sargeson Fellowship provides the opportunity each year for an outstanding published New Zealand writer (or writers) to write full-time in residence at the Sargeson Centre in central Auckland, with the support of a stipend of $20,000.

Applications open in spring each year for the following year’s fellowship. Information about the 2024 Fellowship and how to apply, can be found here, or contact franksargesontrust@gmail.com

Sargeson Fellows

2024 Josie Schapiro and Zoë Meager

Grimshaw Sargeson Fellows

2023 Kelly Ana Morey and Evana Belich
2022 Anna Jackson and Nathan Joe
2021 Chloe Lane and Lee Murray
2020 Michalia Arathimos and Hera Lindsay Bird
2019 Chloe Honum and Chye-Ling Huang
2018 Carl Bland and David Howard
2017 Steven Toussaint and Gregory Kan
2016 Diana Wichtel and Breton Dukes
2015 Duncan Sarkies and Robert Glancy
2014 Bianca Zander and Alice Miller

Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows

2013 Hamish Clayton and Tanya Moir
2012 David Lyndon Brown and Anna Taylor
2011 Sue Orr and Mark Broatch
2010 Sonja Yelich and Sarah Laing
2009 Steve Braunias and Julian Novitz
2008 Brigid Lowry and Paula Morris
2007 James George
2006 Emily Perkins
2005 Fiona Samuel and Peter Cox
2004 Karyn Hay and Craig Marriner
2003 Toa Fraser and Debra Daley
2002 Riemke Ensing and Denis Baker
2001 Vivienne Plumb and Chad Taylor
2000 Sue Reidy, James Brown and Charlotte Grimshaw
1999 Tina Shaw and Kapka Kassabova
1998 Catherine Chidgey and Sarah Quigley
1997 Shonagh Koea and Diane Brown

Sargeson Fellows

1996 Marilyn Duckworth and Judith White
1995 Ming Cher
1994 John Cranna
1993 Bill Payne
1992 Elspeth Sandys and Gaelyn Gordon
1991 Alan Duff and Jack Lasenby
1990 Geoff Chapple
1989 Michael Beveridge
1988 Gregory O’Brien
1987 Janet Frame and Kevin Ireland

Literary advisors to the fellowship selection committee

Catherine Chidgey
Charlotte Grimshaw
Karyn Hay
Graeme Lay
Owen Marshall
Vincent O’Sullivan
Emily Perkins
Vivienne Plumb

2024 Sargeson Fellowship announcement

New Zealand writers Josie Shapiro and Zoë Meager have been awarded the prestigious 2024 Sargeson Fellowship.

The fellowship is a national literary award which for the past 36 years has offered published New Zealand writers the opportunity to focus on their craft full-time. Named in memory of New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson, it offers an annual stipend of $20,000 and an eight-month tenure at the Sargeson Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Josie Shapiro’s short fiction and book reviews have appeared in journals and anthologies and her debut novel, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, won the inaugural Allen and Unwin Fiction Prize. Shapiro plans to use her residency to work on her second novel, about three friends, our relationship with art, and why we sometimes take great risks and lose it all.

“It is such an honour to be awarded the Sargeson Fellowship, and it’s an incredible source of encouragement at this early stage in my career. I’m truly thankful for the time and space the Sargeson Fellowship will give me to focus on my writing.”

Zoë Meager’s short fiction and prose poetry has been widely published locally and abroad and her work recognised in a number of literary awards. She plans to use her time to work on a short fiction collection examining the lives of women and children, centring around ‘Things with faces’, which was awarded the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Pacific Region.

“I feel very lucky to have been picked to receive this gift, which will be my first chance to write full-time. The kind of encouragement and material support offered by the Sargeson Fellowship is so precious and I’m deeply grateful. It’s also such a big honour to be included alongside the list of writers who have previously held this residency.”

Frank Sargeson Trust Chair Elizabeth Aitken-Rose says: “The Sargeson Literary Fellowship has recognised and nurtured many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s exceptional writers for over thirty-six years. In 2024, Josie Shapiro and Zoë Meager join this legacy and were selected from an outstanding field of applicants. They will have the time and support to focus on work that will undoubtedly embellish the imagination and understandings of us all.”

8 December 2023