2026 IRELAND WILSON SARGESON FELLOWS ANNOUNCED
Media release, 1 December 2025
New Zealand writers Laurence Fearnley and Bridget van der Zijpp have been awarded the prestigious 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships.
This national literary award, named in memory of New Zealand writers Frank Sargeson, Kevin Ireland and Phillip Wilson, offers an annual stipend of $30,000, shared between two fellows, for them to write fulltime on a book project.
Auckland writer Bridget van der Zijpp, who takes up her fellowship in March 2026, is an author of three contemporary novels published here and internationally. Bridget will work on her fourth novel, Force Majeure, set in a small farming community dealing with contemporary dilemmas including bullying, power struggles and furtive trolling.
Bridget says, “I am truly thrilled to be awarded the Fellowship. It is an honour to be associated with those three illustrious writers — Kevin Ireland, Phillip Wilson and Frank Sargeson — and to join the decades of literary names whose work has been supported by the Trust. I am so grateful to the Trustees for their long-held dedication to nurturing Aotearoa’s literary voices, and to Janet Wilson for generously ensuring the Fellowship’s continuance in 2026. This has definitely given my novel-in-progress a genuine boost — providing the very warm kick to focus and get on and finish it next year.”
Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning author from Dunedin with thirteen titles including a series of novels based on the five senses: Scented (smell), Winter Time (touch), At the Grand Glacier Hotel (sound) and Dedication (sight — forthcoming 2026). She will use her fellowship to write the final novel in the sequence.
Laurence says, “I was a student at Canterbury University in 1986 and was sat in Room 104 of the English Department when Kevin Ireland — the Writer in Residence — performed his sequence of sonnets, The Year of the Comet. It was a breathtaking event and one of the first times I experienced poetry as a living, breathing form. Forty years later, I have been fortunate enough to receive the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowship.
“My project, Rise and Shine, is to write a protest novel located on the Clutha/Mata-au River. The final of my ‘five senses project’, this novel will follow a middle-aged woman who decides to kayak the length of the Clutha as a protest against a planned open-cast goldmine that is to be built in the hills above the river, and which threatens the environment and the health of its surroundings. As someone who has kayaked on the river for many years, I felt compelled to write this novel. Knowing that Kevin Ireland was a keen fly-fisher, I feel that his spirit will guide me along the way as I write about floating, foraging and fishing.”
Frank Sargeson Trust Chair Elizabeth Aitken-Rose says: “The Fellowship has recognised and nurtured many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s exceptional writers for nearly 40 years. In 2026, Bridget van der Zijpp and Laurence Fearnley join this legacy and were selected from an incredibly strong and passionate field of applicants. The Fellowships will give them the time and support to focus on work that will undoubtedly embellish the imagination and understandings of us all.”
The Trust is hugely grateful to the many generous donors who have made, and continue to make, these Fellowships possible. Special gratitude goes to Emeritus Professor Janet Wilson, who says, “the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships will enable the Sargeson Trust to continue its important work of fostering emerging New Zealand writers. I am delighted with the choice of this year’s Fellows as the first recipients of the renamed award. They both have exciting and promising projects and are strongly aware of the traditions of writing associated with Sargeson, Ireland and Wilson.”
About the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships:
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. From 2007 the fellowship was known as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship; between 2014 and 2023 the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship; and in 2025 became the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships. The new name for the Fellowships honours author Kevin Ireland (1933–2023), who was himself one of the inaugural Sargeson Fellows in 1987, and writer and scholar Phillip Wilson (1922–2001), a long-time friend of Frank Sargeson.
Sargeson Fellowship recipients over the years have included Charlotte Grimshaw, Catherine Chidgey, Paula Morris, James George, Hera Lindsay Bird, Nathan Joe, Lee Murray and Josie Shapiro.
About the Frank Sargeson Trust:
The Trust was set up in 1983 by Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson’s heir and executor. The Trust aims to continue Sargeson’s lifelong generosity to writers through providing fellowships, while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New Zealand’s first literary museum.
For media enquiries about the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships,
contact: franksargesontrust@gmail.com
Haere rā, Kelly Ana Morey (1968–2025)
5 September 2025
It is with profound shock and sadness that we learned this week of the death of Kelly Ana Morey.
Kelly Ana was a recipient of the 2023 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship and used the time to work on a new novel looking at the everyday lives of five generations of Māori women, though she was clear it was not a Māori history in the conventional sense.
“I’m wrestling with a huge manuscript and have finally worked out what I want this novel to do and I reckon this time I’ve nailed it,” she told the Trust in August 2023.
Sargeson Trust chair, Dr Elizabeth Aitken Rose, says, “Kelly Ana was a considerable writer, and more than this, a fierce, intelligent and enduring contributor to Aotearoa’s evolving cultural life.”
Read an appreciation of ‘KAM’ by 2008 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow Paula Morris here.
Calling all writers! Applications now open for the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships
Media release, 4 September 2025
The Frank Sargeson Trust is calling for applications from published New Zealand writers for the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships.
These prestigious Fellowships, named in memory of New Zealand writers Frank Sargeson, Kevin Ireland and Phillip Wilson, are offering in 2026 an increased stipend of $30,000, shared between two fellows, for the recipients to write fulltime on book projects.
One of the 2025 recipients, award-winning writer of adult and children’s fiction Rachael King, says, “The Fellowship has been an enormous boost at a crucial time. It allowed me to write more than I have ever written before, completing work on my novel – a moody young adult fantasy – Song of the Saltings, which will be published in May next year. I also appreciate the Trust’s support for writing for our rangatahi, who need good stories now more than ever.”
The second 2025 Fellow, novelist and short-story writer Kate Duignan, has just begun her tenure and will be working on her third novel, set in Canada and New Zealand.
Elizabeth Aitken Rose, the chair of the Sargeson Trust, says, “For close to forty years, a fellowship in Frank Sargeson’s name has been a cornerstone of support for Aotearoa New Zealand’s literary community. The Trust extends its heartfelt thanks to the Fellowships’ many generous donors, whose ongoing support continues to uphold and enrich the fellowship’s enduring legacy.”
Special gratitude goes to Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Studies Janet Wilson for particularly generous support. Professor Wilson comments, “I am delighted the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships will enable the Sargeson Trust to continue its important work of the last 38 years of fostering emerging New Zealand writers. My father, Phillip Wilson, and husband, Kevin Ireland, both had strong personal ties with Frank Sargeson, whose writing they admired, as well as with Chris Cole Catley, Sargeson’s executor.”
The Trust will no longer be offering a residency as a component of these Fellowships.
Applications close on Monday, 13 October 2025, for Fellowships commencing February 2026. Further information, the application form and the terms and conditions can be found here.
About the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships:
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. From 2007 the fellowship was known as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship; between 2014 and 2023 the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship; and in 2025 became the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships. The new name for the Fellowships is in honour of author Kevin Ireland (1933–2023), who was himself one of the inaugural Sargeson Fellows in 1987, and writer and scholar Phillip Wilson (1922–2001), a long-time friend of Frank Sargeson.
Sargeson Fellowship recipients over the years have included Charlotte Grimshaw, Catherine Chidgey, Paula Morris, James George, Hera Lindsay Bird, Nathan Joe and Lee Murray.
About the Frank Sargeson Trust:
The Trust was set up in 1983 by Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson’s heir and executor. The Trust aims to continue Sargeson’s lifelong generosity to writers through providing fellowships, while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New Zealand’s first literary museum.
For media enquiries about the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships,
contact: franksargesontrust@gmail.com
celebration of sargeson
6 February 2025
On 2 February 2025 at the George Fraser Gallery, the Frank Sargeson Trust held an event to celebrate Frank Sargeson and his legacy, particularly his inscription (along with his lodger Janet Frame) on UNESCO’s New Zealand Register, the Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao, and the importance of libraries and archives.
The addition of the Frank Sargeson Collection – the writer’s archive of manuscripts, notebooks and letters at the Alexander Turnbull Library – to the register was announced by Jane Wild, Chair of UNESCO Memory of the World, followed by a speech from Janet Wilson, announcing the new name for the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships.
Many past fellows, heritage librarians, council representatives, and others who have been so crucial to the Sargeson Trust and its mission, were in attendance.
New name for Sargeson Fellowship
Media release, 6 February 2025
The Sargeson Trust is delighted to announce that the 38-year-old Sargeson Fellowship will from 2026 be known as the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships. For almost four decades, the Sargeson Fellowship has supported scores of Aotearoa New Zealand writers in the memory of distinguished author and generous mentor Frank Sargeson. Under the new name, the Fellowships will continue to see two outstanding published New Zealand writers each year supported to write full-time.
The new name for the Fellowships is in honour of author Kevin Ireland (1933–2023), who was himself one of the inaugural Sargeson Fellows in 1987, and writer and scholar Phillip Wilson (1922–2001), a long-time friend of Frank Sargeson.
The Trust is hugely grateful to the many generous donors who have made, and continue to make, the Sargeson Fellowships possible. Looking ahead, the Trust expresses special gratitude to Emeritus Professor Janet Wilson, who has promised a generous level of annual contributions in honour of her late husband Kevin Ireland and her late father Phillip Wilson. The new name of the Fellowships recognises Professor Wilson’s significant offering.
Chair of the Sargeson Trust Elizabeth Aitken-Rose says, “The Fellowships will enrich and nurture Aotearoa’s evolving literature in times increasingly hostile to the arts and humanities. Since 1987, the Frank Sargeson Fellowships have allowed writers to dedicate themselves to their craft and explore ideas that might otherwise not have been possible. Janet Frame and Kevin Ireland were the inaugural Fellows. Many have since become Aotearoa’s most prominent writers. Janet Wilson’s generosity honours Kevin Ireland and Phillip Wilson, both significant in Aotearoa’s literary landscape, and continues Sargeson’s legacy of fostering the next generation of writers.”
Janet Wilson says, “I am delighted the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships will enable the Sargeson Trust to continue its important work of the last 38 years of fostering emerging New Zealand writers. It is particularly fitting because both my father, Phillip Wilson, and husband, Kevin Ireland, had strong personal ties with Frank Sargeson whose writing they admired, as well as with Chris Cole Catley, Sargeson’s executor. This association with such a seminal literary figure and with the Trust that Chris Cole Catley set up in his name, enhances my wish to memorialise their names and work through this donation.”
An announcement of the new name for the Fellowships was made on 2 February 2025 at a celebration of the Frank Sargeson Collection – the writer’s archive of manuscripts, notebooks and letters at the Alexander Turnbull Library, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington – being added to and recognised on UNESCO’s New Zealand Register, the Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao. The register celebrates “items of recorded heritage which have national significance” and “cultural and historic value”, and highlights Frank Sargeson’s work as “an appropriate language to deal with the material of New Zealand life”.
Further details about the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships, and a call for applications for 2026, will be released in September 2025.
2025 Fellows Selected
december 2024
New Zealand writers Kate Duignan and Rachael King have been awarded the prestigious 2025 Sargeson Fellowship.
The fellowship is a national literary award which for the past 37 years has offered published New Zealand writers the opportunity to focus on their craft in a sustained way. Named in memory of New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson, it offers an annual stipend of $26,000 to concentrate on a project.
Rachael King, who takes up the fellowship in March 2025, is a former literary festival director and an award-winning writer of adult and children’s fiction. Her books have been published internationally and in other languages. Her latest children’s novel, The Grimmelings, was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults this year. Rachael will work on a YA fantasy novel, Song of the Saltings, and a creative non-fiction project, part memoir, part literary criticism and part cultural history.
Rachael says, “I’m so grateful to the Frank Sargeson Trust for continuing the fellowship in 2025 even without the residency attached. Like many writers with children, I have not been able to apply for any extended residencies in the last fifteen years. This will allow me to take short writing retreats closer to home and to give my full attention to my next novel – a moody young adult fantasy – for four months, which is a real gift. That it is in Frank Sargeson’s name makes it very special to me indeed. I also appreciate that the Trust has seen fit to support writing for our rangatahi, who need good stories now more than ever.”
Kate Duignan writes fiction and currently teaches at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her work includes two novels, and the most recent – The New Ships – was shortlisted in the 2019 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in various journals. She will use the award in the latter part of the year to develop her third novel, set in Canada and New Zealand.
Kate says, “I’m thrilled to be awarded the illustrious Frank Sargeson Fellowship, which will let me take a break from teaching and work on a new novel next year. It feels like a big endorsement of a fledgling start to the book to receive this. There’s a long list of remarkable writers who have held this fellowship, and I’m honoured to have my name there. It’s especially helpful to have a fellowship that lets me stay in Pōneke with my young family.”
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 nearly 40 years. In 2025, Kate Duignan and Rachael King join this legacy and were selected from an incredibly strong and passionate field of applicants. The fellowship will give them the time and support to focus on work that will undoubtedly embellish the imagination and understandings of us all.”
About the Sargeson Fellowship:
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. In 2007 the fellowship became the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, and between 2014 and 2023 was the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship under the sponsorship of law firm Grimshaw & Co. Sargeson Fellowship recipients over the years have included Charlotte Grimshaw, Catherine Chidgey, Paula Morris, James George, Hera Lindsay Byrd, Nathan Joe and Lee Murray.
For media enquiries about the 2025 Sargeson Fellowship,
contact: franksargesontrust@gmail.com
Ceiling repairs at Frank’s place
October 2024
Following the roof repairs to the Frank Sargeson House that were made during the summer of 2023–24, ensuring the house was now watertight, the Sargeson Trust was able to crack on with remediating previous water damage to the ceiling.
The house was thoroughly dried out, the damaged parts of the ceiling removed, and a new ceiling installed.
These repairs were made possible by, and the Trust is deeply grateful to, the Auckland Council Regional Historic Heritage Grants Programme.
UNESCO Recognition for Frank Sargeson
September 2024
The Frank Sargeson Collection of manuscripts, drafts, notebooks and photographs at the Alexander Turnbull Library was recognised on UNESCO’s New Zealand Register, the Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao. The register celebrates “items of recorded heritage which have national significance” and “cultural and historic value”, and highlights Frank Sargeson’s work as “an appropriate language to deal with the material of New Zealand life”. Appropriately, the Hocken Collection papers of Janet Frame, a friend and tenant of Sargeson’s and the first Sargeson Fellow, were inscribed on to the register at the same time.
Roof repairs at Sargeson House
January 2024
Over the summer of 2023–24 the Frank Sargeson House saw repairs made to some internal fittings and the roof. The Sargeson Trust is very grateful for assistance from the Regional Historic Heritage Grants Programme towards this work, which will ensure the house stays weathertight and its historic content protected.
© 2023 Frank Sargeson Trust. About this website.
Frank Sargeson 