Deadline looms for Beatson Fellowship Applications

The annual Beatson Fellowship is generously donated by Peter and Dianne Beatson and will provide the successful applicant with $7,000 and the option of one month’s residency in the Beatsons’ holiday house at Foxton Beach.
The award is open to writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama who are members of the New Zealand Society of Authors. It is envisaged that the award will be given to a mid-career or senior writer and preference will be given to applicants with a substantial literary track record of publications. For the purposes of this award, a mid-career writer is defined as having published or performed a minimum of three stand-alone works. Senior writers will have a more significant publishing history.
The closing date for applications is 30 September, and results will be announced on 12 November. Each year applications are sent to a selection panel chosen by one of the NZSA branches, and in 2011 the panel will be from the Top of the South branch.
Last year’s recipient was novelist and dramatist Carl Nixon who was awarded the Fellowship to work on a short story collection, based on the members of one family, called The Rip. Previous recipients of the Fellowship include Glenn Colquhoun, Jo Randerson and Paddy Richardson.
For an application form go to  www.authors.org.nz  or email programmes@nzauthors.org.nz
For those not interested in applying for the Beatson Fellowship, the house at Foxton Beach is still available for rent at $12 per night for NZSA and NZ Writers Guild members.
 Contact Peter Beatson for information: pbeatson@xtra.co.nz