2014 GRIMSHAW SARGESON FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCED

AUCKLAND, 12 March 2014; The Frank Sargeson Trust has announced New Zealand writers Bianca Zander and Alice Miller as the recipients of the 2014 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship.

The new fellows will take up residence at the Frank Sargeson Centre in Auckland for a period of four months each between April and November 2014.

Bianca Zander (below left -photo by Jane Ussher) and Alice Miller (right, photo Dylan Whiting) take the total number of writers awarded the Fellowship to 50.  Distinguished writer Janet Frame and noted New Zealand poet Kevin Ireland were the first to be awarded the Fellowship in 1987.

"The Trust congratulates both Bianca and Alice on being awarded the 2014 Fellowship," says Elizabeth Aitken Rose, Chair of the Sargeson Trust. "They were selected from a strong field of applicants and join a distinguished group of previous fellows, many of whom are recognised today as New Zealand's most eminent writers."

"The Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship is recognised as offering writers time and space to write, often at a critical time in their writing career.  We know that both Bianca and Alice have specific objectives for their time in residence.  We are confident the Fellowship will support them to achieve their goals and help take their writing to the next level."

Bianca Zander is the author of The Girl Below (2012) which was a semi-finalist in the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award (United States) and was recognised as the Sunday Star Times Top NZ Read of 2012.  She was the recipient of the Creative New Zealand Louis Johnson New Writer's Bursary in 2012 and is a successful screenwriter and journalist.  Zander lectures in Creative Writing and AUT University and is a script assessor for the NZ Film Commission. She will finish her new book The Predictions (due to be published in 2015) during her time at the Sargeson Centre.

Alice Miller is currently based between New Zealand and Vienna. She recently completed the Michael King Writers' Centre summer residency, and her first book The Limits was published this month. Miller has been previously been awarded the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award, the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize and a Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She will work on her second book while in residence at the Sargeson Centre.

The Sargeson Fellowship was established 28 years ago to commemorate Frank Sargeson and provide assistance to New Zealand writers.  It offers outstanding writers the opportunity to write full-time, free from financial pressure using the Sargeson Centre adjacent to the University of Auckland.  The fellows are also supported by an annual stipend.  Any published New Zealand writer can apply for the Fellowship.

Previous winners include: Gregory O'Brien, Alan Duff, Elspeth Sandys, Michael King, Marilyn Duckworth, Kapka Kassabova, Shonagh Koea, Catherine Chidgey, Charlotte Grimshaw, Toa Fraser, Fiona Samuels, Emily Perkins, Paula Morris, Steve Braunias, Sonja Yelich and Mark Broatch. A full list of fellows can be provided by the Frank Sargeson Trust.

About the Frank Sargeson Trust

The Frank Sargeson Trust was formed in 1983 by Dame Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson's heir and executor.  The Trust aims to continue Sargeson's lifelong generosity to writers through providing residential fellowships while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New Zealand's first literary museum.  The first fellowship was awarded to Janet Frame in 1987.

About Grimshaw & Co

Grimshaw & Co is a litigation and dispute resolution practice, best known for representing clients affected by leaky homes and leaking buildings.  It also acts for the victims of the Christchurch earthquakes in claims against insurance companies.  Established in 2005, Grimshaw & Co have offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.