NZ Writers - Fiona Farrell

Katherine Mansfield Fellowship 1995

Fiona was awarded the 1995 Katherine Mansfield Fellowship to Menton		Katherine Mansfield Fellows 1970-2008 1970 Owen Leeming 1971 Margaret Scott 1972 CK Stead 1973 James McNeish 1974 Janet Frame 1975 David Mitchell 1976 Michael King 1977 Barry Mitcalfe 1978 Spiros Zavros 1979 Philip Temple 1980 Marilyn Duckworth 1981 Lauris Edmond 1982 Michael Jackson 1983 Allen Curnow 1984 Rowley Habib 1985 Michael Gifkins 1986 Michael Harlow 1987 Russell Hayley 1988 Louis Johnson 1989 Lloyd Jones 1990 Lisa Greenwood 1991 Nigel Cox 1992 Maurice Gee 1993 Witi Ihimaera 1994 Vincent O'Sullivan 1995 Fiona Farrell 1996 Owen Marshall 1997 Roger Hall 1998 Maurice Shadbolt 1999 Elizabeth Knox 2000 Stephanie Johnson 2001 Catherine Chidgey 2002 Jenny Bornholdt 2003 Tessa Duder 2004 Bill Manhire 2005 Ian Wedde 2006 Fiona Kidman 2007 Stuart Hoar 2008 Damien Wilkins
She writes about her experience in the collection below

	As fair as New Zealand to me : New Zealand writers in Katherine Mansfield's Menton. Victoria University 2000
This book is a celebration of the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, which since 1970 has allowed one New Zealand writer each year to live for at least four months in Menton on the French Cote d'Azur, and to write in the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Room, in the Villa Isola Bella, where in 1920 - 1 New Zealand's most famous writer spent some of the happiest and most productive months of her short life. Twenty three of the writers who have followed in Mansfield's footsteps received a long-delayed letter from her, and on 6 March 1999 their replies were heard at a standing-room-only celebration in Wellington. These very personal contributions are sensually evocative of the Menton experience and provide absorbing insights into the creative processes of some of our leading writers 'And did the journey, to use the language of an application form for another writing fellowship I saw recently, achieve the anticipated outcomes? Well, yes: the writer has walked on bare knees round and around the twisting maze which leads to the inner cell of the self, and that's the place from which the words flow. But it is not always easy to say that exactly in an official report. It's hard to describe a pilgrimage' Fiona Farrell

The Fellowship is administered by Creative New Zealand, who should be contacted for details of entry. In 2008 the sponsorship was taken over by New Zealand Post.

Rathcoola Fellowship 2006

Fiona was the recipient of the inaugural writing fellowship to Donoughmore Co Cork in Ireland

The fellowship is generously provided to NZ writers by Robin Lynch

Fiona wrote about her time at Donoughmore

“I learned such a lot during this Residency. I felt constantly intrigued, curious, excited by the place. I filled book after book with notes which I am working from at the time I write this, back here in New Zealand. Within a few weeks of our arrival in Donoughmore I had completed the novel I had thought would be the major work from the residency. In fact, I found so many other ideas pouring in that I wanted to finish it and begin on something new. I wrote a final draft in record time during the first few weeks in Donoughmore then turned to writing poetry as a way of keeping a kind of diary record of what I was experiencing daily.

I really don’t want to sound smug or complacent, but I have never written so fluently or easily before: the peace of Donoughmore, the comfort of our lives there, the constant stimulation of living in that particular place surrounded by that culture simply released me to write. It all felt so easy: like humming a tune. I can’t put it more precisely than that.”

cottage at Rathcoola

Writers at Rathcoola

2006 Fiona Farrell

2007 Bernadette Hall

2008 Catherine Chidgey


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