Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

What can you write?
The residency is open to creative writers across all genres including fiction, children's fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and playwriting.

What do we cover?
The residency provides:

• A grant of $43,000 to cover all costs including travel to Menton, insurance, living and accommodation costs. $23,000 is paid when your itinerary and insurance is confirmed, with $10,000 payments usually made in month two and three of the residency, assuming the Fellow remains in residency through this period.
• A room beneath the terrace of Villa Isola Bella is available for use as a study. Accommodation is not available at the villa. Fellows make their own accommodation arrangements, often with advice from a previous Fellow. Katherine Mansfield spent long periods at Villa Isola Bella in 1919 and 1920 after she contracted tuberculosis. The climate in southern France was thought to be beneficial to her health.

History of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
For over fifty years, since 1970, the Fellowship has allowed a New Zealand writer to live and write for three months or more in Menton in southern France. There, they have access to the writing room in Villa Isola Bella where Katherine Mansfield once lived and worked.

Previous recipients include Paula Morris, Carl Nixon, Kate Camp, Anna Jackson, Mandy Hager, Greg McGee, Justin Paton, Chris Price, Ken Duncum, Damien Wilkins, Jenny Pattrick, Stuart Hoar, Dame Fiona Kidman, Ian Wedde and other prestigious writers such as Bill Manhire, Janet Frame, Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth Knox, Lloyd Jones, Roger Hall, Marilyn Duckworth, Michael King and Allen Curnow.

The Fellowship is now managed by the Arts Foundation with the support of an Advisory Committee that includes members of the Winn-Manson Menton Trust.

To be eligible for the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship you must:

• be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident who has lived continuously in New Zealand for three years prior to making the application (this requirement excludes any short trips out of the country)
• be a professional practising writer with a record of achievement
• have the ability to produce a work of substantial literary quality if awarded the Fellowship
• have the potential to be an ambassador for New Zealand and for New Zealand literature.

The recipients of the Fellowship will be required to:

• conduct themselves in an appropriate manner and have the self-reliance and resourcefulness to cope with an overseas residency.
• liaise with contacts and maintain the goodwill of all those involved with the Fellowship, especially in Menton (for example, cooperate with any reasonable requirements from the Menton City Council).
• ensure there is a printed acknowledgement in any published work that results from the tenure of the Fellowship.
• attend any Fellowship ceremonies and take part in media interviews, publicity and promotion associated with the Fellowship. The recipient will also have an artist profile page on the Arts Foundation website, www.thearts.co.nz.
• If asked, make one public appearance on behalf of the Fellowship. This may include participating in a Festival or other special event.
• arrange accommodation and travel.
• insure against sickness, accident and death occurring while overseas and provide a receipt for the premium prior to departure.

We would also be grateful if you:

• would participate in social activities to promote any sponsor, partner or supporter of the Arts Foundation and/or the Fellowship and the Fellowship itself.
• keep in touch with the Arts Foundation team and send appropriate content such as photographs, writing excerpts or content for social media and our website from time to time.

What we are trying to achieve
The primary aim of the residency is for the writer to work on a project in a new environment, and to complete, or make substantial progress with, a body of writing during the residency.

Other goals include:

• Developing the potential of the writer through exposure to new cultures and new ideas.
• An increased awareness in France of New Zealand literature.

How we select
Your application will be assessed by an independent panel chaired by a non-voting member of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship Advisory Committee of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

The selection panel will assess which application best demonstrates one or more of the following:

• how the Fellowship will develop the career of a writer whose work has already made a considerable impact, or
• how the Fellowship will contribute to a new career direction for a senior writer
• whether the Fellowship is an opportunity for a successful writer who has had little previous opportunity to travel
• the likely impact the residency will have on the writer’s work
• how the writer will contribute to the promotion and continuance of the Fellowship.