BUDDLE FINDLAY SARGESON FELLOWSHIP

About the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship

The Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship is a national literary fellowship offered annually in partnership with The Frank Sargeson Trust. The fellowship provides the opportunity each year for an outstanding published New Zealand writer to write full-time in residence (from February to December) at the Sargeson Centre in central Auckland, with an annual stipend of NZ$40,000.

The Frank Sargeson Trust established the fellowship in 1987, to commemorate Frank Sargeson and provide assistance for New Zealand writers. Frank Sargeson was influential not only through his writing, but also as a friend and mentor to other writers.

In 1997 Buddle Findlay became the commercial sponsor of the fellowship, and is proud to support the literary future of New Zealand.

Buddle Findlay National Chairman, Peter Chemis, says the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship is about giving New Zealand writers the freedom to craft their stories.  “It has given creative space to some of our most notable writers, allowing them time to develop and polish their ideas into works that can become part of our cultural heritage.  “Being a writer is not an easy task.  In many cases it requires purpose and self sacrifice.  Our involvement with the fellowship acknowledges this.”

Frank Sargeson

Described as one of New Zealand's greatest literary innovators and mentor to the literary community, Frank Sargeson was a novelist and short story writer who became internationally known as the pioneer who broke from colonial literary traditions to an idiom that expressed the rhythms of New Zealand speech and experience. He qualified as a lawyer before committing himself to full-time writing and a day-to-day struggle which he described as "physically, mentally and financially exhausting".

Julian Novitz takes up Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship

Julian Novitz, the award-winning short fiction and novel writer, took up his residency at the Sargeson Centre alongside Auckland University on 1 July 2009.

Novitz, one of the joint winners of this year's Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, will be using his five-month residency at the Sargeson Centre apartment to work on the second draft of a novel, as well as completing several further short stories.

His first book, My Real Life and other stories (Random House, 2004), won the New Zealand Society of Authors Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2005.  His story Three Couples won the 2008 Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award late last year.

Holocaust Tours (Random House, 2006) was Novitz's first novel, and his work has also appeared in several editions of The Best New Zealand Fiction.

As part of the Fellowship, Novitz and this year's other winner, Steve Braunias, each receive a $20,000 grant, allowing them to write full time while using the apartment.

Steve Braunias is a writer, columnist and winner of numerous journalism awards, including the 2006 Qantas Fellowship at the New Zealand Qantas (Print) Media Awards.  His weekly column appears in the Sunday Star-Times and his book of selected columns, Fool's Paradise, won Best First Book of Non-fiction at the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Steve has since written 3 more books; How to watch a bird (2007), Roosters I Have Known (2008) and Fish of the Week: Selected Columns (2008), all published by Awa Press.  He is also a contributor to TV One's Eating Media Lunch and The Unauthorised History of New Zealand.

Buddle Findlay National Chairman, Peter Chemis, says both writers are following a tradition that has seen many of New Zealand's most distinguished authors use the distraction-free space and facilities that the apartment offers.

"Having sponsored the Fellowship since 1997, we are delighted at the contribution we have been able to make towards New Zealand's constantly developing literary tradition, which is such an important element in our cultural identity."

The Sargeson Fellowship was established in 1987 to commemorate Frank Sargeson and provide assistance for New Zealand writers.  It aims to offer outstanding writers the opportunity to write full time, free from financial pressure.

Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows

The inaugural Sargeson Fellow was the distinguished novelist, short story writer and poet Janet Frame, who had a close friendship with Frank Sargeson. The importance of this friendship to Janet Frame's personal and literary life is clear from her account of the time she spent with Frank Sargeson in the second volume of her autobiography, An Angel At My Table.

Janet Frame was succeeded as Sargeson Fellow by the noted New Zealand poet, Kevin Ireland, who was also a close friend of Sargeson. The Sargeson Fellowship was subsequently awarded to writers such as Alan Duff, Elspeth Sandys, Michael King and Marilyn Duckworth.

• 2009 Steve Braunias and Julian Novitz
• 2008 Brigid Lowry and Paula Morris
• 2007 James George
• 2006 Emily Perkins
• 2005 Fiona Samuel and Peter Cox 
• 2004 Karyn Hay and Craig Marriner
• 2003 Toa Fraser and Debra Daley
• 2002 Riemke Ensing and Denis Baker
• 2001 Vivienne Plumb and Chad Taylor
• 2000 Sue Reidy, James Brown and Charlotte Grimshaw
• 1999 Tina Shaw and Kapka Kassabova
• 1998 Catherine Chidgey and Sarah Quigley
• 1997 Shonagh Koea and Diane Brown

NBR 2007 Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts

Buddle Findlay was declared Overall Winner at the National Business Review 2007 Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts on Wednesday 16 September 2007.

The award was extra special for the firm, marking 10 years of sponsorship of the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and was presented by Prime Minister Rt Hon Helen Clark at a glittering black tie gala evening at the Auckland Town Hall.  Fittingly the event also was a celebration of the 10th year of the NBR Sponsorship of the Arts Awards.

The night included performances by Dame Malvina Major, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the New Zealand String Quartet, Southern Symphonic Brass - players from Christchurch Symphony, and an excerpt from Massive Company's acclaimed show 'Up Close. Out Loud'.

Buddle Findlay's award-winning entry consisted of a retrospective of the firm's decade-long commitment to supporting new and emerging New Zealand writers, a relationship described in the words and voices of the Fellows and Trustees themselves in a visual presentation from a DVD "This Magical Solitude" - Download DVD

Extracts from the DVD were played on two giant screens either side of the stage as the Prime Minister announced the Award.

In making the award, the judges said: "This is the 10th anniversary of a major arts partnership in which the name of Buddle Findlay has become synonymous with the Sargeson Fellowship and literary arts in general.

"The law firm is a partnership whose members are personally involved and committed in this very close relationship." 

Buddle Findlay National Chairman Peter Chemis said the Award was a huge acknowledgement of a partnership that has delivered huge dividends for all involved, not only the writers, poets and playwrights who have taken up the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, but also the Trustees of the Sargeson Trust, Buddle Findlay partners, staff and clients.

"We are extremely proud, not only of the Award we received last night, but also of the successes our Fellows have enjoyed after the opportunity to live and work at the Sargeson Centre." 

Sargeson CD

The Frank Sargeson Trust has produced a 3-CD set encapsulating the life and selected works of one of New Zealand's greatest literary innovators and mentors to the literary community, Frank Sargeson. On the CD, selected works include an abridged version of the novella, That Summer and the short story An Affair of the Heart.

The CDs are already in a number of libraries throughout New Zealand.  If you'd like to purchase your own copy or would like further information about the CD, please contact:
Graeme Lay (Secretary, Sargeson Trust)
50 Lake Road, Devonport, Auckland
Tel: 64-9-445 6953

More information

BUDDLE FINDLAY NEGOTIATION COMPETITION

The Buddle Findlay Negotiation Competition is an undergraduate law student competition.  One team of 2 law students, representing a client, negotiates either a transaction or the resolution of a dispute with an opposing team of 2 students. Each team receives a common set of facts and confidential information known only to the participants representing a particular side. They then negotiate an agreement with the other team of students who will have received the same common facts and their own confidential information.

The Buddle Findlay Negotiation Competition takes place during the first semester and will consist of a preliminary round, followed by the semi-finals and finals a day or two later.  The competition will be judged by members of the University Law Faculty, Buddle Findlay lawyers, and/or other experienced negotiation experts.