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 at the Sargeson Centre.
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 at the Sargeson Centre, adjacent to the University of 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".
2012 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows
Two leading New Zealand fiction writers have been announced as the recipients of the annual Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship for 2012.
The two new fellows, David Lyndon Brown and Anna Taylor, will each spend five months in residence at the Sargeson Centre in central Auckland and receive a $20,000 grant.
Buddle Findlay National Chairman Peter Chemis says the fellowship continues to play a key role in developing New Zealand’s literary talent.
“We offer our congratulations to David and Anna and, as with so many high quality fellows who have gone before them, we’re sure they’ll make great use of the freedom from distractions the Sargeson Centre provides,” he said.
Anna Taylor completed a MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2006. Her writing has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies including Sport, Turbine, and The Penguin Book of New Zealand Short Stories (2009).
Anna’s first collection of short stories, Relief, was published by Victoria University Press in 2009 and won the 2010 NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book Award for Fiction.
"I feel incredibly privileged to be given this opportunity,” said Ms Taylor.
“Time and money are the two major obstacles when it comes to fitting writing into my life. This fellowship eases the financial pressure, as well as providing space and solitude to get words down on paper,” she said.
Ms Taylor said she would spend her time at the Sargeson Centre writing the second draft of a collection of three linked novellas.
David Lyndon Brown studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts from 1969 under the tutorage of Colin McCahon. He is the author of Calling the Fish and Other Stories (2001 University of Otago Press), Marked Men (2007 Titus Books) and Skin Hunger (2009 Titus Books).
David has also taught expressive writing to various groups including the elderly, mental health patients, recovering addicts, Maori and Pacifica writers and at the University of Auckland's Centre for Continuing Education.
Mr Brown said he is excited and honoured to have been awarded the fellowship.
“It’s every writer’s dream – an oasis of time. I have several projects in mind, some of which have been simmering for a while, and a recent trip to Samoa has also stirred something. When I am writing I become totally immersed and this fellowship will allow me the freedom to plunge with no distractions or diversions,” said Mr Brown.
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.
- 2012 David Lyndon Brown and Anna Taylor
- 2011 Sue Orr and Mark Broatch
- 2010 Sonja Yelich and Sarah Laing
- 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
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: 09 445 6953
More information
For more information on the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship, please contact:
Davina Harper, Marketing Manager
Email sargesonfellowship@buddlefindlay.com or telephone 09 363 0650