4 September 2025
The Frank Sargeson Trust is calling for applications from published New Zealand writers for the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships.
These prestigious Fellowships, named in memory of New Zealand writers Frank Sargeson, Kevin Ireland and Phillip Wilson, are offering in 2026 an increased stipend of $30,000, shared between two fellows, for the recipients to write full-time on book projects.
One of the 2025 recipients, award-winning writer of adult and children’s fiction Rachael King, says, “The Fellowship has been an enormous boost at a crucial time. It allowed me to write more than I have ever written before, completing work on my novel – a moody young adult fantasy – Song of the Saltings, which will be published in May next year. I also appreciate the Trust’s support for writing for our rangatahi, who need good stories now more than ever.”
The second 2025 Fellow, novelist and short-story writer Kate Duignan, has just begun her tenure and will be working on her third novel, set in Canada and New Zealand.
Elizabeth Aitken Rose, the chair of the Sargeson Trust, says, “For close to forty years, a fellowship in Frank Sargeson’s name has been a cornerstone of support for Aotearoa New Zealand’s literary community. The Trust extends its heartfelt thanks to the
Fellowships’ many generous donors, whose ongoing support continues to uphold and enrich the fellowship’s enduring legacy.”
Special gratitude goes to Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Studies Janet Wilson for particularly generous support. Professor Wilson comments, “I am delighted the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships will enable the Sargeson Trust to continue its important work of the last 38 years of fostering emerging New Zealand writers. My father, Phillip Wilson, and husband, Kevin Ireland, both had strong personal ties with Frank Sargeson, whose writing they admired, as well as with Chris Cole Catley, Sargeson’s executor.”
The Trust will no longer be offering a residency as a component of these Fellowships.
Applications close on Monday, 13 October 2025, for Fellowships commencing February 2026.
For further information, the application form, and the terms and conditions, please see:
https://franksargeson.nz/the-fellowship/
About the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships:
The inaugural Sargeson Fellow in 1987 was Janet Frame, who described the importance of Sargeson’s friendship for her personal and literary life in the second volume of her autobiography, An Angel at My Table. From 2007 the fellowship was known as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship; between 2014 and 2023 the Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship; and in 2025 became the Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships. The new name for the Fellowships is in honour of author Kevin Ireland (1933–2023), who was himself one of the inaugural Sargeson Fellows in 1987, and writer and scholar Phillip Wilson (1922–2001), a long-time friend of Frank Sargeson.
Sargeson Fellowship recipients over the years have included Charlotte Grimshaw, Catherine Chidgey, Paula Morris, James George, Hera Lindsay Bird, Nathan Joe and Lee Murray.
About the Frank Sargeson Trust:
The Trust was set up in 1983 by Christine Cole Catley, Frank Sargeson’s heir and executor. The Trust aims to continue Sargeson’s lifelong generosity to writers through providing fellowships, while preserving his house in Takapuna, Auckland, as New
Zealand’s first literary museum. For further information, see: https://franksargeson.nz/
For media enquiries about the 2026 Ireland Wilson Sargeson Fellowships, contact: franksargesontrust@gmail.com
