Dunedin
author Paddy Richardson will use an arts residency to work on
a novel about the 1981 Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand.
The 1997 Burns Fellow will start the University of Otago
Wallace Residency at the Pah Homestead, in Auckland, on April
1.
Richardson said she would use the three-month residency to
research and draft a manuscript and interview Aucklanders who
experienced the controversial tour.
The residency is a collaboration between the University of
Otago and arts patron Sir James Wallace.
Sir James said he hoped it would support and promote
contemporary New Zealand art and artists.
"[The residency is] a great way in which to extend such
challenging opportunities and broadening experiences to arts
practitioners such as writers, film-makers and composers," he
said.
The residency, which is open to University of Otago Fellows,
provides accommodation, a car and financial assistance with
projects, while the university continues to pay the Fellow's
stipend.
The new three-month residency began late last year, with the
first recipient 2010 and 2011 Mozart Fellow Christopher
Adams. The second was 2005 and 2006 Burns Fellow, Catherine
Chidgey.
Richardson's new novel, Traces of Red, will be
published in October.
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