Kidman Otago's Irish Writing Fellow

Wellington author Dame Fiona Kidman  has been appointed as the University of Otago’s inaugural Irish Writing Fellow.

Dame Fiona (80), of Irish descent, will later this year become the inaugural recipient of the Otago Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies Irish Writers Fellowship.

Her most recent novel, This Mortal Boy, was based on a true account of Irish immigrant Albert Black, the penultimate prisoner executed in New Zealand, a University of Otago spokeswoman said.