
Rachel O’Neill will take up the Robert Burns Fellowship and Jeremy Beck (Ngāi Tahu) will take up the Caroline Plummer Fellowship in Community Dance.
They will receive a stipend for one year and six months respectively, and space on campus to pursue their creative projects.
University of Otago Te Kete Aronui Division of Humanities pro-vice-chancellor Prof Hugh Campbell said in a statement the formidable career output of O’Neill and Beck showed the "extraordinary strength of creative talent Aotearoa has to offer".
Prof Campbell also acknowledged that the College of Education Children’s Writer in Residence fellowship, Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and Mozart Fellowship remained paused for 2026.
"We continue to seek further community and philanthropic support to build the trust funds for all fellowships to a place of secure and ongoing resilience."
• 2026 Robert Burns Fellow — Rachel O’Neill
Poet, film-maker, and artist Rachel O’Neill said they were excited to relocate to Ōtepoti from Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington to undertake the 12-month fellowship.
"The Robert Burns Fellowship supports writers to be bold, imaginative and maybe an extra bit courageous, too, to discover new capabilities through doing things differently, or doing different things," O’Neill said.
"Receiving the fellowship means I can continue to devote passion and energy to my next books, public programmes and collaborations."
An author of three published books, with numerous other projects in development, O’Neill said living and working in Ōtepoti would provide vital inspiration, particularly by participating in the local arts community.
During their fellowship, they plan to develop the remaining narrative poems and prose poems in their fourth book of poetry, Master of the Female Half-Lengths, as well as begin to outline and conduct research for their fifth book, a verse novel called Captured Stars, set in planetaria around the world.

Contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer Jeremy Beck (Ngāi Tahu) is honoured to receive the fellowship, and grateful such an opportunity exists in Ōtepoti.
"To be able to do this work in my hometown feels incredibly meaningful — it’s not just a personal milestone, but a chance to deeply share, exchange and grow alongside my family, friends and the Dunedin dance community," he said.
Beck has more than a decade of professional experience within the Australian and Aotearoa dance industry.
A Distinguished Graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, he has performed and choreographed for leading dance companies including Footnote New Zealand Dance, The New Zealand Dance Company, and Atamira Dance Company.
During the fellowship, Beck will be facilitating a multi-faceted, community-focused contemporary dance programme titled Momentum.
This will include a series of accessible workshops, open classes, and performance events "where music and dance collide in unique ways". — Allied Media