Victor Rodger remembers his Burns year: ‘I was a virtual prose virgin until I took up the Burns. Theatre, television, film – they are disciplines I knew – but prose and I were more or less strangers until we started to make each other’s acquaintance at Otago. My first piece of short fiction – the beginning of something that I imagined would become longer – was published in “Landfall” under the title “Skip to the End”. The following year it was re-christened “Like Shinderella” and is included in the acclaimed Maori/Pacifica anthology, “Black Marks on the White Page”. Right towards the end of my residency I began to sketch out potential short stories for a future collection. That initial idea has grown into, Warmish Pacific Greetings, a collection of short stories which deal with two of my favourite topics: sex and race.’]]>
Edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti]]> Books]]>

Poet, novelist, and current editor of the literary and art magazine, Landfall, Emma Neale remembers her tenure:
My year as a Burns Fellow helped me to intensify my concentration, pull together a book of poems, realise that one novel idea I had was in fact better played out as a short story; and it enabled me to write three-quarters of the first draft of a novel. Attending poetry seminars and guest lectures changed the course of several of the pieces I was working on – so having close contact with academics, critics, and graduate students who were writing new poetry themselves all helped to add intellectual and creative nutrients to the work I was doing. It was immeasurably enriching and helpful.’

The novel, Billy Bird, is one of the publications to come out of the year, as well as the poetry collection, Tender Machines (2015) and the short story, ‘The Fylgja’.]]>
Emma Neale]]> Books]]>

In a letter from Robert Lord to Jeff Kirkus-Lamont, dated 4th February, 1989, Lord recalled his tenure as Fellow. He listed his activities as follows: The play, The Affair, was completed and performed in Dunedin, Wellington, and Palmerston North; China Wars, a play, occupied much of Lord’s time and was performed in Wellington, Christchurch, and at time of writing, was being rehearsed in New York; a radio play, The Body in the Park, was completed and purchased by Radio New Zealand; the play, Bert and Maisy, was recorded, broadcast, and subsequently published; Country Cops, was revised, published in New York in 1989, and staged in Vermont the same year; and also he organised a Dunedin Playwrights Workshop at the Globe Theatre. A busy year for someone whose intention was to escape the ‘rat race’ of New York.]]>
Robert Lord]]> Books]]>

Cilla McQueen describes in her own words her tenure as Burns Fellow: ‘The Fellowship gave me carte blanche, I assumed, to stretch the bounds of the poetry I knew. In 1985, joyful collaboration with local musicians produced improvised theatre pieces such as “A Maniac at the Joystick” at Allen Hall. A solo performance, “Shocks and Ripples”, was directed by Lisa Warrington. A Fulbright Writer’s Fellowship took me to Stanford University for a month-long conversation on radio drama with Martin Esslin.
In 1986, a “Spinal Fusion Diary” linked words with drawings. “Fancy Numbers” at Marama Hall incorporated half a piano, a drama class and two performance artists, the score a series of drawings of Otago Peninsula. “Bad Bananas”, with guitarists Ali Mcdougall and Jim Taylor, enjoyed several outings. Some poems and songs from these years found a place in “Wild Sweets” (1986) and “Benzina”
.’]]>
Cilla McQueen]]> Books]]>

James Norcliffe reflects on his time as Burns Fellow: ‘I look back with considerable delight to my time as Burns Fellow. It seems, in retrospect, a magic time. The English faculty was welcoming and friendly as was the wider Dunedin literary community. I made many friends during my stay, and grew to love the city and its surrounds. The short walk through the botanical gardens from Knox [College] to my room at the University each morning was always a pleasure.
It was a most productive year. I did complete my designated project, a novel, “Nodding Donkeys”, but was not really satisfied with it (neither was my agent), and never sought publication. I completed a fantasy novel, “The Assassin of Gleam” which went on to win the Julius Vogel Award, and I wrote many poems, the bulk of which were collected into my fifth collection, “Along Blueskin Road” (2005). Incidentally, during my walks through the gardens I came upon a loblolly pine and this prompted my subsequent fantasy novel, “The Loblolly Boy”
.’]]>
James Norcliffe]]> Books]]>

Although he was born in Christchurch, Peter Olds has been living in Dunedin since the mid-1960s. He met James K. Baxter in the city, and the older poet influenced him and his work, as did other former Burns Fellows, such as Hone Tuwhare and Janet Frame. Olds was first published in 1972, when Lady Moss Revived came out of Caveman Press; Lawrence Jones, in Nurse to the Imagination, describes him as ‘an anti-elitist poet of the youth culture’. Olds’s tenure as Burns Fellow in 1978 was a one-term stint, and some of the poems included in Beethoven’s Guitar were written during his time at Otago. Olds has been described in recent years as a ‘living legend’; he continues to live and work in the city.]]>
Peter Olds]]> Books]]>

Poet, Louise Wallace, has a Masters in Creative Writing from Victoria University, Wellington, and has been published in various international literary journals.
She remembers her tenure: ‘The Burns year was a much needed re-ignition for my work. I had become very stuck and lost all momentum while having to work full time for the few years before it. Suddenly, having so much time to read, think, and write, really opened the pathways again. The year ultimately resulted in my third collection of poems, “Bad Things”, as well as the beginning of “Starling”, an online literary journal publishing work by New Zealand writers under 25 years old - now up to its sixth issue.’]]>
Louise Wallace]]> Books]]>

Alison Wong remembers her Burns tenure:
I loved my year as Burns Fellow. The Fellowship gave financial support but also encouragement and recognition at a time when I had yet to publish a book. Dunedin and Otago/Southland entered into the novel I was writing (“As the Earth Turns Silver”, above) and into poems published in my collection, “Cup” (2006). I am grateful to the many people who helped in my research whether academics or other experts in their fields, and thankful for the warmth of the welcome and enduring friendships. I have a deep affection for this intimate and beautiful city.’
Wong’s novel, As the Earth Turns Silver, won the Fiction Award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2010.]]>
Alison Wong]]> Books]]>

Nick Ascroft recalls his tenure as Burns Fellow: ‘My six-month tenure…the best job I ever had, but also the hardest. I swanned in, and Alison Wong showed me around the office she was vacating. There was a ceremonial passing of a mug. I was there to write poems. John Dolan had helped advocate my application to the panel, the story going that he ranted my WINZ poem, “Means Testicles”, to win them around.
What I ended up working on was my novel. The back of my first poetry collection (2000) had mentioned “he is working on a novel”. These words have haunted the interceding years. Three years later, I was redrafting the first tentative chapter on the Burns office iMac. I also had the Scrabble Maven app, and that’s what 2003 represented more, my deep dive into the world of NZ competitive Scrabble. I am still in the top 20 of NZ players.’
Ascroft finished the novel. As Long as Rain, science fiction set in Southland, was published this year.]]>
Nick Ascroft]]> Books]]>

By the time Michael King became Robert Burns Fellow (his tenure would run for a year and a half), he had been writing full time for twenty years. He had already published the biographies of three prominent New Zealanders – Te Puea Herangi, Dame Whina Cooper, and Frank Sargeson. He came to Dunedin for the Fellowship with three years of research on Janet Frame ‘up his sleeve’, and her permission to write her biography. And, this he did – the quintessential Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame (2000). The follow up work, Inward Sun, was published in 2002. Here is a photo of the Burns Fellows Reunion in 1998. King is there (second row, third from left) and so is Frame (front row, second from left). During his career, King gained the moniker of ‘People’s Historian’, and rightly so.]]>
Michael King]]> Books]]>

It is a fitting juxtaposition that this volume, After Anzac Day, by the first Robert Burns Fellow, Ian Cross, comes from the Charles Brasch Collection, held in Special Collections. Cross had an established reputation with The God Boy (1958) and The Backward Sex (1960) when he arrived in Dunedin to take up the Fellowship in 1959. At that time, the English Department was housed in a ‘two-storey wooden building’. During his tenure, Cross realised he could not financially sustain his growing family, and could not be a full-time writer. Subsequently, through his working life, he had an eclectic career in editorships and management positions; writing both fiction and journalism; and broadcasting for radio and television.]]>
Ian Cross]]> Books]]>

Maurice Gee grew up in Henderson, then a rural part of West Auckland, and it was this place, his boyhood home, that informed many of his future novels. In Dunedin, in June 1959, Gee intimated to Charles Brasch that he would like to hold the Robert Burns Fellowship, ‘to enable him to work on another novel’. Gee applied for 1961 but was unsuccessful; his first novel, The Big Season, was published in 1962. In his Burns year, Gee began writing his second novel, A Special Flower, which was published in 1965. In his ongoing career, Gee wrote for both children and adults in over 30 novels. He has received the most literary awards of any author in New Zealand.]]>
Maurice Gee]]> Books]]>

Janet Frame was the first woman to take up the Robert Burns Fellowship; she had been invited to do so. Charles Brasch wrote in two journal entries for July 1965 that his friend Janet wrote to ‘live’ and to ‘escape’. And write she did. During the year, she finished the manuscripts for Adaptable Man (1965), and State of Siege (1966); and wrote 100,000 words for The Rainbirds. She also wrote 60 of the poems included in A Pocket Mirror. Two of the poems from said volume have distinct Burnsian and Dunedin themes respectively. Note Brasch’s comments in pencil.]]>
Janet Frame]]> Books]]>

Owen Marshall describes his Burns year: ‘Holding the Burns Fellowship in 1992 was a privilege and a pleasure. The assured income, amenities and support gave me the opportunity to complete my first published novel, “A Many Coated Man”, which was subsequently short listed for the Montana Book Awards.
Important as the financial assistance is, the validation of one’s craft is more significant and lasting. As well as assisting my writing, my tenure brought with it the benefit of being within the fraternity of Otago writers and artists, many of whom are friends. Whenever I now visit Dunedin and the university, I recall my good fortune to have been a Burns Fellow.’]]>
Owen Marshall]]> Books]]>

Craig Cliff came to Dunedin with two books under his belt – the novel, The Mannequin Makers (2013), and the story collection, A Man Melting, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2011. During his Burns year he worked on a novel that involved two weeks research in Italy; wrote reviews, stories and essays; indulged his interest in recurrent neural networks, collaborating with Lech Szymanski from Otago’s Computer Science Faculty to develop ‘found poetry’ from Dunedin Sound lyrics; and attended a range of seminars and hui. He described his Burns tenure as ‘a blessing’. Cliff currently lives in Wellington where he is putting the finishing touches on his next novel and working for the Ministry of Education.]]>
Craig Cliff]]> Books]]>
Otago Daily Times]]> Otago Daily Times]]> Newspapers]]>
Like Janet Frame, James K. Baxter was Dunedin-born. His parents and extended family still lived in the city and surrounding area. His acceptance as Burns Fellow was a kind of homecoming after 20 years away, and he made the most of his two years. Baxter wrote about 90 poems and numerous plays; he gave lectures and wrote essays; he took part in protests of the Vietnam War, and spoke out against the University’s stance on mixed flatting in A Small Ode on Mixed Flatting. Lectures he gave during his tenure were printed in The Man on the Horse (1967). Here is James Bertram’s review of the work. In his own words, Baxter said ‘on the whole, I think I made an exemplary Burns Fellow.’]]>
James Bertram]]> The New Zealand Listener]]]> Periodicals]]>
Cilla McQueen]]> Books]]>