You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Jenni Fagan and essa may ranapiri selected for inaugural Island to Island exchange
Scottish author Jenni Fagan and New Zealand poet essa may ranapiri have been chosen to participate in the inaugural Island to Island exchange.
The exchange, run by creative writing agency Moniack Mhor in Scotland and the Verb Wellington festival in New Zealand, “sends writers from Aotearoa and Scotland to the other side of the world to inspire their creative work and strengthen the literary ties between the two island nations.”
The organisations received more than 75 applications for the inaugural residency exchange, offered in collaboration with British Council New Zealand and the Pacific, and Edinburgh International Book Festival.
As part of the exchange, ranapiri will travel to Scotland to join Fagan in an associated event at Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, before travelling to Moniack Mhor for a three-week residency. Meanwhile Fagan will travel to Aotearoa in October to take up a two-week residency in Wellington, and appear in an event with ranapiri at Verb Readers & Writers Festival in early November.
Poet essa may ranapiri (Ngaati Raukawa ki te Tonga, Te Arawa, Ngaati Puukeko, Clan Gunn) has two collections of poetry: ransack (2019) and ECHIDNA (2022), both published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. In 2023, ranapiri was the recipient of the Janet Frame Poetry Award and the inaugural Keri Hulme Award. They are co-editor of the literary journal Kupu Toi Takataapui with Michelle Rahurahu.
Fagan, a poet, novelist and screenwriter, has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists after the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon (Windmill Books; 2012), which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize.
The Sunlight Pilgrims (Windmill Books; 2016), her second novel, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award and the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award, and saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. In 2022, Polygon published Fagan’s most recent novel, Hex, and The Bone Library, a new poetry collection written during her time as a Writer in Residence at the Dick Vet Bone Library.
Moniack Mhor centre director Rachel Humphries said: “This is the first time Moniack Mhor and Verb Wellington have collaborated and it’s brilliant to be able to create this global link for essa may ranapiri and Jenni Fagan. Cultural exchange opportunities like this can have a fascinating impact on new work and offer unique experiences for audiences. We’re delighted to be hosting essa at the centre in September and hope we can forge paths in the future to build upon this exciting new partnership.”
“This is such a wonderful opportunity to visit the whenua [land] of my Scottish ancestors and connect with amazing writers from across the globe. I will be writing new work that weaves my disparate strands of whakapapa [genealogy] together, layer them if you will,” ranapiri said.
Fagan said: “The Verb Wellington residency is an absolutely amazing opportunity as a writer to interconnect with a great NZ writer and travel to New Zealand to immerse myself in this residency, I am so grateful to get the chance to do this and I know it will allow me to produce a totally new piece of work.”
The Island to Island project is supported by British Council New Zealand and Pacific. Natasha Beckman, director Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific, said: “We are thrilled to be supporting this initiative to draw closer ties between the literatures of Scotland and Aotearoa. We look forward to meeting the residents and learning how this exchange propels their writing.”
Verb founder Claire Mabey added: “The caliber of applications was incredibly high. It’s a sign of how needed residencies are: that time to write and refresh is crucial for good art.”
Further information on the residency can be found here.
