Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

The Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, formerly known as the New Zealand Post Katherine Mansfield Prize and the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, is one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards. Named after Katherine Mansfield, one of New Zealand's leading historical writers, the award gives winners ("fellows", whether male or female) funding towards transport to and accommodation in Menton, France, where Mansfield did some of her best-known and most significant writing.[1][2]

Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
Awarded forNew Zealand writer with record of literary achievement
LocationMenton, France
Country New Zealand
Presented byArts Foundation of New Zealand
Reward(s)Grant of NZ$35,000 to cover travel and living costs
First awarded1970 (1970)
Websitewww.thearts.co.nz/awards/katherine-mansfield-menton-fellowship

Overview

The fellowship is awarded to New Zealand citizens and residents whose fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction, children’s fiction or playwriting has had "favourable impact".[3] Unlike the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, which are the best-known New Zealand literary awards, the fellowship is awarded to an individual to develop their future work, rather than for a specific already-published work.[3][4]

In addition to funding towards transport and accommodation, fellows are given access to a room beneath the terrace of the Villa Isola Bella for use as a study.[5] Mansfield spent long periods at the Villa Isola Bella in 1919 and 1920 after she contracted tuberculosis, and did some of her most significant work there. The climate in southern France was thought to be beneficial to her health.[3]

The fellowship is managed by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand with the support of an advisory committee that includes members of the Winn-Manson Menton Trust.[3][5][6]

History

The fellowship was conceived in the late 1960s by New Zealand writer Celia Manson and arts patron Sheilah Winn. Manson and her husband had visited the Villa Isola Bella where Mansfield did some of her most significant writing (including the short stories "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", "The Stranger" and "Life of Ma Parker"), and discovered that a room on the lower level where she worked was derelict and not in use.[1] Manson and Winn decided to set up a fellowship for New Zealand authors, and formed a committee in Wellington to raise funds. Their vision was "to give a selected New Zealand writer a period of leisure to write or study ... [in] a different and more ancient culture, and thereby to see [their] own remote country in a better perspective".[1][7][5] The Winn-Mason Menton Trust was established, and the first recipient was poet Owen Leeming in 1970.[8]

The fellowship was first sponsored by Meridian Energy, and from 2007 to 2011 by the New Zealand Post. From 2012 to 2014, Creative New Zealand contributed a yearly grant.[9] Over the years the fellowship also received funding from both the French and New Zealand governments. The Katherine Mansfield Room at the Villa Isola Bella was furnished by the City of Menton for the fellows' use.[1] In 2015, a fundraising campaign overseen by the Winn-Mason Menton Trust and a volunteer campaign committee raised NZ$730,000 to ensure the fellowship's long-term survival and that it would no longer be dependent on sponsorship.[7]

The fellowship has been awarded to a number of well-known New Zealand authors. In 2000, the Victoria University Press published As Fair as New Zealand to Me, a collection of the memories of twenty-three fellows, written in the form of letters to Mansfield.[10] Janet Frame set her novel, In the Memorial Room (2013), in Menton, telling the fictional story of a writer on a poetry fellowship.[7]

Recipients

The writers to have held the fellowship are listed below:

References
  1. Mortelier, Christine; Robinson, Roger (2006). "Mansfield Fellowship, The". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. "Applications open for the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in the lead up to its 50th year". Creative NZ. Arts Council NZ. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  3. "Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship". Arts Foundation. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  4. "Creative and Intellectual Life - Arts and Society - Awards and prizes - Page 2". Te Ara - The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Government. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  5. Manson, Bess (23 August 2020). "Writing with the ghost of Katherine Mansfield". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  6. "A new future for Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship". The Big Idea. Te Aria Nui Charitable Trust. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  7. Catherall, Sarah (5 November 2015). "Katherine Mansfield Fellowship saved by a literary whip-round". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  8. Derby, Mark. "Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship winners, 1970–2015 (3rd of 3)". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  9. "Bursaries, fellowships, scholarships and residencies". Creative New Zealand. Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  10. As Fair as New Zealand to Me. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-8647-3398-6. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
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