Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence
About the residency
The Emerging Pasifika Writer's Residency was established in 2019 by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, with the support of Creative New Zealand. It runs for three months in the second half of each year, funding dependent, and includes a writing room, mentorship, and a stipend of $15,000.
The Residency is unique in offering the chance to work within an established community of writers at the University's International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), with a mentor from the Pasifika arts community.
It is open to Pasifika writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry (page and performance), devised performance, creative non-fiction, literary translation, and graphic novels. Please note: film and television scriptwriting projects are not eligible.
Applicants should be writers at an early stage of their career, with a growing body of work, and must be either New Zealand citizens or hold permanent residency. Applicants should not be full-time employees of Creative New Zealand or the University, nor have been employed on a full-time basis by the University in the twelve months prior to the closing date. Current tertiary students are also ineligible.
The 2025 Resident is Nafanua Purcell Kersel.
A full role description and application form will be available on the Current Vacancies page of the University's website. Enquiries can be directed at any time to modernletters@vuw.ac.nz.
We also offer the three-month Emerging Māori Writer's Residency, and the full-year Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence on an annual basis.
2025 Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence—Nafanua Purcell Kersel
She has a background in facilitation and community storytelling, including her role with Nevertheless NZ, where she leads the storytelling programme and runs creative writing workshops with Māori, Pasifika, and Rainbow+ communities. Her creative work includes poetry, theatre and spoken word, often centring on themes of intergenerational memory and Pasifika knowledge systems.
Nafanua's debut poetry collection Black Sugarcane, published in 2025 by Te Herenga Waka University Press, grew out of her Master of Creative Writing at IIML, for which she won the 2022 Biggs Family Prize in Poetry. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies and in various literary journals including Cordite, Landfall and Turbine l Kapohau.
She will use the residency to work on a stage adaptation of Black Sugarcane, as well as a new book of poems.
Previous Emerging Pasifika Writers in Residence
Photos by Robert Cross.
2025 Emele Ugavale
2021 Simone Kaho
2020 Tavita Nielsen-Mamea