Damien Wilkins receives Arts Foundation Laureate Award
The IIML's Director has been recognised for his contribution to New Zealand literature.
Damien Wilkins, Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML), is the recipient of a 2013 Arts Foundation Laureate Award in recognition of his contribution to New Zealand literature.
Wilkins is the author of ten books, including novels, short stories, essays and poems. His most recent novel, Max Gate , was published by Victoria University Press in 2013. He has written for theatre and television and is also a songwriter and musician, releasing two albums of original material in 2011 and 2012. He has worked in publishing and was a founding editor of Sport. In 2005 the anthology he edited, Great Sporting Moments (VUP), won a Montana Book Award. In 2008, he was awarded a Katherine Mansfield Fellowship.
A Laureate Award is described as 'an investment in excellence across a range of art forms for an artist with prominence and outstanding potential for future growth.' Fellow recipients were photographer Laurence Aberhart, filmmaker Jane Campion, screenwriter and playwright Dean Parker, and landscape architect Megan Wraight. Laureate Award recipients receive $50,000 each and a statuette designed by Terry Stringer. Read the full list of recipients.