Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship

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Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship
Awarded forNew Zealand writer with record of literary achievement
Location Menton, France
CountryNew Zealand
Presented by Arts Foundation of New Zealand
Reward(s)Grant of NZ$35,000 to cover travel and living costs
First awarded1970;54 years ago (1970)
Website www.thearts.co.nz/awards/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 (known as fellows) funding towards transport to and accommodation in Menton, France, where Mansfield did some of her best-known and most significant writing. [1] [2]

Contents

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 Cecil Manson 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] The Mansons 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] Initially the fellowship was administered by the New Zealand Women Writers' Society. [8] Subsequently, the Winn-Mason Menton Trust was established to run the fellowship, and the first recipient was poet Owen Leeming in 1970. [9]

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. [10] 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. [11] Janet Frame set her novel, In the Memorial Room, in Menton, telling the fictional story of a writer on a poetry fellowship. Although she wrote the novel in the 1970s it was not published until after her death in 2013. [7] [12]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 fellow, Sue Wootton, was unable to travel to Menton to take up the fellowship in either 2020 or 2021. [13]

Recipients

The writers to have held the fellowship are listed below:

See also

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Owen Leeming is a New Zealand poet, playwright, radio presenter and television producer. While working in broadcasting in London and New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s, he had short stories and poems published in various magazines and journals, and wrote stage and radio plays. In 1970 he was the first recipient of one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, after which he published his first collection of poetry.

Margaret Allan Scott was a New Zealand writer, editor and librarian. After her husband's early death in 1960, she trained as a librarian, and was appointed as the first manuscripts librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library. She was the second recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 1971.

Russell Haley was a New Zealand poet, short story writer and novelist. Born in Yorkshire, he and his wife emigrated to Australia in 1961 and then to New Zealand in 1966, where he lived the rest of his life. He began publishing plays while living in Australia and his writing career continued in New Zealand, where he published several collections of poetry and short stories, and two novels. His work was known for its surrealism and imagination, and he also wrote about his life and personal experiences of moving between countries. In 1987 he received the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

Sheilah Maureen Winn was a New Zealand arts patron and philanthropist. Having received a large inheritance, she used her money to support her love of the arts and particularly the theatre. Notably, she was the founding donor of the Hannah Playhouse in 1966, co-founder of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship in 1970, and principal sponsor of the National SGCNZ Sheilah Winn Festivals of Shakespeare in Schools in 1992.

Cecilia Evelyn Manson, known as Celia Manson, was a New Zealand writer, journalist and broadcaster. Many of her works were co-written with her husband Cecil Manson, and together they also laid the foundations for the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

Cecil Murray Manson was a New Zealand writer, journalist, broadcaster, photographer, artist and soldier. Born in England, Manson studied art in European institutions and served as a soldier in both world wars. He moved to New Zealand with his wife Celia Manson in 1947, and together they co-authored a number of historical books, including children's books. They also helped found the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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. 1 2 3 4 "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 Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Government. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 Catherall, Sarah (5 November 2015). "Katherine Mansfield Fellowship saved by a literary whip-round". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  8. ↑ "N.Z. Writer Award". The Press. 4 November 1970. p. 12. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "Bursaries, fellowships, scholarships and residencies". Creative New Zealand. Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  11. ↑ As Fair as New Zealand to Me. Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press. 2000. ISBN   978-0-8647-3398-6 . Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  12. ↑ Bradfield, Scott (22 November 2013). "Dead Poet Society". New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  13. ↑ Gibb, John (31 March 2021). "New publisher at University Press". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
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