Announcing the Island to Island residents

Verb Wellington and Moniack Mhor received over 75 applications for the inaugural Island to Island residency exchange, offered in collaboration with British Council New Zealand and the Pacific, and Edinburgh International Book Festival.

“The calibre of applications was incredibly high,” says Verb founder Claire Mabey. “It’s a sign of how needed residencies are: that time to write and refresh is crucial for good art.”

The successful applicant from Scotland is Jenni Fagan, a poet, novelist and screenwriter, who 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 (2012), which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize. The Sunlight Pilgrims (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 her 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.

The successful applicant from Aotearoa is poet essa may ranapiri (Ngaati Raukawa ki te Tonga, Te Arawa, Ngaati Puukeko, Clan Gunn). They have 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.

Moniack Mhor Centre Director, Rachel Humphries says: "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."

Ranapiri will travel to Scotland to join Fagan in an associated event at Edinburgh International Book Festival, before travelling to Moniack Mhor for a three-week residency. 

"This is such a wonderful opportunity to visit the whenua 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 together, layers them if you will,” says ranapiri. 

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. “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,” says Fagan.

The Island to Island project is supported by British Council New Zealand and Pacific. “We are thrilled to be supporting this initiative to draw closer ties between the literatures of Scotland and Aotearoa,” says Natasha Beckman, Director Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific. “We look forward to meeting the residents and learning how this exchange propels their writing.”

Moniack Mhor is located in Kiltarlity by Beauly, Inverness-shire. A former croft, it is built on the site of an ancient baron’s house, surrounded by fields rich in the remains of Bronze Age civilisations. Its conversion into a haven for writers began in 1992, when founders Kit and Sophia Fraser led fundraising efforts including a 24-hour poetry recital by almost 160 people. From its first course in 1993, Moniack Mhor operated in partnership with Arvon until 2014. In 2015 it transitioned to independence with the support of Creative Scotland, who continue to support Moniack Mhor with grant funding as one of its regularly funded organisations.