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From the moment I stepped inside the door at Randell Cottage, 14 Saint Mary Street, Wellington, I felt like I was coming home. Everything about the place was familiar – from the New Zealand timber floorboards to the very positioning of the sash windows that looked out to a garden of native trees and hydrangeas. — Kirsty Gunn, New Zealand Writer 2009
Historic Randell Cottage in Wellington, New Zealand, has been a writers' residency since 2001. In partnership with the Embassy of France, New Zealand-France Friendship Fund and Creative New Zealand, the Randell Cottage Writers Trust provides a six-month residency each year to a French and NZ writer respectively.
The cottage was gifted by the Price family to be the first dedicated writers residency in the capital city, and the first for international writers in the Southern Hemisphere. It reciprocates in some measure for the New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize which sends writers to Menton, France, and adds an exciting perspective to the cultural and literary life of Wellington.
With Katherine Mansfield being one of my strongest influences, New Zealand has been ensconced in my mind for such a long time. — Nadine Ribault, inaugural French Writer, 2002
Randell Cottage is located in inner city Thorndon close to the Lilburn Residence [composer residency], Rita Angus Cottage [artist residency], and the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace. This cluster of residencies is known informally as Arts Residencies Thorndon or ART and has led to mutual support and collaboration. Wellington is a lively literary centre and research hub and Randell Cottage is within walking distance of the National and Turnbull Libraries, the Wellington Asia Residency, and the International Institute of Modern Letters.
The residency was tremendous. It is extremely rare for a writer to have a period in his or her life free from financial insecurity. — Peter Wells, inaugural New Zealand Writer 2002
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Pat White has started his own blog since taking up residence at the Randall Cottage.
Former writer in residence Whiti
Heraka is to launch her novel The Graphologists Apprentice (Huia
Press) on Thursday 29 July, 6pm, Museum of Wellington City and Sea, 3
Jervois Quay, Queens Wharf, Wellington. Email customer@huia.co.nz or
call 04 4739262 if you wish to attend.
 The French Writer in Residence at Randell Cottage from October 2010 is
Yann Apperry. More....
Susan Price and her collection of 26,000 children's books are to be the subject of a new book
 Newtown author Kate De Goldi has been awarded the $100,000 Michael King writers' fellowship to research and write about children's book collector and donor Susan Price - whose parents Beverley Randell and Hugh Price donated the Randell Cottage. More...
Work has started on revitalising the Randell Cottage Garden.
The gardener at the historic Nairn Street Cottage, Hannah Zwartz, has been taken on as the Randell Cottage gardener as part of a project to revitalise the garden. More...
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