THE MIKE RIDDELL
Writer's Residency
The Mike Riddell Writer's Residency
The indefatigable Mike Riddell instigated the idea of administering a writer's residency in Ōtūrēhua. The idea was to offer a generously donated package of house and stipend to an experienced writer or writers over 12 winter weeks.
We hoped that they would find inspiration in this grand landscape as well as the support of a group of committed writers who have made this village their home.
Tragically, Mike died suddenly in March 2022, before the first residency took place. In his honour we named the Ōtūrēhua residency after him.
2025 Residency
Our two writers-in-residence for 2025 were
Peta Carey and Michelle Elvy, each of them coming
to the Ida Valley for six weeks during winter.
Details of next year's residency will be posted, and applications invited, early in 2026. Applicants should be established writers, at least 35 years old, and resilient
enough to cope with an Ida Valley winter.
Peta Carey
Peta Carey has told stories, in documentary or written form, all her life. An award-winning documentary film maker and freelance feature writer, she turned to writing long form nonfiction 10 years ago. Her books include A Place for the Heart, and perhaps most well known, Tamatea Dusky. (Both published by Potton & Burton.) Her latest book, The Hollows Boys, came out in September this year.
Up until now, however, she has only ever told other people’s stories. Often urged to write about her own life, she is finally doing so, writing of experiences over a number of decades and across various corners of the globe, in a collection of essays she has titled Line of Flight.
Very honoured (‘chuffed,’ she says) to be awarded one of the 2025 Mike Riddell Writer’s Residencies, Peta spent the time the time focusing on the collection, revising and editing the manuscript before submitting it for publication. ‘I’ve always considered it’s more important to be a conduit for the stories of others, and prefer a degree of privacy about myself. But with help of respected editor, Harriet Allan, who has urged me to publish and given me very helpful feedback, I’m finally summoning the courage to share it with a wider audience.’
Michelle Elvy
Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing. She grew up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and came to Aotearoa aboard her sailboat after living many years on board. During her residency she worked on completing a new set of poems, informed by her background as an historian and years of living with the rhythms of the sea. Inherent in her current project are themes of movement and momentum, loss and connectedness; this is a creative examination of our off-kilter world, the here and not-here generations echoing their stories, wild and energetic.
The idea of mapping runs throughout – including historical references, personal experience and current affairs. This project will explore ways of mapping cycles of life against the backdrop of the wider disturbances in our 21st-century world.
“As we’ve been reeling with the start of this year, I am even more interested in the inward and outward gaze of survival: in humans, and in other species. I’m grateful to have this time to reflect, observe, listen and write.”
Memory
holds you aloft, blows wind in your sails
knocks you sideways, calls up the dead
your lat and long, your yin and yang
this compass to guide you, your daily bread
these stories, these waypoints
the then and the present
those edges, this centre
the map in your palm
Michelle's books include the everrumble and the other side of better, and she has edited numerous anthologies, including, this year, Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages, edited with Vaughan Rapatahana (The Cuba Press, February 2025), and Poto! Iti te kupu, nui te kōrero| Short! The big book of small stories, edited with Kiri Piahana-Wong and launching in June 2025 by Massey University Press.
2024 Residents: Pat White and Paddy Richardson
2023 Residents: Lynn Davidson and Wayne Martin.
2022 Residents: Our inaugural residents were Tim Higham and Rhian Gallagher.
