Fellowship for Duignan

Edinburgh-based Katherine Duignan has been awarded Otago University's Robert Burns Fellowship.

Duignan, who has a masters in creative writing from Victoria University, plans to work on a new novel set in Edinburgh and Dunedin in contemporary and historic times. She published her first novel, Breakwater, in 2001 and has published several works of short fiction.

Yugoslav sculptor and multi-media artist Mladen Buizumic is to take up the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, and incumbent Mozart Fellow Noel Sanders will hold the fellowship for a second year.

He plans to use the year to complete an opera with the working title Ash, which focuses on matricide. Buizumic plans to work on "site-specific" pieces, inspired by the Otago area and Stewart Island.