Philippa Stevenson: Waikato wavering over arts

Waikato University's 14-year-old writing fellowship is under the axe, prompting some of New Zealand's top writers to question the university's commitment to our authors and culture.

For the second time in three years the university may not stump up its funding for the 12-month writer in residence. Creative NZ has already earmarked its half of $44,500 for next year's programme but a payout depends on the university contributing a matching amount.

In conflicting statements yesterday, university spokeswoman Shirley Leitch told me there would be no funding for the residency next year.
Then the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dan Zirker, said he was unaware a decision had been made. He wanted the programme to continue, was "struggling to salvage" it amid a review of the faculty and discussions were at a sensitive point, he said.

Later a PR adviser said Leitch had acted on old information and a decision had yet to be made.

However, as Leitch had told me in the earlier statement, the university was "fully committed to having a writer in residence and in the past had not had one every year".

But that was far from comforting for the fellowship's first recipient, renowned children's writer Tessa Duder. The former president of the NZ Society of Authors is more disturbed than reassured by the university's stop-start record.

"They didn't have it two years ago," she said.

"It's so hard to pick up again. It's very sad and quite short-sighted."

It was ironic that only this year the university had bestowed an honorary degree on children's author Margaret Mahy yet could not now put up a relatively modest sum of money to support writers.

The threat to the programme comes to light just a week after this year's writer in residence, Tina Shaw, launched her latest book, The Black Madonna, at the university.

Only two weeks ago it hosted the third annual Sargeson lecture - writer Kevin Ireland's personal recollections of the Hamilton-born father of New Zealand literature - and staged three short operas based on Sargeson stories.

Since Duder in 1991, the residency has supported other top authors including Maurice Shadbolt, Michael King, Elspeth Sandys, Beryl Fletcher and Kate Camp.

Duder was aware there had been staff redundancies at Waikato but said the two were unrelated.

There were many staff appointments but the writer in residence was an intellectual commitment that gave the university a national profile, added to its prestige and brought it ongoing subtle but significant feedback.

The 1999 writer in residence, Beryl Fletcher, feared the effect on the Waikato if the fellowship faltered.

"It's all Waikato has got," she said. "We're just getting literature into the Hamilton Garden Festival and that's been a hard slog. Other writers say there is no writing community here. If [the university] is short of funds they could cut it back to six months."

Shaw, who is working on a collection of short stories, said the residency gave her valuable, uninterrupted time to write and think.

"I've come up with four ideas for novels just because I have time for the brain," she said of her stay at Waikato. "And it allows me to do the research on the internet or in the library."

She also relishes the varied and stimulating university environment, which, in a few days, has offered her the Sargeson lecture and operas, a Japanese film, a science lecture on pest fish and a meeting with the American poet laureate.

Duder can attest to the long-term benefits of the programme. " The opportunities and friends I had then are still with me today."

If Waikato University has any sense its writer in residence programme will still be with us tomorrow.

* pippa@stevenson.net.nz