Luna Foundation Writers Residency 2026

We’re pleased announce the recipient for this year will be Dr Majella Cullinane.

Majella writes poetry, fiction, and essays, and has held residencies and fellowships in Ireland, Scotland, and New Zealand. Published nationally and internationally, her previous works include poetry collections Whisper of a Crow’s Wing (2018) and Meantime (2024), her debut novel The Life of De’Ath (2018), and Islands Ever After, a short story collection published in May 2026. In 2020, she was the first to graduate with a PhD in Creative Practice from the Centre of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Otago. Majella lives in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, with her family.

An accomplished author and academic, her upcoming book Shadows Fall Behind is a collection of memoir essays exploring her own experience with ovarian cancer, as well as investigating the stories of a selection of the estimated 370 New Zealand women diagnosed with the disease each year.

The Luna Foundation is a female-led, family-run charitable organisation that empowers and supports women throughout New Zealand in the areas of education, health and wellbeing, and arts and culture. The Residency was created in recognition of the benefit women writers would gain from dedicated time spent progressing their creative projects. The recipient will spend 14-nights in Hawke’s Bay and receive a stipend of $3500.