Emily Perkins was only 17 when she worked at the George Fraser Gallery as a gallery assistant. During that time Janet Frame was living upstairs in the flat due to the inaugural Sargeson Writing Fellowship. This week Emily has been named as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow for 2006 and so will spend a year at the same Sargeson Flat working on her own new novel, Novel About My Wife.

Emily Perkins was only 17 when she worked at the George Fraser Gallery as a gallery assistant. During that time Janet Frame was living upstairs in the flat due to the inaugural Sargeson Writing Fellowship. This week Emily has been named as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow for 2006 and so will spend a year at the same Sargeson Flat working on her own new novel, Novel About My Wife.

Award winning New Zealand writer Emily Perkins has been announced as this year's Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. Perkins will take up her year-long tenure at the Sargeson flat in central Auckland in mid-February.

The Fellowship offers outstanding writers the opportunity to write full time, free from financial pressure, based in a central city apartment located near Auckland University.

Buddle Findlay National Chairman, Sarah Roberts, says the award is about giving talented writers the freedom to focus on their creative activities.

"We are delighted that Emily Perkins is this year's Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. To know that we will have contributed in a practical sense to Emily's writing over the coming year is extremely rewarding.

"For the first time this year, the decision was made to award one Fellowship which means that Emily will enjoy the benefits for the entire year."

Perkins, 36, first won attention in 1996 following the publication of her first book Not Her Real Name and Other Stories (Picador) which won the Best First Book (Fiction) at the Montana Book Awards (NZ), the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (UK) and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (UK).

Her novels are Leave Before You Go (Picador) and The New Girl(Picador), which was also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies, and been broadcast on radio in the UK and in New Zealand.

Born in Christchurch, Perkins attended the NZ Drama School, Toi Whakaari, in Wellington from 1988 to 1989, and studied creative writing with Bill Manhire atVictoria University in 1993. In 1994 she moved to London and lived there for 11 years.

Perkins says she will use the space to work on her new book, Novel About My Wife, for Bloomsbury Publishing.

"The Fellowship is a blessing. It's a really generous award and directly speaks to what most writers crave - more space and time. With a young family it's rare that I get the chance to lock myself away to write for long periods of time. Here I can throw myself into the work and nobody will be able to hear me scream!

"And it's a lovely tradition to be part of. When I was 17 I worked in the art gallery downstairs - this was the first year of the Sargeson Fellowship and Janet Frame was living upstairs. Of course there was great excitement if she ever came down to look at the exhibition, although I restrained myself from mobbing her. So I've felt a long connection with the building in different ways and am really delighted to be there now as the Fellow."

Perkins takes over the Sargeson flat from one of last year's Fellows, Peter Cox.

The Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship is a national literary fellowship offered annually in partnership with The Frank Sargeson Trust. It provides the opportunity each year for an outstanding New Zealand writer or writers to write full time 'in residence' with a monthly stipend.

Buddle Findlay has been involved with the Fellowship since 1997.

Past Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellows (from 1997 onwards) include Fiona Samuel, Peter Cox, Karyn Hay, Craig Marriner, Toa Fraser, Debra Daley, Denis Baker, Riemke Ensing, Vivienne Plumb, Chad Taylor, Shonagh Koea, Diane Brown, Catherine Chidgey, Sarah Quigley, Tina Shaw, Kapka Kassabova, Sue Reidy, James Brown, Charlotte Grimshaw.

Past Sargeson Trust Fellows include Janet Frame, Alan Duff, Kevin Ireland, Michael King, Marilyn Duckworth.