The Robert Lord Writers Cottage in Dunedin will host four resident writers, starting this month.
Auckland academic Jan White starts a four-month residency in the 100-year-old Titan St cottage this week.
During her tenure, she will write a book on Colin McCahon and his circle, drawing on the collections of the Hocken Library.
Ms White will be followed by University of Otago College of Education children's writer in residence Joanna Orwin, who will be resident at the college from April to September next year.
Masterton poet, painter and writer Pat White will research and write a memoir of West Coast writer and environmentalist Peter Hooper during October and November, and writer and editor Andrew Mason will complete his book on the New Zealand Literary Fund in December and January.
The Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust operates the historic cottage as a continuous rent-free home for writers.
It was bequeathed by playwright and 1987 Robert Burns fellow Robert Lord, who died aged 46 in 1992.
Robert Lord Writers Cottage Trust chair Nonnita Rees said writers were attracted to the residency because of the rich heritage Dunedin offered in the way of stories and research collections, such as at the Hocken Library.
