Emma Hislop named 2027 Robert Burns Fellow

The Taranaki-based author of Ruin, winner of the 2024 Hubert Church award, will move to Ōtepoti Dunedin to start her third book.

Taranaki-based writer Emma Hislop will hold the Robert Burns Fellowship in 2027, the New Zealand Society of Authors reported on 6 October 2026. She plans to base herself in Ōtepoti Dunedin for the fellowship year.

Hislop is of Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha descent, with whakapapa to Puketeraki Marae on her father's side. Her debut, the short story collection Ruin, won the Hubert Church Best First Book of Fiction award at the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She has also held short residencies, including at the Robert Lord Cottage and a summer residence through the artists' collective Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts.

She is finishing her second book, a novel. During the fellowship she intends to begin a third book, researching it in the Hocken Collections and university archives in Ōtepoti.

Hislop said living there would let her root the new work in the land itself, rather than rebuilding it from memory at a distance. She called the fellowship "an incredible vote of trust" and said she was ready to start work.