The Deepening Stream A History of the New Zealand Literary Fund

It set Elizabeth Smither dancing, it enabled Maurice Gee to become a fulltime writer, it allowed Marilyn Duckworth to hire a babysitter. Barry Crump said, ‘The New Zealand Literary Fund came across with some dough to help me write this. Not a bad bunch.’ The New Zealand Literary Fund was a small amount of public money skilfully dispensed over forty years to hundreds of writers and publishers. Unobtrusively but persistently, the fund and the dedicated men and women who allotted its largesse laid the foundations of the literary culture we enjoy today. From a small gesture of government patronage in the postwar world, it slowly grew, expanding its reach, enlarging its ambitions and acquiring partners. This is its story.

Elizabeth Caffin, who has written frequently on fiction, poetry and the history of New Zealand publishing, is former director of Auckland University Press. She served two terms on the Literary Fund Advisory Committee. Andrew Mason (1950–2009) was a much-admired editor and writer who worked with many of New Zealand’s most significant authors, including Michael King, Shonagh Koea and Bub Bridger.