Rose Lu: Randell Cottage writer-in-residence

Challenging mainstream notions of representation with author Rose Lu

Tramper, software engineer and essayist, Rose Lu has been the New Zealand writer-in-residence for the past six months at Randell Cottage, working on her first novel. Currently untitled, the project follows the story of Moon, a second-generation Chinese-New Zealander, and Hsiao-Han, who migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in her mid-twenties.

“I want this book to be divorced from the expectation that POC are thinking about their race in relation to a Pākehā majority, by having the primary dialogue be between Chinese and Taiwanese characters. I also want to challenge mainstream notions of representation. We all have complicated relationships to home, family and language, and I want to write a story set across different times and generations to explore that.”

Join Rose as she talks about her work — her 2019 essay collection and her new book — the focus of her time during her Randell Cottage writer's residency.

Randell Cottage Writers Trust

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About the speaker

Rose Lu is a Wellington-based writer and software developer. A graduate of the Master of Creative Writing workshop at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University’s Institute of Modern Letters, Rose’s first book was the 2019 essay collection All Who Live On Islands, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. It explains and gives insight into her experience of growing up in New Zealand and being Chinese. For this book, she was awarded the Modern Letters Creative Nonfiction Prize.

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