Mrs Margaret (Wensley) Willcox, QSM, Auckland
For services to literature. Mrs Wensley Willcox has been Vice President of the New Zealand Society of Authors and secretary of the Auckland branch. As Deputy Chair of the Michael King Writers' Studio Trust, she has been the driving force behind the establishment of the Michael King Writers' Centre. The centre is in the historic Signalman’s House on Mount Victoria, Devonport, which required substantial upgrading and renovation to create a suitable residence for an official writer, and accommodation for another writer or researcher needing a temporary base in Auckland. As a founding trustee she played a leading role in organising the funding for the project and ran the renovation. In the 1980s she initiated a successful series of residential literary workshops in support of the Frank Sargeson Trust. Since then, Mrs Willcox has sourced funding and helped produce two anthologies of work by North Shore writers.