Philip Temple has won the 2003 Creative New Zealand Berlin Writers' Residency, worth an estimated $60,000.

The Dunedin-based author will start the nine-month residency in September, and will work on two novels: one set in the Czech Republic, and a second based on the life of a Berlin sculptor.

Temple is no stranger to awards. In 2003, his history of one of the founding families of New Zealand, A Sort of Conscience: The Wakefields, won both the Montana Medal for Non Fiction (Biography Category) and the Ernest Scott History Prize.

Other notable books include a novel, To Each His Own, several titles for children (including The Legend of the Kea and The Story of the Kakapo) and a mountaineering memoir, The Last True Explorer.