The Burns Fellowship is New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious literary residency. Iconic writers like Janet Frame, James K Baxter and Owen Marshall, and effervescent newcomers such as Jo Randerson, Alison Wong and Sue Wootton have each spent a year at its host, the University of Otago. In 2008 'the Burns' celebrates its first fifty years at the Otago Arts Festival and with this book, "Nurse to the Imagination". Here is a compact history of a cultural institution that served as the model for literary residencies nationwide. The late Reg Graham's famous photographs signpost scholarly overviews of each fellow's career. But the book's primary delight lies in the excerpted works begun (and sometimes completed) during each fellow's tenure, works which have found their way into the heads and hearts of New Zealanders: Along Rideout Road that Summer, The Rainbirds, A Small Ode on Mixed Flatting, Rain, The Loners, My Father Today, Middle-Age Spread, Wrestling with the Angel... Editor Lawrence Jones describes his book as 'a literary wine-tasting'. There are many colours, flavours, and textures to be sampled in a collection that will age well.