Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund announces 2024 Fellowships to support new Australian writing
October 15, 2024
Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund announces the three recipients of the 2024 writing fellowships for a total of $170,000, helping to usher in new Australian writing from both emerging and established authors.
The Author Fellowship has been awarded to Sydney based author, artist and critic Fiona Kelly McGregor, and will support her to complete The Trap, the final novel in her diptych based on the life of petty criminal Iris Webber, which follows the novel Iris (Picador, 2022).
The Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing has been awarded to poet and writer Omar Sakr, based in Western Sydney. The Fellowship will support the completion of his project Say The Words, an essay collection that fuses personal experiences with critical analysis of social and cultural constructs.
The Fellowships are two of Australia’s richest fellowships for writers, valued at $80,000 each and provide support to an established author to create a new work for publication. Applications are assessed by a panel of independent peers from the writing sector.
Copyright Agency CEO, Josephine Johnston says, “We’re delighted for Fiona and Omar, not least because these projects offer fresh insight and storytelling to modern Australian literature. Both authors expressed in their applications that these projects require devoted and focused time, for research purposes and to stretch their creative prowess, and without the Fellowships they may not be able to carve out the space to do so.
“To play a small part in supporting new Australian writing – that otherwise may not have found its way to publication – is of great joy to Copyright Agency.”
Recipient of the 2020 Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing, Kris Kneen, explains how the Fellowship helped them stay on track with their emotionally taxing project, writing Fat Girl Dancing.
“This was a book I had been wanting to write for years and I really couldn’t find the self-confidence to work with this emotionally difficult material. Several times over the course of the writing I would have given up, but the fact that I had the Fellowship was a way of keeping myself honest and forcing me back to the table.
They continue, “I am so glad I went back to that table. I think this has been one of my best and most successful books. I have had more personal messages from readers than any other of my books. So many people of all genders and all sizes have reached out to me to tell me how this book connected with their own stories. Then the three shortlistings for State literary awards just underlined that this book was a necessary edition to Australian non-fiction publications.”
This year also sees the second Frank Moorhouse Fellowship for Young Writers awarded to a young fiction writer (aged between 18-35). The Fellowship, valued at $10,000, will support Sydney based writer and critic Bryant Apolonio to develop and write their first full length work of fiction.
Bryant’s project, a novel entitled The Fortunate, is a story set between Sydney and the Philippines that draws upon inherited legacies, obsession, the power of storytelling and the scars left by war, colonisation and authoritarianism.
ENDS
For media enquiries contact:
Lydia Spooner lspooner@copyright.com.au
About Copyright Agency
Copyright Agency is an Australian not-for-profit organisation that represents 40,000 members across the publishing, media, visual arts and education sectors. Our mission is to provide simple ways for people to reproduce, store and share words, images and other creative content, in return for fair payment to creators.
About Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
The Cultural Fund is the philanthropic arm of Copyright Agency, providing support to individuals and organisations to run projects that will enrich Australia’s publishing and visual arts industries.