Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund recipients announced

Writers Victoria has announced the sixth round of recipients for the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund. Round six was delayed in early 2020 due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions, and was reopened for applications in April 2021.

The successful recipients are:

• Amanda Anastasi, to travel the Great Barrier Reef to write a series of poems to raise awareness of climate change impacts
• Madeleine Gray, to travel to Melbourne for professional development at the Melbourne Writers Festival
• Shakira Hussein, to undertake research in New Zealand for essay and memoir manuscript ‘Nine Elevenitis’
• Miranda Luby, to undertake research on Flinders Island for a contemporary young adult novel
• Brooke Maddison, for a research trip to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) for debut novel ‘drift’
• Marjon Mossammaparast, to travel to Tasmania for research on a poetry collection
• Michael Ryan, for travel to Adelaide for a nonfiction book about the unsolved murder that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Australia
• Michelle Scott Tucker, for travel to Cairns and Bamaga to work with Aaron Fa’Aoso on his memoir
• Mark Smith, to travel to Albany, WA, for research for new adult novel, ‘Three Boys Gone’
• Annabel Strafford, to undertake a research trip to Perth and Wyndham for nonfiction book ‘The Wanted and the Unwanted’
• Lowana Tudor-Smith, for travel to the Northern Territory for research for ‘Bina: First Nations languages old and new’
• Kate Wild, for travel to Darwin and Yuendumu to cover the murder trial of a police officer for the fatal shooting of a Warlpiri man.

The judges for this round were Jaclyn Crupi, Jeanine Leane and Renée Otmar who were ‘impressed with the overall quality of the applications in what was a competitive round’, awarding a total of $58,687 to the 12 recipients.

The Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund was opened in 2017 to provide emerging, mid-career and established Australian writers and literary sector workers the opportunity of travel in the development of their practice, careers or the broader Australian literary sector.

The 2019 recipients included Cate Kennedy, Maria Takolander, Ruhi Lee, Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk, among others.

For more information, visit the Writers Victoria website.

Category: Awards Local news