Gomides awarded 2018 Kat Muscat Fellowship

Melbourne-based writer Ana Maria Gomides has been awarded the 2018 Kat Muscat Fellowship.

Gomides will use the fellowship to work on a book of short stories, personal essays and narrative nonfiction that highlights ‘intergenerational experiences of womanhood, trauma and dispossession—but also of defiance, joy and triumph’.

Gomides said she was grateful to have been offered the ‘profoundly meaningful’ fellowship. ‘Kat was a fierce person, editor, writer and activist. Being given the opportunity to contribute to her legacy is an honour that fuels the fire in my belly and my resolve to create something great.’

Of her project, Gomides says, ‘We are Latinx, Black, Brown, First Nations Brazilian, and migrant women; some of us are queer, some mentally ill. […] I call my project Strange and Bitter Crop […] My hope is that one day Strange and Bitter Crop reaches the hands of a secondary student in Australia and she, too, is catapulted into her own journey of the Self.’

The annual Kat Muscat Fellowship was set up by Express Media in honour of former Voiceworks editor Kat Muscat. It offers professional development up to the value of $3000 for an editorial project or work of writing by a young female-identifying or non-binary person.

Fellows are selected by the Custodial Committee of the Kat Muscat Legacy Projects, which includes members of Express Media’s board and staff, the Muscat family and community members.

The 2017 fellowship was awarded to Melbourne writer Fury. For more information about the fellowship, see the Express Media website.

(Photo credit: Rebecca-Marian Irene / IG: @rebeccamarianirene)

Category: Local news