Arnott wins inaugural $30,000 Hedberg residency

Robbie Arnott has won the inaugural University of Tasmania Hedberg Writer-in-Residence Program.

Arnott said the program, which carries a stipend of $30,000, would give him the time and space needed to take time off from full-time employment to work on his third novel, which is contracted to Text and due for release in 2022.

‘As a Tasmanian author working through this period of declining arts funding, not to mention our nation’s tendency to focus its literary attentions on the larger cities of the mainland, this is both timely and tremendously welcome,’ said Arnott.

The inaugural program, which was open to established Tasmanian writers, will run for 12 weeks from January to March 2021. From 2022 the program will be open to all published Australian writers.

As part of the program Arnott will engage with the University of Tasmania’s creative writing students, and the state’s creative community through workshops, masterclasses and public talks in the north and south of Tasmania.

Robert Clarke, residency program coordinator and head of English at the University’s School of Humanities, said the selection panel had chosen from a large number of applications of a very high standard and added that Arnott brings ‘both experience and recognition to our first Hedberg residency’.

Text published Arnott’s first novel, Flames, in 2018 and his second novel, The Rain Heron, in June this year.

The University of Tasmania Hedberg Writer-in-Residence Program is funded by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania. For more information see University’s website.

Tags: residency

Category: Local news