New FNAWN Varuna fellowship, FNAWN Summit speakers announced

A new First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) Varuna Fellowship Program will offer six emerging or established members of FNAWN an all-expenses paid, fully catered one-week residency at Varuna in the Blue Mountains.

The residency, which also covers travel costs, will offer a mix of mentorship, private writing time, and workshops, as well as social time for unstructured conversation, and one-on-one mentorship/consultation. Guest speakers and mentors will include Graham Akhurst, Yvette Henry Holt, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis and Peter Minter.

The fellowship is intended for the development of a current project in ‘creative forms including fiction, drama, poetry, children’s books, and narrative nonfiction’, where a significant amount of work has been completed and will be awarded to emerging and established writers ‘who display exceptional promise in their writing style and the premise of the work’.

For more information see the Varuna website here.

In related news, speakers for the 2023 FNAWN National Summit, to be held in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) from 18–20 August, have been announced. Among those to appear at the summit are Sandra Phillips, Kim Scott, Melissa Lucashenko, Melanie Mununggurr-Williams, Grace Lucas, Laniyuk, Melandie Saward, Maureen Nampijinpa O’Keefe, Jackie Huggins, Marissa McDowell, Theresa Penangke Alice, and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis.

The summit will also host two international guests, supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian High Commission Bangladesh: Sanjeeb Drong, writer, columnist and general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum, and Barendra Lal Tripura, teacher and member of Indigenous Alumni Association in Bangladesh.

The Summit will be followed by a FNAWN industry roundtable on Monday 21 August.

Category: Local news