FNAWN Varuna Fellowship 2024 recipients announced
Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the six 2024 recipients of the inaugural First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) Varuna Fellowship.
Successful applicants include:
- Lystra Bisschop for ‘The Upwarping’, ‘a YA novel that re-imagines alternate realities and the future of First Peoples through the perspective of three First Nations protagonists’
- Michelle Hyde for ‘Fierce: Guwaa-li warranggal gii’, ‘a collection of poems that moves from the silence imposed by dislocation and violence to the courage of finding a strong heart and speaking truth’
- Cheryl Leavy for ‘Mudunja – Song Country’, ‘poetry which explores blak politics, blak queer identity and blak cultural identity, and their intersections’
- Lay Maloney for ‘Chthonic’, ‘a speculative work of fantasy following an Aboriginal young person into the rainforests of Far North Queensland where a society of fairies have been protecting themselves from colonisation’
- Marissa McDowell for ‘Kianpraty’, ‘a screenplay that centres around the importance of storytelling, Indigenous culture and history of Lake George, Weereewa’
- Nardi Simpson for ‘The Bellburd’, ‘a work of literary fiction told in three parts of the before- and after-life of a five-month-old Indigenous baby girl’.
The new fellowship offers recipients—who are emerging or established members of FNAWN, with a fiction, poetry, or nonfiction manuscript—an all-expenses paid, fully catered one-week residency at Varuna in the Blue Mountains.
The residency, which also covers travel costs, will offer recipients 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 Yvette Henry Holt, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis and Peter Minter.
More information about the fellowship is available on the Varuna website.
Category: Awards
