Thirty writers, literary orgs among OzCo June grant round recipients

Thirty writers, publishers and literary organisations have received funding in the Australia Council’s June grant round.

Fifteen writers received individual grants of up to $50,000 each: Donna Abela, Jeannie Baker, Emily Bitto, Gabrielle Carey, Steven Conte, Vicki Hastrich, Tara June Winch, Fiona McGregor, Bruce Pascoe, Fiona Place, Aden Rolfe, Michael Sala, Jared Thomas, Lucy Treloar and Fiona Wright.

Writer Julia Leigh also received an $80,000 Australia Council fellowship in the literature category.

Publishers Currency Press, Fremantle Press and the Lifted Brow received Arts Projects Organisations funding, as did Australian Poetry, Express Media, Ubud Writers Festival, the South Australian and Tasmanian writers centres, and the Canada-based International Readings at Harbourfront.

Four individuals received development grants in the literature category: Michael Fikaris, Cosima McGrath, Julienne van Loon and Maria Zajkowski, while Peril magazine received a grant in the community arts and cultural development category.

In total, the Australia Council awarded $5.7m to 177 individual artists, groups and small-to-medium arts organisations, chosen from almost 1,200 recipients.

In a blog post, Meanjin editor Jonathan Green wrote that its application for funding to pay its authors until the end of 2017 was not successful. ‘It feels like the crisis is coming closer,’ wrote Green. ‘Meanjin is many things to many people, but to Australian writers of essays, memoir, fiction and poetry it is a source of both audience and payment; it has been since 1940. We have been hoping that the Australia Council would see the worth in supporting that, as they have since the 1970s.’

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Category: Local news