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Inaugural Writing NSW grants announced

The NSW Writers’ Centre has announced the recipients of its inaugural Writing NSW Grants for early career writers, an emerging writing organisation, and a writer and technologist working on a joint project.

The Early Career Writer Grants, worth $5000, are designed to support creation of new work. The recipients are:

  • Khyiah Angel for her multi-platform YA thriller Jordan’s Journey: ‘The fast-paced story will be told through a print book and online game developed by the author, an innovative approach designed to promote teenagers’ interest in narrative.’
  • Jacqui Dent for her YA novel The Ghost Thief Gets Sam Walker: ‘This speculative fiction novel showed a clever concept, supported by atmospheric writing and a well realised fictional world.’
  • Drew Rooke for his nonfiction book on the poker machine industry, The Final Spin: ‘The author will research this important topic through interviews with gamblers, government and industry representatives, neuroscientists and anti-gambling campaigners.’
  • Kerri Shying for her poetry collection Walking in the Tall Weeds: ‘The author draws on the oral storytelling traditions of her Wiradjuri and Chinese heritage to craft assured, economical poems with strong use of humour and the vernacular.’

Sydney collective Subbed In received the $5000 Emerging Writing Organisation Grant to support its program of literary events, workshops and associated publications staged around Sydney. The collective provides grassroots support for new and diverse voices as well as helping emerging writers to achieve publication or performance.

The $2000 Writer and Technologist Grant was awarded to Anna Kerr and Spider Redgold for their project ‘Women Write Wiki’, ‘which will use social media and other digital platforms to raise the profile of Australian and Pacific women writers’. ‘This collaborative project will see a diverse group of contributors create Wikipedia entries and Instagram pages for under-recognised.’

‘One of our key aims at the Writers’ Centre is to help writers build sustainable careers, and access to new forms of financial support is an important part of that,’ said NSW Writers’ Centre executive director Jane McCredie. ‘By supporting writers early in their careers, and by fostering innovation and access across the sector and across the state, we hope the new grants program will help to produce some major new writing talents.’

Judges for the Early Career Writer Grants and Emerging Writing Organisation Grant were McCredie and writers Emily Maguire and Walter Mason. Judges for the Writer and Technologist Grant were McCredie and Tea Uglow, creative director of the Google Creative Lab in Sydney.

For more information about the grants, visit the NSW Writers’ Centre website here.

 

Category: Local news