Western Sydney Emerging Writers’ Fellowships announced

18 January 2019 Books+Publishing

Western Sydney literature organisation WestWords has announced three recipients of the 2019 Western Sydney Emerging Writers’ Fellowships.

The three writers awarded fellowships are:

Fiona Murphy for hybrid memoir ‘The Shape of Sound’, about shedding fear and gaining disability pride. The memoir will blend scientific evidence, social policy, anatomy, history, linguistics and Murphy’s personal experience of being diagnosed as deaf at age seven, then hiding her diagnosis for the next 20 years, using elaborate strategies to pretend to be ‘normal’ until she started a career in healthcare.
Annie Zhang for a collection of surreal ghost stories set in suburban Sydney, dealing with themes of family and pain, with veins of humour, grief and magic. These stories follow the daily lives of characters living in southwest Sydney, but feature supernatural elements inspired by classic Chinese folklore and superstition.
Zoe Ghani for a novel that ranges from Afghanistan in the 1970s to India in the 1980s and on to 1990s Australia. The novel follows the lives of Henna and Rahim, who build a loving family from an arranged marriage only to have it torn apart by war.

Each of the fellows receives a $4000 cash prize, mentorship opportunities and assistance with professional career development.

WestWords executive director Michael Campbell says: ‘We, with the support of the Cultural Fund of the Copyright Agency, are so proud to be able to provide this crucial stepping stone for writers’ career development. So many of these writers have gone onto major successes—the impact of this investment really is exponential not only for the writers who receive the award but also for the emergent voices from this dynamic region.’

For more information, see the WestWords website.

Category: Local news