Varuna announces inaugural Writer’s Space fellows

Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the 12 recipients of the inaugural Writer’s Space fellowships for writers with disability or who are D/deaf.

This program offers six in-person residencies concurrently with six online residencies during the two-week fellowship period from 6–20 September 2021.

The recipients of the residential fellowships are:

• Jessica Friedmann for the novel ‘Priest Pond’
• El Gibbs for ‘Making our NDIS: Stories from disabled people’
• Kath Kenny for ‘As a Woman: When Betty rocked the pram’
• Woo-Keun Lim for ‘Seoulmates’
• Fiona Murphy for the literary crime thriller ‘The Heart Feeds Itself First’
• Gaele Sobott for the poetry collection ‘Earthly’.

The recipients of the online fellowships are:

• Emma Ashmere for ‘The Double View’
• Cynthia Banham for ‘Bergamot Grove’
• Michelle Fermanis-Windward for the poetry collection ‘The Symbiotic Thread’
• Jules Jones for ‘The Dead Wife’
• Erin Sayers for the science fiction novel ‘Harbour’
• Kerri Shying for the poetry collection ‘Blursday’.

The assessors also highly commended Danielle Maas.

Each writer will receive a professional development package of $1100 towards manuscript consultations, mentoring, or workshop participation. The residency will also include two group Q&A sessions, one with writer Tara Moss, the other with writer, speaker and disability activist Carly Findlay, as well as a one-hour session (one-on-one) with Varuna writing consultant Carol Major.

For more information about the Writer’s Space fellowships, see the Varuna website.

Category: Awards Local news