Woldeyes awarded new travel fellowship
Poet and storyteller Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes will appear at national and international writers festivals this year as the recipient of a new travel fellowship supported by the Barton Family Foundation.
The fellowship will firstly allow Woldeyes to conduct a workshop at Melbourne Writers Festival on 10 May, which is designed to encourage attendees “to think carefully, critically and creatively about decolonial writing” and will “explore the false beliefs that infuse stories from the colony, tropes to avoid, and insights for writers to consider while writing on stolen land.” Other festival appearances are being organised by Fremantle Press.
Woldeyes is the winner of the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for Trials of Hope (የተስፋ ፈተና), which the publisher describes as “a groundbreaking bilingual memoir that challenges how we think about belonging and language”.
The book may be different from the usual Australian story, according to Woldeyes, but he said this difference is what makes it an important Australian story. “Some may think that what makes the book exceptional is the inclusion of Amharic, a foreign language. But Amharic is not an exception. English too is a foreign language to this land. The book disrupts the attitude that considers Amharic as foreign but English as native. It also reminds us that in this country, not all languages are equal citizens. If there is a European way of becoming an Australian, shouldn’t there be an Ethiopian way of becoming an Australian too?”
Fremantle Press CEO Alex Allan said the fellowship would give festival organisers the freedom to take risks on unknown debut Western Australian authors. She said, “Our festivals are doing a lot with a little, so travel support can be very impactful.”
Barton Family Foundation member Corinne Barton said, “We want to see more authors like Yirga – hopeful, engaging writers who invite us all to challenge ourselves to think anew – getting in front of audiences across the country and taking their place alongside established ‘names’.”
Fremantle Press said the Barton Family Foundation is an active member of Western Australia’s community and helps arts organisations as well as the Books for Little Bookaburras program.
Category: Awards Local news
