2024 Writer’s Space Fellowship Announced
We are happy to announce The Writer’s Space fellowship recipients for this year.
A total of 47 submissions were received from NSW-based emerging or established writers with disability and/or who are D/deaf, who are developing new work. The manuscripts were read by our assessors Fiona Murphy and Madison Godfrey who had the difficult task of choosing six recipients to receive a 4- week online residency and six recipients of a 1-week in-person residency.
This fellowship is made possible with funding from Create NSW and the Australian Government Department of Social Services.
Congratulations to the following twelve fellowship recipients:
IN-PERSON RESIDENCY
Kawsar Ali, Majnun
Kawsar is a Doctor of Philosophy candidate and Sessional Academic at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature and the Department of Sociology. Kawsar’s doctoral research is concerned with investigating the links between race, power, and the Internet, interrogating what she has coined as “digital settler colonialism.” Kawsar is recipient of a competitive domestic scholarship through the Research Training Program and Macquarie University Research Excellence Scheme and an invited Associate Member of the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University. You can learn more about Kawsar’s research and writing on her website, www.onlineother.com and follow her study content on her TikTok page, @kawsarphd.
Ryan Enniss, Minutes to Midnight
Ryan is a playwright, actor, and voice-over artist originally from Tasmania, currently based in Sydney. His play Drizzle Boy won the 2022–2023 Queensland Premier's Drama Award, and was the first mainstage show in Australian history to feature an autistic lead, as well as be written by an autistic playwright. Drizzle Boy was published by Currency Press early in 2024, and is touring with Queensland Theatre towards the end of the year. His published works include the award winning Watching, as well as other plays such as (Dis)cord, Data Management, and The 2100 Club.
Thea Jade, Room 4
Thea is an emerging writer and arts worker currently studying for her Master’s in Creative Writing at the University of Sydney. Hailing from Ngunnawal Land / Canberra, she was a 2023 Canberra Theatre Centre New Ideas Lab Artist, and this year is the Artist in Residence at The Street Theatre. She is thrilled to be joining an alumni of Australian literary inspirations as a 2024 recipient of the Writers Space Residential Fellowship at Varuna.
Erin Riley, More of Less of Me
Erin is a volunteer surf life saver, queer social worker and writer living on Gadigal land. Erin likes reading and routine and to swim in the ocean with friends. They were a Penguin Random House Write It fellow in 2021. Erin’s debut memoir, A Real Piece of Work, came out in 2023.
Susie Walsh, My Broken Hearted Hill: Song Book of a Mining Town Girlhood
Susie is a proudly Autistic and non-binary writer and filmmaker based on Yuin Country (Braidwood, NSW). Susie’s non-fiction poetry has been published in Bramble, Cordite, Rochford Street Review, and in several anthologies, including the award winning Admissions anthology (Upswell, 2022). Formerly an academic, Susie has a PhD in cinema studies focussed on the use of voice-over and has had audio-visual work screened at film festivals and exhibited in art galleries. Current writing works in progress include Palimpsest a first collection of poetry; and My Broken Hearted Hill: Song Book of a Mining Town Girlhood – a meta-memoir about growing up Autistic in Broken Hill, which was recently placed as one of the runners up in the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship.
Arlea Whelan, Pro Re Nata
Arlea is a poet, award-winning playwright and passionate mental health advocate who lives and creates on the Traditional Land of the Dharawal People. She has worked with Heaps Decent and as a freelancer running creative writing workshops in high schools catering to students from diverse backgrounds. Arlea’s work has been published by Upswell Publishing among many others. She is currently writing her second book, and working on an album with musician and cowriter Ella Grace. When she isn’t writing, Arlea is a karate Instructor, painter and sister.
ONLINE RESIDENCY
Ella Noah Bancroft, Indigenise To Thrive
Ella is a proud Bundjalung woman from Northern NSW. She is a daughter, sister, environmentalist, artist, published author, mentor and founder of “The Returning Indigenous Corporation”. Ella has a fortnightly opinion piece with the National newspaper The Koori Mail and has been promoting decolonisation and female leadership for the past 12 years. She is now on the board of Regenerative Vanaua and hopes to inspire the decolonial tourism movements in the pacific. Ella‘s books Sun and Moon (2022, Hardie Grant), and It takes courage to tell the truth (2019, Self Published) were written always with her kinship in mind.
Eila Jameson-Avey, Ivy
After teaching for 30 years, Eila hybrid-published her adult thriller Wellworth, in 2023. Mona Magazine published Barbed Solitude, a poem in 2022. In 2021 she won first prize in the Lane Cove Literary Award. Simon Goes to Spain—a middle-grade novel—was hybrid published in 2019. Recently she completed a Grad Cert in W&L. Check out her antics at https://eilajamesonavey.com/
Barbarella Karpinski, Tainted Arty Mess
Barberella is a performance artist and filmmaker. Their written work, “The Fluff Girl Bites Back” was presented at First Draft Gallery as part of W$ores4eva curated by Katie Winton and they were part of a Wicked Women Retrospective at AQUAMelbourne. They also directed a feature documentary, ‘Flipside of Flamboyance’, about the experience of arrest and the origins of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. Described as a 'pop culture ironicist' for their Club Bent shows from 1996-98, Karpinski re-invents their queer Art for contemporary audiences.
J. Marahuyo, 4:37am; crying gorgeously
J. Marahuyo is a neurodivergent Filipino-Australian award winning poet residing on Dharug country. She explores themes of identity, mental health and the power of vulnerability. Her work is published nationally and internationally and can be found in Cordite Poetry Review and FemAsia, numerous journals and anthologies. She was the recipient of the WestWords-Varuna Emerging Writers Residency 2022 and was chosen for Testing Ground 2023. When she’s not writing you can find her pspsp-ing random cats, eating cookies or getting on the wrong train. Her instagram is @j_marahuyo
Daniel Ray, This is the Now
Daniel's writing has been published or is forthcoming in Griffith Review, Westerly, Island, Overland, Going Down Swinging, Cordite, Voiceworks, The Suburban Review and Cicerone Journal’s anthology, These Strange Outcrops. He was longlisted for the 2023 Griffith Review Emerging Voices Competition. He is the recipient of the 2024 Faber Academy Writing a Novel Online Scholarship, where he is developing his debut novel, supported by a Create NSW grant.
Ruth Veer, Paper Thin
Ruth currently works in IT and, when not writing, enjoys bushwalking, making art of all sorts, and spending time with her two kids, her big dog and her small cat.
The following writers were also highly commended for their work: Josephine Goris, Casey Gray, Elizabeth Humphrys, Christine Johnson, Bronwyn Owen Allen, Annmaree Watharow and Cedar Whelan.
