2025 Affirm Press Fellowship Announcement
Varuna is pleased to partner with Melbourne-based publisher Affirm Press on another fellowship that reflects their dedication to publishing great Australian stories and building relationships with emerging writers.
Back in September, writers of crime, thriller and mystery novels were invited to apply for one of four places in this week-long residency, offering independent writing time in a private writing studio, as well as editorial support from Affirm Press editors who will also be staying at Varuna.
After the residency, Affirm Press will be able to offer general advice up to completion of a completed or reworked draft.
We received an incredible 92 applications this year from which to select only four writers.
Congratulations to the following fellowship recipients:
Zoe Deleuil, for her manuscript Kita Karamel
Hailing from Boorloo/Perth, Zoe Deleuil is the author of the psychological suspense novel The Night Village, which was shortlisted for the Hungerford Award and published by Fremantle Press in 2021. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Westerly, The Big Issue, Overland, and multiple anthologies, most recently Ourselves (Night Parrot Press, 2024). Zoe was also the 2024 Invited Writer-in-Residence at the KSP Writers’ Centre.
Kerry Munnery, for her manuscript The Darkwater Child
Kerry Munnery is an Australian writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. Her work has appeared in a range of publications including The Big Issue, Kill Your Darlings, Heroines Anthology, and Victorian Writer, and she has also been shortlisted or placed in a number of short story competitions. Her writing often engages with the overlap between the everyday and the uncanny, a topic she explored in a Masters of Arts by Research in Creative Writing at RMIT. She lives and works in Melbourne, on the lands of the Wurundjeri people.
Michelle Stephens, for her mauscript Sleeper
A reformed architect, Michelle now enjoys creating figurative worlds from her home base in Melbourne. Her writing always veers to the dark and the twisty and her debut thriller manuscript was recently Highly Commended in the 2024 ASA/CA Mentorship programme and awarded a fellowship at KSP Writers’ Centre.
Sarah Vincent, for her manuscript Amorous Dreams, Hungry Danger
Sarah is a graduate of RMIT's Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing and now teaches in the program. Her memoir Death By Dim Sim was published by Penguin Random House. She has had fiction, essays and creative non-fiction published in various publications and been shortlisted in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize and The Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fictionLab Prize for Experimental Nonfiction. She lives in Melbourne, on the lands of the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation.
Affirm Press would also like to highlight Michelle Haines Thomas's submission Survival Notes as highly commended.
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