Arts NT Fellowships announced
Nine Territory emerging and established writers have been selected to participate in the Arts NT Varuna Fellowships during 2020-2021.
Residency fellowships will take place from January to June 2021 and include a two-week residency at Varuna, allowing uninterrupted writing time, plus $1,500 in funding to support individual expenses including travel, manuscript consultations, or accommodation in Sydney on the way through to the Blue Mountains.
The Residential Fellowship recipients’ projects include:
tafaoga mamao epic journeys by Léuli Eshragi (Alice Springs) - poems that chart faʻafafine belonging and global Indigenous struggles for decolonisation through reflecting and enacting beyond-human kinships and artmaking.
The Shores Between by A’Mhara Mckey (Darwin) – the first novel from this award-winning author about a woman on the run who must walk the line between fact and folklore to find her missing brother before he's lost forever.
The Territory by Brian Obiri-Asare (Tennant Creek) – a collection of poetry where the black body is able to dream and celebrate the end of the denial of how lonely it is to live without black thought and black poetry.
The Virtual Fellowship recipients and their projects include:
A Loving Family Home by Shele Parker Black (Darwin) – this collection of poetry transforms tales of intolerance into poems of love.
Anything You Want by Julie U’Ren (Darwin) – a collection of short stories of Northern Australia where characters face moments of change often in isolation and are taken deep into the moment.
Kissing the Sky by Dani Powell (Alice Springs) – acclaimed animateur, author and poet, this work charts the journey of Aello and her son Sam back to the forest of her childhood where she recovers her lost relationship with the natural world.
Of Tropical Fruit and Death by Tisha Tejaya (Darwin) – a work of fiction exploring migrant and refugee stories of escape from South-East Asia and adapting to life in the final frontier of the Territory.
Running to Country by Meg Mooney (Alice Springs) – a memoir about love of country and wild places in changing times in the central Australian deserts.
The One and Only, Enid Botton by Miranda Tetlow (Darwin) – an award-winning author of short fiction, this is Miranda’s first book for children.
The virtual residency program will run in November 2020 and includes:
Online sessions with Varuna writing consultant Dr Carol Major and award-winning Northern Territory author and poet Dr Leni Shilton.
Online Q&A sessions with award-winning authors Alexis Wright (winner of the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and 2018 Stella Prize) and Territory playwright Mary Anne Butler (winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Award for Drama).
Daily facilitated professional networking opportunities facilitated in partnership with the NT Writers’ Centre.