The Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund recognises the unique value of travel in the development of writing and literary careers.
In partnership with the Myer Foundation, the Travel Fund supports emerging, midcareer, and established Australian writers and literary sector workers in pursuing professional development opportunities. This includes writers, editors, agents, publishers, librarians, booksellers, employees and associates of literary organisations and journals, and other literary professionals currently living in Australia.
Applicants can apply for grants between $2,000 and $10,000. These grants support professional development through travel.
Round 13 is now closed.
Applicants will be notified in early June 2025.
Round 12 recipients
- Poet, producer, editor and weaver Anne-Marie Te Whiu (NSW) – awarded funding to attend The Church Rawene residency in the Hokianga, Aotearoa, to work on her next manuscript.
- Writer Deborah Huff-Horwood (ACT) – awarded funding to travel to South Australia to conduct research for her YA queer romance novel.
- Poet, critic and artist Gurmeet Kaur (VIC) – awarded funding to attend a residency program in the UK and conduct research to develop her poetry collection, So Much Sun, which explores themes of memoir, haunting, place and global diasporic consciousness.
- Writer and journalist Jack Latimore (VIC) – awarded funding to travel to the Northern Territory to work on his project on Australia’s assault on Aboriginal Youth.
- Poet and artist Manisha Anjali (VIC) – awarded funding to travel to her ancestral island, Taveuni, Fiji, to conduct research for her upcoming poetry collection.
- Novelist and essayist Ronnie Scott (VIC) – awarded funding to travel to Spain to research his third novel, about queer filmmaking as AIDS memorial, at Filmoteca Española in Madrid.
- Novelist and poet Sera Jonas Jakob (NSW) – awarded funding to travel to the Harz mountains of Germany to undertake family history research to complete her second novel.
- Poet Vuong Pham (QLD) – awarded funding to visit the War Remnants Museum in Saigon to help craft his first full-length collection of poetry, Reborn.
Read the full announcement on our website here.
Previous recipients
Round 11 recipients
Elfy Scott, Laura Jean McKay, Lisa Fuller, Lystra Rose, Jo Langdon, Sam Elkin, Sarah Firth and Sharlene Allsopp. Read the full announcement on our website here.
Round 10
Alana Hicks, Alison J Barton, Ana Brawls, Carly Findlay, Eda Gunaydin, Emily Bitto, Meleika / vika mana, Muhib Nabulsi, Tim White. Read the full announcement on our website here.
Round 9
Brian Obiri-Asare, Aimee Chan, Amy McQuire and Matt Chun, Jack Kirne, Stefan Sabatini, Lorna Munro and Karen Wyld. Read the full announcement on our website here.
Round 8
Daniel Ward, Katrina Trinh, André Dao, Eunice Andrada, Hasib Hourani, Simone Jordan, Eugen Bacon. Read the full announcement on our website here.
Round 7
Aimee Knight, Alison Gibbs, Eileen Herbert-Goodall, Jazz Money, Micaela Sahhar, Nicole Lee, Robert Wood, Sara Saleh, Susan Francis, Yen Pham.
Round 6
Amanda Anastasi, Madeleine Gray, Shakira Hussein, Miranda Luby, Brooke Maddison, Marjon Mossammaparast, Michael Ryan, Michelle Scott Tucker, Mark Smith, Annabel Stafford, Lowana Tudor-Smith, Kate Wild.
Round 5
Cate Kennedy, Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk, Fiona Hardy, Madelaine Dickie, Maria Takolander, Mirandi Riwoe, Robert Lukins, Ruhi Lee, Sara Saleh, Tamara Lazaroff.
Round 4
Annabel Brady-Brown, Cher Tan, Ellen O’Brien, Fiona Murphy, Heather Dyer, Melanie Joosten, Oliver Reeson, Sara Mansour, Sista Zai Zanda, Susie Anderson, Yvette Holt.
Round 3
Allison Colpoys, Cassandra Pybus, Christine Sun, Eleanor Limprecht, Josephine Wilson, Katherine Collette, Lauren Chater, Sam Twyford-Moore, Tom Holloway.
Round 2
Bruce Pascoe, Chris Andrews, Damon Young, Ellen van Neerven, Emma Viskic, Janine Mikosza, Jennifer Porter, Jessica Friedmann, Laura Woollett, Louis Klee, Melinda Smith, Rebecca Giggs, Sam Cooney.
Round 1
Alexandra Collier, Andrew Bovell, Arwen Summers, Bren MacDibble, Eda Gunaydin, Mark O’Flynn, Michael Earp, Michael Green, Robert Dessaix, Vanessa Russell.