It is with some sadness, but also with enormous pride in our achievement, that we announce that the 2026 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship will be the last. The Fellowship has been running for the past 14 years, since Hazel died in March 2011. It was created to honour Hazel as a skilled biographer and to encourage others to write with the same care and enthusiasm in this time-consuming and exacting genre.
Based on Hazel’s own experience, we recognised the need to support a work in progress by providing money for research and travel. Over the past 14 years, the Fellowship has supported more than 20 writers to progress and finish their projects.
We are incredibly proud of these authors and their publications coming out of this initiative—all beautiful biographies on a range of subjects, including Gwen Harwood, Frank Moorhouse, Vida Goldstein, Elizabeth von Arnim, Thomas Keneally, early filmmakers the McDonagh Sisters and a memoir by Maxine Beneba Clarke, among others. Some of these books have won national and state-based prizes, and many have been longlisted and shortlisted. There will be more fabulous biographies in the coming years as previous Fellows complete their projects.
The Fellowship, by supporting writers, has made a significant contribution to contemporary Australian biography and memoir and, importantly, has allowed us to remember Hazel and celebrate her achievements.
Louise Adler, Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, said, “I was honoured to publish Hazel’s award-winning and truly brilliant biography of Christina Stead and later her wonderful portrait of a marriage, Franklin and Eleanor. Both books set the benchmark in their genre. Hazel’s courage in the subjects she chose was matched by the courageous way she lived. I miss her contribution to our literary culture and her friendship.”
The support and encouragement we have received from the writing community has been amazing, including our wonderful judges, our donors and the willing speakers at our major event in March each year when we announce the winner of the Fellowship.
During the course of the Fellowship, we have given over $300,000 to writers. Our money has been invested wisely by the Australian Communities Foundation, which has grown the value of the donations we have received, and we have been able to increase the Fellowship to $20,000 from the initial $10,000. None of this would have been possible without our partnerships with Writers Victoria, Adelaide Writers’ Week and the Australian Communities Foundation.
There are so many people to thank before we finally finish up. From our small beginnings with three hard-working friends of Hazel’s, it has grown far beyond our wildest dreams, and we feel that all our winners are part of our Hazel Rowley literary family.
We will open for applications for the last Fellowship on 1 October 2025 and close on 16 November 2025. Our final Fellowship announcement will take place at Adelaide Writers’ Week on 4 March 2026. We are also planning an event in Melbourne in March 2026 at the State Library Victoria.