On Wednesday 5 March, in front of a large audience at Adelaide Writers’ Week, Michelle Staff (ACT) was announced as winner of the 2025 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.
Michelle Staff was awarded $20,000 for her proposed joint biography of sisters Bessie Rischbieth and Olive Evans, two influential activist women in Australia’s feminist, social and political history during the early twentieth century.
“The judges loved Michelle’s approach to her subjects,” said Della Rowley, sister of Hazel Rowley. “Their advocacy for women’s rights had long-lasting effects. The entwined story of these sisters is an important one.”
“The judges all agreed that Michelle Staff’s application was an outstanding choice,” commented Fellowship judge, Clare Wright.
“Michelle’s project thrilled us, creatively and conceptually, as it seeks to resurrect the historical importance of Bessie Rischbieth, a woman who dedicated her life’s energy and resources to ensuring that women’s political activism was not lost to history. But more than that, investigating the lives of the two sisters – Bessie and Olive, one a childless widow, one a mother of six – promises a nuanced reading of both the random and systemic forces that have shaped women’s lives.”
In recognition of the outstanding shortlist, the judges also announced two Highly Commended Awards: Monique Rooney for a biography of New Zealand-born Australian writer Ruth Park, and Jennifer Martin for a biography of Australian journalist Eva Sommer. “The judges were excited and impressed by both these proposals, and wish to encourage Monique and Jennifer in their efforts to complete their works,” said Fellowship judge Christos Tsiolkas.
The shortlist of nine writers were Jennifer Martin, Jo Oliver, Julienne van Loon, Lucas Jordan, Melanie Saward, Michelle Scott Tucker, Michelle Staff, Monique Rooney, and Yen Tran.
The 2025 announcement followed the Hazel Rowley Memorial Lecture, which this year was a conversation between Geordie Williamson and Matthew Lamb, our 2016 Fellow, talking about Matthew’s book Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths (Knopf, 2023).
The Fellowship was judged by Clare Wright, Christos Tsiolkas, Della Rowley and Lynn Buchanan, and is administered in partnership with Writers Victoria.
Now in its 14th year, the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship was established to commemorate the life and writing of Hazel Rowley, and has a significant track record in enabling biographers and writers of memoir to complete and publish their works. So far 18 writers have been supported by the Fellowship: Ann-Marie Priest, Caroline Baum, Carolyn Dowley, Diane Bell, Drusilla Modjeska, Eleanor Hogan, Gabrielle Carey, Jacqueline Kent, Kate Fullagar, Lance Richardson, Mandy Sayer, Mary Hoban, Matthew Lamb, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Naomi Parry Duncan, Stephany Steggall, Suzanne Spunner and Sylvia Martin.
For more information about the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, visit www.hazelrowley.com.
About the 2025 Fellow
Dr Michelle Staff is a feminist historian based in Kamberri/Canberra. After studying at the Universities of Sydney and Oxford, she completed her PhD at The Australian National University in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Angela Woollacott. Alongside working on a joint biography of feminists and sisters Bessie Rischbieth and Olive Evans, she is the Online and Outreach Manager for the National Centre of Biography at the ANU.