Since 2017, the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel fund has provided access to professional development for emerging, mid-career and established Australian writers and literary sector workers.
On behalf of the Myer Foundation, this round’s judges and Writers Victoria, we are thrilled to announce the Round 12 Travel Fund recipients.
The judges for Round 12 were author and researcher Carolyn Beasley (VIC), writer and teacher of creative writing Suzanne Hermanoczki (VIC) and previous Neilma Sidney recipient, author and editor Eileen Herbert-Goodall (QLD).
This round is the second for 2024, with 166 people applying for $1,019,594 in funding. After much deliberation, the judges awarded $50,794.83 to eight successful recipients.
Congratulations to:
- 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.
To read more about the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund, including previous rounds and recipients, visit this page.