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The Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
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History

The Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund will award $300,000 in grants over three years to writers, editors, agents, publishers, booksellers and other literary professionals.

The fund is supported by the Myer Foundation.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

recipient Amanda Anastasi to travel the Great Barrier Reef to write a series of poems to raise awareness of climate change impacts
recipient Madeline Gray to travel to Melbourne for professional development at the Melbourne Writers Festival
recipient Shakira Hussein to undertake research in New Zealand for essay and memoir manuscript ‘Nine Elevenitis’
recipient Miranda Luby to undertake research on Flinders Island for a contemporary young adult novel
recipient Brooke Madison for a research trip to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) for debut novel ‘drift’
recipient Marjon Mossammaparast to travel to Tasmania for research on a poetry collection
recipient Michael Ryan for travel to Adelaide for a nonfiction book about the unsolved murder that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Australia
recipient Michelle Scott Tucker for travel to Cairns and Bamaga to work with Aaron Fa’Aoso on his memoir
recipient Mark Smith to travel to Albany, WA, for research for new adult novel, ‘Three Boys Gone’
recipient Annabel Strafford to undertake a research trip to Perth and Wyndham for nonfiction book ‘The Wanted and the Unwanted’
recipient Lowana Tudor-Smith for travel to the Northern Territory for research for ‘Bina: First Nations languages old and new’
recipient Kate Wild for travel to Darwin and Yuendumu to cover the murder trial of a police officer for the fatal shooting of a Warlpiri man.

Year: 2019

recipient Sista Zai Zanda
recipient Heather Dyer
recipient Melanie Joosten
recipient Cher Tan
recipient Fiona Murphy
recipient Cate Kennedy
recipient Evelyn Araluen with Jonathan Dunk, for a dual project.
recipient Jonathan Dunk with Evelyn Araluen, for a dual project.
recipient Fiona Hardy
recipient Mirandi Riwoe
recipient Ruhi Lee
recipient Sara Saleh
recipient Tamara Lazaroff

Year: 2018

recipient Bruce Pascoe to attend the UK release of his book on Aboriginal agricultural history Dark Emu (Magabala)
recipient Chris Andrews

to give a paper at the International Conference on Comparative Translation in Buenos Aires, Argentina

recipient Damon Young

to undertake a publicity tour in the UK for his book The Art of Reading (MUP), and to undertake panel talks and workshops at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

recipient Ellen van Neerven

for travel to Japan to attend a poetry translation workshop at Tokyo’s Meiji University

recipient Emma Viskic

to undertake a publicity tour in the UK to promote her book And Fire Came Down (Bonnier), and to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival

recipient Janine Mikosza

to undertake a research trip to Jervis Bay, NSW, and a residency in Bundanon, NSW, to work on her literary memoir manuscript ‘Homesickness: Trauma and the Power of Childhood Homes’

recipient Jennifer Porter

for a research trip to Hobart to work on her manuscript, ‘The Reverend’, and to attend the Tasmanian Writers Festival

recipient Jessica Friedmann

for a research trip to Prince Edward Island and Ontario, Canada, to develop her manuscript ‘Priest Pond’, which acts as a parallel text to L M Montgomery’s ‘Emily of New Moon’ series

recipient Laura Woollett

for a research trip to Norfolk Island to work on her manuscript ‘Kingdom by the Sea’, a novel concerning child abuse on Pitcairn Island

recipient Louis Klee

to participate in the UNESCO City of Literature Poet in Residency program in Krakow, Poland

recipient Melinda Smith

for travel to Japan to attend a poetry translation workshop at Tokyo’s Meiji University

recipient Rebecca Giggs

to attend a writing residency at the Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany

recipient Sam Cooney

for travel to London to meet with publishers, editors and agents, and to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Year: 2017

recipient Alexandra Collier

awarded for a professional-development workshop in New York City for her musical 'Triplight'. Alexandra was granted $3,702.

recipient Andrew Bovell

$3,200 awarded for an Artist in Residency program in Madrid to develop a new performance work with Spanish theatre director, Julian Fuentes Reta. 

recipient Bren MacDibble

$2,999 awarded for a research trip through rural New South Wales and Victoria to inform her dystopian, climate-focused novel, which explores the extinction of grass.

recipient Eda Gunaydin $4,050 awarded for a research trip to France and Germany for a novel that explores first-and-second-generation members of the Turkish diaspora.
recipient Michael Earp

$6,036 awarded for a professional-development conference on children's bookselling in New Orleans and a writing residency in Pennsylvania

recipient Michael Green

$6,670 awarded for a research trip to Manus Island to inform an essay on the impending closure of the detention centre. Also, for a research trip to Brisbane to follow the coronial inquiry into the death of Faysal Ishak Ahmed.

recipient Mark O'Flynn $5,000 awarded for a research trip to Tasmania to inform a novel that concerns the 1933 arrival of German SS agents in Tasmania. 
recipient Robert Dessaix

$2,850 awarded for invitations to the Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur Literary Festivals in India.

recipient Vanessa Russell

$5,760awarded for a research trip to Christmas Island, Port Headland and Acacia Prison to inform her novel 'Refugee Zoo', which concerns the life and death of Ahmad Shah Abed. 

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