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black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowships
or kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
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History

black&write! Writing Fellowships are awarded to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writers with an unpublished manuscript. Two Fellowships are awarded every year to assist with manuscript development, and a publishing opportunity.

The Fellowship is run by the black&write! national project run at State Library of Queensland, with the support of Australian Council for the Arts, Hachette Australia and Magabala Books.

The Fellowship was first offered in 2011. Not awarded in 2017.

Source: SLQ website.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

winner Susie Anderson for 'The Body Country' [poetry collection].

Year: 2020

winner Eunice Day for 'Rabbits by the Fence Line'.
winner Carl Merrison for 'Backyard Sports'.

Year: 2019

joint winner Tania Crampton-Larking for unpublished manuscript 'Brightest Wild'
joint winner Lisa Fuller for unpublished manuscript 'Welshpool'

Year: 2018

joint winner Lystra Bisschop For YA manuscript 'The Upwelling'.
joint winner y separately published work icon Song of the Crocodile Nardi Simpson , Sydney : Hachette Australia , 2020 19679450 2020 single work novel

'Darnmoor, The Gateway to Happiness. The sign taunts a fool into feeling some sense of achievement, some kind of end- that you have reached a destination in the very least. Yet the sign states clearly, Darnmoor is the gateway, and merely a measure, the mark, a point on a road you begin to move closer to a place you might really want to be.

'Darnmoor is the home of the Billymil family, three generations who have lived in this 'gateway town'. Race relations between Indigenous and settler families are fraught, though the rigid status quo is upheld through threats and soft power rather than the overt violence of yesteryear.

'As progress marches inexorably onward, Darnmoor and its surrounds undergo rapid social and environmental changes, but as some things change, some stay exactly the same. Our protagonist characters are watched (and sometimes visited) by ancestral spirits and spirits of the recently deceased, who look out for their descendants and attempt to help them on the right path.

'When the town's secrets start to be uncovered the town will be rocked by a violent act that forever shatters a century of silence.

'Full of music, Gamillaray language and exquisite description, Song of The Crocodile is a lament to choice and change, and the unyielding land that sustains us all, if we can but listen to it.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2016

joint winner Dylan Coleman For unpublished manuscript Clear Water White Death
joint winner y separately published work icon Terra Nullius Claire G. Coleman , Sydney : Hachette Australia , 2017 11354750 2017 single work novel science fiction

'In the near future Australia is about to experience colonisation once more. What have we learned from our past? A daring debut novel from the winner of the 2016 black&write! writing fellowship.

''Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. Jacky was running.'

'The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all.

'This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This TERRA NULLIUS is something new, but all too familiar.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Works About this Award

Authors Share Culture through Love of Writing 2019 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 22 May no. 701 2019; (p. 39)

'Wulli Wuilli woman Lisa Fuller's passion for writing has brought her recognition  through being awarded on of the 2019 black&write! Fellowships.'

Words Make Their World Turn 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 2 May no. 675 2018; (p. 6)

'Lystra Bisschop from the Gold Coast and Sydney-based Nardi Simpson are the two winners of the 2018 Black & Write! fellowships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. ' 

Terra Nullius First Book for Coleman 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 23 August no. 658 2017; (p. 43)

'black&write! fellow Claire Coleman has released her first book Terra Nullius this month.' (Introduction)

Authors Get Black&write! Fellowships 2016 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 15 June no. 628 2016; (p. 43)
'A story about family resilience and survival and an historical tale with a science-fiction twist are the winners of this year's black&write! Indigenous Writing fellowships. ...'
New Faces for Black&write! 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 1 July no. 604 2015; (p. 66)
'Four Indigenous writers and editors have joined the State Library of Queensland's black&write! Indigenous Writing and Edition team...'
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