Academics in the news

June 28, 2018

The 2017 Miles Franklin winner, Josephine Wilson, a sessional academic working at University of Western Australia, Murdoch and Curtin Universities, received Copyright Agency Cultural Fund support firstly when her manuscript for Extinctions won the inaugural $10,000 Dorothy Hewett Award in 2016.

As a Miles Franklin shortlister, she (and the other shortlisted authors) each received $5,000 from the Cultural Fund. Extinctions won the Miles Franklin in September 2017 and the following month won the 2017 Colin Roderick Award and the HT Priestley Medal, administered by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies at James Cook University.

Josephine recently addressed a Parliamentary Friends of Books and Writing event in Canberra to celebrate the announcement of this year’s Miles Franklin shortlisted authors. Four of the six authors were present. The six shortlisted authors are: Felicity Castagna, Catherine McKinnon, Kim Scott, Michelle De Kretser, Gerald Murnane and Eva Horning. Read her speech here.

Caption: From left Graham Perrett MP, authors Felicity Castagna, Catherine McKinnon, Kim Scott, Michelle De Kretser, Senator Linda Reynolds and author Josephine Wilson. Photo: Martin Ollman

Roanna Gonsalves

Winner of the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Award, UNSW Creative Writing PhD graduate Roanna Gonsalves is a Cultural Fund grant recipient.

Roanna will spend Semester 2 at UNSW as a Copyright Agency Writer in Residence, working on her historical novel about Governor Macquarie’s Indian servant.

During the three-month residency at UNSW’s School of the Arts & Media, Gonsalves will also undertake master classes, which will be open to students and the general public, present a public lecture and be available for postgraduate and undergraduate student consultations.

Read more.