Cultural Fund calendar: February to June 2022
February 14, 2022
Cultural Fund Grants
Applications for Copyright Agency’s Reading Australia Fellowship for Teachers of English and Literacy open on 28 February. This Fellowship supports an experienced teacher or teacher librarian to undertake professional skills development and career-enhancing opportunities, with projects to start after 1 August 2022. Read more about the eligibility requirements as well as the resources for Australian literature that are freely-available on Reading Australia. Applications close 1pm 2 May.
We are preparing for our second year of Copyright Agency Partnerships. This year we’re partnering with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne. Visual artists: look out for the call for entries on 4 April.
Finally, applications for the Cultural Fund’s Grants for Organisations (Round 1 for 2022) are open! Read more about our priorities and eligibility criteria and contact us by email (culturalfund@copyright.com.au) if you have any questions.
Upcoming supported projects
Kicking off again in February are Guardian Australia’s weekly Australian book reviews. Keep up to date with new releases for your TBR pile! Reviews featured to date include:
- ‘The Grass Hotel by Craig Sherborne, review by Jack Callil
- ‘Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandra, review by Zoya Patel
- Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au, review by Imogen Dewey
Brisbane Writers’ Festival has started its Author/Editor series on a high with recently-published debut author Michelle Law (Asian Girls are Going Places) catching up with her editor, Allison Hiew. Don’t miss the next episode, with Professor Larissa Behrendt in conversation with editor Jacqueline Blanchard and publisher Madonna Duffy. All episodes will be available online until 31 December 2022.
The UTS New Writer’s Fellowship has hosted Anwen Crawford, Bri Lee, Christine Piper, Chris Raja and Fiona Wright, all of whom have written fabulous new books. UTS has updated its eligibility for 2022 (please refer to their website); applications close 28 February.
The recently published Big Issue Summer Fiction Edition features twelve Australian writers! The Cultural Fund’s support ensured that they were paid industry rates for their work. Support your local vendor and discover a new favourite author (or purchase copies online).
Perth Festival Literature & Ideas Writers’ Weekend is fast approaching on 26–27 February. The Cultural Fund is supporting the following authors and sessions, connecting them to a broader audience of readers and the writing community.
- The Joy of Reading: authors Craig Silvey, Sisonke Msimang and Tony Birch (appearing via livestream), with Claire Nichols, reflect on their favourite novels and the beneficial impacts of reading.
- Legacy: Stories of Love and Resistance: Authors Dr Cindy Solonec and Dr Elfie Shiosaki, with Sisonke Msimang, discuss the legacies revealed within colonial archives and the intergenerational impact of the Aborigines Act 1905.
- How it Begins: Debut authors Maria Papas and Emma Young, with Holden Sheppard, relive the experience of writing and publishing their first novels.
Author and illustrator masterclasses for children’s writing, editing and publishing are part of the 100 Story Building’s Early Harvest 10 Year Festival. Masterclasses start on 26 February, with author Oliver Phommavanh and comic artist Holly Adkins. Over the next few weekends, you can join illustrator Kate Moon for Light & Colour: making portraits with feeling to discover the key elements of a successful portrait; author Alice Pung OAM in Story Sleuths: 10 Year Quest; and artist Heesco for an illustrator masterclass. Check out the full program here.
The Australian Booksellers Association’s targeted ‘ICYMI 50: Must-read new Australian books you might have missed’ campaign, offering 20% off RRP of featured titles in participating stores, ends on 28 February. See our feature story for more information.
So many excellent Australian writers apply for prizes and awards, which is why the Cultural Fund champions the longlist for the Stella Prize. The 2022 Stella Prize Longlist Announcement will be announced on 28 February at The Wheeler Centre (follow along online if you cannot make it in person). Other key dates for future reference:
- Shortlist announcement: 31 March
- Winner announcement: 28 April
Opening soon are the entries for the David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection, as part of the 2022 Queensland Literary Awards. Catch up on last year’s winners at the State Library of Queensland.
The Dorothy Hewett Award shortlist is announced in March 2022. This Award is open to all writers who have completed a manuscript and are seeking publication.
Entries close on 30 March for The Daisy Utemorrah Award. If you are an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writer currently living in Australia with an unpublished manuscript of junior or YA fiction, then this is for you!
Ivy Shih will edit this year’s Best Australian Science Writing 2022. Entries for the UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing close 31 March, so check submission details and other information here.
Adelaide has a wonderful line-up of Australian writers and visual artists in March. The 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State opens on 4 March. Curated by Sebastian Goldspink, Free/State assembles a group of artists challenging histories and art forms, from a range of art practices. This promises to be an outstanding exhibition.
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Serena Bonson (NT), Mitch Cairns (NSW), Dean Cross (NSW), Shaun Gladwell (VIC), Dennis Golding (NSW), Loren Kronemyer (TAS), Laith McGregor (NSW), Kate Mitchell (QLD), Tracey Moffatt (NSW), Stanislava Pinchuk (VIC), Tom Polo (NSW), JD Reforma (NSW), Reko Rennie (VIC), Julie Rrap (NSW), Kate Scardifield (NSW), Darren Sylvester (VIC), Jelena Telecki (NSW), Rhoda Tjitayi (SA), James Tylor & Rebecca Selleck (ACT), Angela & Hossein Valamanesh (SA), Sera Waters (SA) and Min Wong (NSW).
Hot on the Biennial’s heels is Adelaide Writers’ Week 2022: A Better Picture on 5 March. The Cultural Fund is supporting these authors/sessions:
- Comrades in Words: Christos Tsiolkas and Charlotte Wood, chaired by Nicole Abadee. These award-winning authors discuss their inspirations and how to wrestle ideas onto the page.
- All About Yves: Notes from a Transition with Yves Rees, chaired by Jennifer Mills. Yves shares their journey with us.
- Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience with Veronica Gorrie, chaired by Tali Levi. Black and Blue won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Prize for Indigenous Writing at the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
- Motherhood Express with Alice Pung and Allee Richards, Chaired by Jo Case. Both protagonists in these books find themselves unexpectedly confronting motherhood.
If you haven’t yet seen our 2020 Visual Artist Fellow Khaled Sabsabi’s exhibition ‘A Hope’ at Campbeltown Arts Centre, you have until 13 March. Brisbanites can see more of his work in the group exhibition ‘This language that is every stone’, exhibiting at the Institute of Modern Art until 14 April.
Finally, Vivienne Binns: On and through the surface is a major survey exhibition at Monash University Museum of Art in Victoria. It closes on 14 April to travel to Sydney, where it will show at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 15 July – 25 September 2022.
Other dates for your diary
8 March the new Australian Children’s Laureate will be announced
3-8 May Brisbane Writers’ Festival
16-22 May Sydney Writers’ Festival, Our Favourites’ Favourites
9 June BookUp 2022: ‘What next for the Australian book industry?’ (hosted by the Australian Publishers Association at the ICC in Darling Harbour)
9 June Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) for 2022
Mid-June Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist will be announced
Mid-June The Walkley Awards announce the winners of the 2022 Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism
23-26 June NT Writers Festival 2022 in Darwin