$80,000 writing Fellowships drive major new Australian books
April 22, 2026
The impact of two of Australia’s richest fellowships for authors offered by the Copyright Agency is being brought to life through two new timely books, reaffirming the significance of important Fellowships for authors at crucial stages of their writing careers.
At $80,000 each, the Copyright Agency’s Author Fellowship and Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing provide mid-career and established writers with the time and financial support needed to develop ambitious works. Applications for this year’s Fellowships are now open and close on 17 August.
Two recently published books highlight the significance of this investment in Australian storytelling.
Sydney-based author Fiona Kelly McGregor, the 2024 Author Fellow, has just published The Trap with Picador Pan Macmillan Australia. The novel, based on a real-life scandal, explores wartime Sydney’s underworld of corruption, policing and persecution, and brings to light a hidden history of injustice experienced by marginalised communities.
Patrick Mullins, recipient of the 2023 Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing, will publish The Stained Man: a crime, a scandal, and the making of a nation with Scribe on 28 April 2026. The book tells the gripping true story of a Sydney solicitor at the centre of a notorious poisoning case, tracing a decades long saga of scandal, ambition and political reinvention that helped shape modern Australia. Mullins has said the project required extensive archival research across court records, parliamentary papers and historical accounts, work made possible through the Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing.
Copyright Agency CEO Josephine Johnston says, “The Cultural Fund Fellowships provide critical support for Australian authors. These Fellowships enable writers to undertake projects of depth, scale and national significance.
Together, these works reflect the vital role the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund plays in supporting Australian writers to create bold, original and enduring contributions to the nation’s literary landscape.”
In addition, Mirandi Riwoe, the 2022 Author Fellow, will publish A Short History of Longans with UQP in July. Spanning centuries and generations, the novel traces the tangled history of an Irish Chinese family, moving from a storm ravaged future to the mid nineteenth century where a bushranger’s story begins. As buried secrets resurface, the novel explores memory, identity and belonging, revealing how the past continues to shape lives across time and place.
The Fellowships also continue to support future major publications. The 2025 Author Fellow Julie Janson is working on Deliverance and Fornication, to be published by Penguin Random House in 2027. Julienne van Loon, the 2025 Fellow for Non-Fiction Writing, is developing Women of the Future: Six essays on world leading scientists, to be published by NewSouth Publishing in 2027.
Applications for the 2026 Author Fellowship and Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing close on 17 August.