Writers SA and the State Library of South Australia have announced the recipients of the inaugural SA Literary Fellowships program, which was established to support professional writers living in South Australia to develop new literary works.

The five recipients, who each receive a cash prize and up to three months’ residency with a desk at the State Library of South Australia, are:

• Karen Wyld ($10,000 First Nations fellowship): Wyld will draw on inspiration from South Australian coastal locations and personal memories to develop a collection of short stories, narrative nonfiction and poetry that explores the relationship with local beaches and seas, using the State Library’s Maritime collection of diaries, maps, photographs and paintings as part of her research.
• Katerina Bryant ($10,000 mid-career fellowship): Bryant’s narrative nonfiction manuscript ‘Queen Pawn’ follows her personal journey of being a chess champion and explores women in chess focusing particularly on the first South Australian woman chess champion Evelyn Koshnitsky.
• Walter Marsh ($10,000 mid-career fellowship): The author of Young Rupert: The making of the Murdoch empire will work on the as-yet-untitled follow-up, a work of narrative nonfiction combining history and contemporary reportage that will draw heavily on the State Library’s reference, newspaper, and archival collections.
• Gemma Parker ($3000 emerging fellowship): Poet and essayist Parker will create a fragmentary narrative around the topic of ‘Spider Mother’, drawing on the State Library’s archival collections that best resonate with and enhance her primary themes, from biographical details to family history and newspaper articles.
• Sarah Pearce ($3000 emerging fellowship): Poet and researcher Pearce will draw on the State Library’s resources and use established techniques of found poetry to produce a new collection of ecopoetry.

The successful fellowship recipients will begin their fellowships in 2024. The fellowship program is jointly funded by Creative Australia, Arts South Australia and the Libraries Board of South Australia.

Pictured (L–R): State Library of South Australia director Geoff Strempel, Katerina Bryant, Sarah Pearce, Gemma Parker, Walter Marsh, Karen Wyld and Writers SA CEO Jessica Alice. Pic credit: Sia Duff.

Category: Awards Local news