Copyright Council Cultural Fund – Krien and Drewe Writers Fellowships

The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund has awarded two life-changing Writers Fellowships, valued at $80,000 each, to support Australian writers at the top of their field to create new and important works.

The Cultural Fund’s Author Fellowship and Non-Fiction Writing Fellowship are two of Australia’s richest and most significant grants for writers. This year, they have been awarded to novelist and Walkley Award-winning journalist, Robert Drewe, and award-wining non-fiction writer, Anna Krien (Deakin alumnus).

This year’s Fellowships are:

• Author Fellowship: Robert Drewe, to write a novel Nimblefoot, which is based on Australia’s first international sporting hero of “pedestrianism” (walking matches). It follows his wild endeavours, which included becoming a jockey and winning the Melbourne Cup riding the coincidently named Nimblefoot in 1870.
• Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing: Melbourne writer and journalist Anna Krien for The Long Goodbye: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which will be published in 2022. Krien wrote a Quarterly Essay in 2017 on The Great Barrier Reef, and her Fellowship project is an extension of that essay, investigating the science, economics, energy policy and players involved in the reef’s challenges.

The Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund Author and Non-Fiction Fellowships are renowned for enjoying significant success. Melissa Lucashenko’s Too Much Lip, which was written during her Fellowship in 2017, went on to the win the prestigious 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Jeff Sparrow will release his 2018 fellowship project Crimes Against Nature in November this year, and 2017 winner Kathryn Heyman’s memoir Fury was published by Allen & Unwin in May to critical acclaim. Non-fiction works including Bernadette Brennan’s Gillian Mears: Dancing to a Minor Key, James Bradley’s Deep Water and Krissy Kneen’s With This Body are all set to publish in 2022.

(from CAL Cultural Fund media release)

Image Credit: Anna Krien, 2021 Fellow for Non-Fiction Writing. Photo courtesy EMG. Robert Drewe 2021 Author Fellow, photo by Tracy Drewe.