The Queensland Writers Fellowships (the Fellowships) are focused on elevating Queensland based early-career writers by providing recipients with support to focus on their creative endeavours and professional development.

The Fellowships support the delivery of Queensland's Time to Shine: A 10-year strategy for arts and culture and its key priorities including Sharing our Stories and Celebrating our Storytellers.

Program Objectives

• Support creative career pathways for early career writers
• Support Queensland writers to create and share great work
• Recognise and celebrate the achievements of Queensland writers

The Fellowship aims to nurture the recipient's writing skills and talent and support the successful completion of a writing project. Fellowships will support writing projects of any genre across the following forms: short stories, poetry, novels, children's books, young adult books, plays, biographies, graphic novels, autobiographies, memoirs, and other works of non-fiction.

The $20,000 cash funding is intended to assist with living expenses during the writing period, allowing the recipients to focus on the development of their writing project. Applicants who are developing an illustrated book, e.g. children's book can use part of their cash funding to pay an illustrator.

In addition, the Fellowships include professional development activities valued at $4,500 provided by professionals in the writing sector. Recipients will co-design a professional development plan tailored to the specific needs and goals outlined in their fellowship application. This support may enable travel to literary events or residencies, participation in workshops and masterclasses, one-on-one mentoring by experienced writers, or editorial guidance to refine and develop the recipient's manuscript.

To be eligible, you must:

• Be a Queensland resident who can provide proof of your current Queensland address.
• Have a strong publication history, demonstrated by at least one or a combination of the following publication outcomes:
  • One full-length published book (trade or self-published) in any genre, which is formally published in book form (print) with an ISBN or published electronically with an ISBN
    o 7 short works of fiction or literary non-fiction (as a guide, a minimum of 1,000 words each) published in literary journals, anthologies, newspapers, or magazines
    o 15 poems published in literary journals, anthologies, newspapers, or magazines, or a chapbook
    o Full-length performance script (theatre or film) that has premiered in Australia.

• Email: investment@arts.qld.gov.au