The Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship (IWMF) was created by the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust (MGCLT) to honour our founding Chair, the late Honourable Ian Wilson AM.

The IWMF was established by the Trust to honour one of our founders and first Chair, the late Hon. Ian Wilson AM. This Fellowship is offered annually and supports an emerging author or illustrator with creative time and professional development.

The Trust's mission is to support the creativity and careers of contemporary Australian children's writers and illustrators by providing Residential Fellowships.

IWM Fellows will spend the 2 weeks working intensively on their creative project; a further week will be spent undertaking a co-constructed schedule of supported networking opportunities, visits, and professional development. These opportunities are subject to availability but may include networking opportunities with local professional groups; meetings with industry representatives such as publishers, book shop selectors or children’s librarians; observation of the work of people such as teacher librarians or writers/illustrators at work; attendance at the Adelaide Festival’s Writers’ Week.

The Trust works in the name of May Gibbs but has no connection with her financial legacy and does not hold the copyright on any of her works.

Selection Criteria

• Literary merit
• The clarity of the proposed project outline
• The contribution the Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship is likely to make to the development of the applicant's creative skills and literary career.

• Proposals must be for work that reflects Australian voices or themes
• Proposals must be from emerging authors or illustrators whose work is unpublished or self-published, or whose work has been published only as an educational resource
• Project proposals must be for unpublished work for children or young people up to the age of 18 years
• Project proposals must be for work in development at any stage of the project’s life-cycle.

• Email: contact@maygibbs.org.au