Writing NSW is delighted to announce its 2023 Varuna fellowship has been awarded to Alison Martin.
Alison was awarded the fellowship for her novel The Wild, which she describes as “Part historical fiction about the last woman hanged in NSW, accused of murdering her husbands with rat poison; part political satire about the treatment of women in politics and society.” Alison’s work was a standout for all judges. The judges said, “Timely and important, vivid and lyrical, this entry showed extraordinary skill and potential.”
The judges for this year’s Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship were human rights lawyer, community organiser, and writer Sara M Saleh, Fiction Publisher for HarperCollins and Voyager Anna Valdinger, and Writing NSW Program Manager Rowena Tuziak.
The two runners up for the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship are Adrian Mouhajer and Susie Walsh. Adrian’s powerful poetry collection Haki Al Nas is an exploration of the Arab-Australian queer Muslim experience in Western Sydney. Susie’s lyrical meta-memoir My Broken Hearted Hill: Song Book of a Mining Town Girlhood delves into growing up Autistic in Broken Hill.
The judges were impressed by the high standard and diversity of entries across genres, and expressed what a challenging judging process it was owing to the strength and volume of submissions. They hope all entrants continue to submit to competition and fellowship opportunities.
Awarded annually, the Writing NSW Varuna Fellowships are for members of Writing NSW who have a work that is ready for the next stage of development. Through this initiative the winner, Alison Martin, will receive a week-long residency at Varuna, the National Writers’ House.
Alison Martin is a writer, former political advisor and humanitarian worker previously based in Palestine, South Sudan, Indonesia, and now in Australia. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Peter Carey Short Story Award, the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize and the Margaret River Short Story Competition. She has published both fiction and non-fiction, including in The Saturday Paper, Westerly, Overland, Seizure, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and the collection Lost Boy and Other Stories.
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