Cultivate Mentorship Program for Emerging Writers from Diverse Backgrounds

The annual Cultivate program sees up to five emerging writers from Indigenous or culturally diverse backgrounds given the opportunity to work on a short piece of fiction or non-fiction (2000-5000 words) under the guidance of an established author/editor  and with support from Writing NSW. The aim of the program is to ready the works to be submitted to journals or other platforms for publication.

The program is open to emerging writers from Indigenous or culturally diverse backgrounds who have some record of publication but have not yet published a book-length work. Applicants must be NSW residents and over the age of 18.

Successful applicants receive:

• Mentoring from an established author/editor, including the opportunity to receive feedback on two drafts of the work and advice on where to submit it for publication
• Membership and development opportunities from Writing NSW, including a free short course of their choosing (subject to availability)

2024

Mentor – Eugen Bacon
Winners – Marwa Hijazi, Joshua Abrokwah, Lina Jabbour, Sonny Arifien and Judi Morison
Highly Commended – An Ngo, Skye Paez, and Michael Gunawan

2023

Mentor – Eugen Bacon
Winners – Tamara Haque, Hiromi Matsuoka, Cherry Zheng, Annie McCann, Guan Un, Andrew John, Teneale Lavender, Michelle Huynh and Celine Eigner

2022

Mentor – Roanna Gonsalves
Winners – Jacqueline Mohr, Mayu Kanamori, Harold Legaspi, Audrey Newton, Azka Hameed and Layla Tan