Cultivate Mentorship Program for First Nations and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Emerging Writers

The annual Cultivate Mentorship Program sees up to five emerging writers from First Nations or Culturally and Linguistically 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 First Nations or Culturally and Linguistically 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)

2025

Mentor – Huyen Hac Helen Tran
Winners – Cassandra Li, Naima Amrin, Solomiya Sywak, Sanchana Venkatesh and Wayne Mok

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