2025 NT Varuna Writing Fellowship recipients announced
Congratulations to the 9 Northern Territory writers awarded this year's NT Varuna Writing Fellowships.
Supported by Arts NT and the Eleanor Dark Foundation, these talented individuals have been recognised for their innovative work in genres like feminism, poverty and satire.
The 2025 fellowship program, providing in-house and virtual residencies at Varuna in New South Wales, offers a total funding of $16,800 to support these writers in their creative endeavours.
The in-house residency recipients are:
- Sophie Collins for her insightful exploration of feminism in the medical field.
- Anne Schmidt for her compelling novel on death and resilience.
- Kyla St Jaye for her powerful memoir addressing family violence and poverty.
The virtual residency recipients are:
- Renee McBryde for Hysteria, a novel that follows the lives of three women and their tightly woven friendships in the middle of outback Australia.
- A'mhara McKey for A Shadow in the Water, a novel about a retired athlete who uncovers the hidden journals of an infamous bushranger and learns there are some who will do anything to keep his secrets buried forever.
- Shele Parker Black for A Comet's Two Tails, a high-octane adoption mystery and redemptive love letter for her family.
- Sarah Reuben for I Trust Your Answer is Correct, a dark satirical theatre script that uses the façade of Australian 90s game shows to interrogate the weaponisation of the pain, suffering and death in war.
- Myshka Spalding for Poems for Lost Girls, a collection of poems exploring the transition from childhood into adulthood through the female gaze.
- Ciella Williams for Life is Swift, a play about two Darwin teenagers that are sucked through an interdimensional portal into Taylor Swift's version of the universe.
In addition, Sally Bothroyd was highly commended by the assessment panel for her manuscript Cursed Stones.
Since 2016, the fellowship has fostered 52 writers, significantly enriching the Northern Territory's literary landscape. We are thrilled to see what these writers will achieve next!
For more details, visit the Varuna, The National Writers' House website
