Melbourne City of Literature announces travel fund recipients
14 May 2015 Books+Publishing @booksandpublishing
The recipients of the Melbourne City of Literature Travel Fund have been announced.
The travel fund, which offers grants of up to $3000, was launched in 2014 and aims to support Victoria’s literary sector ‘to seize exciting opportunities for their own professional development as well as the promotion of Melbourne as a City of Literature’.
Twenty-three successful applicants were chosen from a total of 72. They are:
- Shirley Bateman: librarian travelling to the UK and Ireland to investigate how other Cities of Literature are engaging their communities and promoting their status
- Matt Blackwood: writer and artist presenting a bespoke literature project at the Arts Festival Dunedin and a public discussion of civic literature projects
- Louis Bravos: translator attending the City University of London’s ‘Translate in the City’ Summer School, and researching the promotion of translated literature at universities in Paris and Norwich
- Rebecca Butterworth: emerging Melbourne writer travelling throughout country Victoria to explore and document the rural-metropolitan divide
- Kat Clay: emerging genre fiction author attending the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Spokane, Washington to research and promote science-fiction and fantasy writing
- Zoey Dawson: playwright and independent theatre artist travelling to New York to complete a three-week internship with experimental playwright Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Company
- Cory Greenwood: Moonee Valley librarian visiting the Street Press Community Writing and Publishing Centre in California to investigate opportunities for public libraries to develop their own writing/publishing centres
- Melinda Harvey: writer and academic researching the use of literature in healthcare and wellbeing at The Reader Organisation in Liverpool, and the Columbia University Medical Centre Narrative Medicine Workshop in New York
- Susan Hawthorne: publisher and writer travelling to Turkey for the cross-linguistic meeting of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers (IAIP)
- Sarah Howell: illustrator attending the International Comics Festival in Angouleme, France to expand and consolidate Melbourne’s comic and graphic novel culture
- Sahida Ibrahim: creative producer attending Dialogue Arts Project (DAP) in New York to receive further training and development in best practices in critical literacy, connected learning through poetry, and social justice education
- Lisa Lang: educator receiving training in facilitation at The Reader Organisation in Liverpool, a social enterprise working to improve the health and wellbeing of communities through shared reading
- Lian Low: spoken word artist participating in the Melaka Art and Performance Festival in Malaysia, and attending the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival
- Marc Martin: writer and illustrator attending the Bologna Book Fair to gain skills and knowledge in the international children’s publishing industry from both a creative and a business perspective
- Michaela McGuire: writer and literary events curator undertaking a mentorship in New York with a focus on producing a series of Women of Letters events in the US
- Amy Middleton: founder and editor of Archer magazine travelling to London and Berlin to gain knowledge about the viability of niche publishing and to broaden the publication’s profile
- Brigid Mullane: emerging editor attending the Editing Goes Global conference in Toronto to establish international partnerships with a focus on the distribution of independent literary journals
- Kathryn Renowden: bookseller undertaking research in London, Paris and Amsterdam in the practice of bookshop operations and literary community programming
- Georgina Russell: development manager attending the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival to gain an understanding of cultural tourism in the literary sector
- Jessica Tran: co-founder of 100 Story Building attending the Write for a Brighter Future Conference in London, a global collaboration of organisations promoting literature and education for young people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
- Samantha van Zweden: emerging writer attending the NonfictioNOW conference in Arizona and various literary events across the US focussing on experimental nonfiction
- Rebecca Varcoe: emerging comedy writer travelling to California and New York for mentorship and interviews
- Vikki Woods: emerging creative producer travelling to San Francisco and New York to gain knowledge and practical skills in presenting literary events in non-traditional venues.
The applications were assessed by Embiggen Books owner Warren Bonett, poet and arts manager Bel Schenk, and Affirm Press publisher and Stella Prize executive director Aviva Tuffield.
For more information about the Melbourne City of Literature Travel Fund, click here.
Category: Local news
