$80,000 fellowship for mid-late career authors is back!

Each year, the Copyright Council opens up its rather handsome annual Author Fellowship. This fellowship will give you the financial help you need to finish that project. After all, authors have to eat, pay the bill and all those other things required by mere mortals.

From the Copyright Council website:

The Fellowship was established for the first time in 2015, with author Mark Henshaw (The Snow Kimono) being the first recipient for his new work The Missing and Indigenous author Melissa Lucashenko (Mullumbimby) named as the Fellow in 2016 for her new work Too Much Lip.

Copyright Agency CEO, Adam Suckling, says, ‘This is now the flagship fellowship for mid-to-late career authors, providing valuable financing so they can develop their next work.

“As we know, Australian readers love Australian stories, but many would be surprised to learn the average annual income of an author in Australia is $13,000 – an almost 50 per cent decline since 2001.

“In 2016, we doubled the Fellowship’s value in recognition of the time and effort that is required by authors to produce high-quality Australian stories that touch us deeply.”

Mr Suckling says, “Authors are the engine room of this nation’s cultural and creative industries and copyright is fundamental to encouraging and rewarding Australian creativity.”

Who qualifies as “mid-to-late career”? We’re glad you asked! According the Copyright Council website, “authors must have at least five substantial published works (two can be self-published) and a publishing contract in place.”

So, if that’s you, we highly encourage you to put in an application.

Entries close 25 September 2017.

To find out more about the fellowship and to apply, visit the Copyright Council website.