Writer in Residence
Inner West Writer in Residence
The Inner West Writer in Residence program provides two emerging local writers a studio space, stipend and professional development opportunities for a 6-month period from January 2024.
The program is a collaboration between Inner West Council and Writing NSW and is supported by funding from Council.
About the program
The residency offers two emerging writers:
- Exclusive use of the large writers' studio at Writing NSW for 3 days per week each for 6 months
- A stipend for each writer for the 6-month period
- A year-long Writing NSW membership
- A one-hour consultation with a senior publisher
- Access to a range of Writing NSW events
Eligibility
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Applicants must be over 18 years of age
- Applicants must live in the Inner West Council local government area
- Applicants be an emerging writer
- Submitted material must be your own original work
- Submitted work must be typed using 1.5x spacing with generous margins. For poems, use single spacing, with double spacing between stanzas
- Fiction of all genres, narrative non-fiction, poetry, plays and film and television scripts are eligible for submission. Instructional books and translations are not eligible
- Applicants may only submit one application.
Applications for the Inner West Writer in Residence are now closed.
The Residency will be based at Writing NSW in Callan Park, Lilyfield, and run from 22 January to 31 July 2024.
Guidelines
Guidelines are available here:
2024 winners announced
The successful Inner West Writers in Residence are Eda Gunaydin and Eleanor Kirk.
Eleanor Kirk
Eleanor is an emerging screenwriter and aspiring novelist interested in work that observes the minutiae of contemporary Australian life, with a focus on the political and social issues that affect young people. Eleanor is at an ideal point to take advantage of the residency, wanting to do a structural edit and further drafts of her proposed work; ‘The Astonishing Power of a Quiet Voice’, which follows twenty-six-year-old opera singer Evelyn, who has her whole career mapped out… until one day during a performance, when she inexplicably loses her voice.
Eda Gunaydin
Eda is a Turkish-Australian essayist originally from Western Sydney. She writes creative non-fiction (memoir and essays) about class and class mobility; diaspora and migration; and intergenerational trauma. She writes bilingually, in English and Turkish. Eda has had a limited run publication and had critical acclaim but sold only 2000 copies. She would like a space away from her shared house to focus on her new essay collection; unravelling how recent (ecological and economic) crises have affected how we stage our selves, sex, relationships, and community, with a focus on queer community.