Call for applications: JUNCTURE fellowship program for literary critics

We’re proud to announce the launch of the JUNCTURE fellowship program for literary critics. With the generous support of the Ian Potter Foundation, the Sydney Review of Books is offering three year-long fellowships to mid-career and established Australian literary critics in 2019. Each fellowship recipient will be paid $12,000 over twelve months to write eight longform review essays about new works of Australian and international literature for publication on the Sydney Review of Books.

The SRB was established in 2013 in urgent response to the reduction of literary criticism in the national media. Six years later there’s even less shared space for the discussion of literature. The SRB exists as a bulwark against this trend. We seek to expand and enrich our national conversation about literature by publishing original, rigorous evaluations of new works of fiction, poetry and non fiction. This fellowship program will allow us to publish more reviews of new work each year, with a particular emphasis on new work by Australian authors, and in doing do, make a substantial contribution to our literary culture.

The JUNCTURE fellowship program is a rare opportunity for professional critics to extend their practice. We know that most mid-career and established critics juggle many writing and teaching gigs. This precarity makes it difficult to plan and research detailed critical work. In addition to a year-long roster of paid commissions, the SRB will provide editorial support from the journal’s editorial team, our board and broader network.

We will offer JUNCTURE fellowships in July 2020 and July 2021. In early 2022 we will publish an anthology of the finest work to emerge from this project.

How to apply:
Apply via Submittable. Applications close at midnight AEST on 19 July 2019.

Applicants are invited to submit a cover letter (max 2 pages) outlining their interest in and suitability for the fellowship program. The cover letter should include information about the applicant’s experience as a literary critic, their area of specialisation, and the kinds of works they might review for the Sydney Review of Books. Each applicant will be required to submit links to three representative samples of published work. If their essays and reviews are not freely available online, applicants should upload the relevant pdf files with their application.

Inclusion of a cv with the application is optional.

Fellowships will be awarded on merit by a judging panel comprised of James Ley, Maria Tumarkin and Anthony Uhlmann. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by the end of July.

The program will commence in early August. Successful applicants will be required to sign an MOU that commits them to eight regular deadlines over twelve months, beginning in early September 2019. Applicants will be paid eight instalments of $1500 subject to adherence to deadlines. Review subjects will be developed in consultation with the SRB editorial team. At least half of the review essays will deal with works of Australian literature.

Apply via Submittable. Applications close at midnight AEST on 19 July 2019.

Please direct any queries to SRB editor Catriona Menzies-Pike at catriona@sydneyreviewofbooks.com.

We’re grateful to the Ian Potter Foundation for their generous support of the JUNCTURE Fellowship Program.