We’re thrilled to open applications for the 2021 intake of the JUNCTURE fellowship program for literary critics.
With the generous support of the Ian Potter Foundation, the Sydney Review of Books is offering five year-long fellowships to mid-career and established Australian literary critics. Each fellowship recipient will be paid $9,000 over ten months to write six longform review essays (or equivalent) 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. Seven years later there’s even less shared space for the discussion of literature, and the critical landscape is less diverse. The SRB’s purpose is to reverse this trend. We seek to expand and enrich our national conversation about literature and culture 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, and in doing so, make a substantial contribution to our literary culture.
Our focus is on ensuring diversity of literary critics and diversity of content. we seek to ensure that the recipients of these awards represent the breadth and depth of the Australian literary community. We particularly encourage critics from First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to apply. At least one of the five fellowships will be prioritised for a First Nations applicant, and at least one for a critic from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.
The JUNCTURE fellowship program is a rare opportunity for critics to extend their practice. We know that most mid-career and established critics juggle many writing and teaching gigs, and that this balancing act has become much harder in the aftermath of COVID-19. This precarity makes it difficult to plan and research detailed critical work. In addition to a roster of paid commissions, the SRB will provide editorial support from the journal’s editorial team, our board and broader network.
How to apply:
Apply via Submittable. Applications close at midnight AEST on 12 July 2021.
Applicants are invited to submit a cover letter (max 2 pages) outlining their interest in and suitability for the fellowship program. This is a fellowship program for mid-career and established critics who can point to a body of published critical work, including at least three longform essays. The cover letter should include information about your experience as a critic, your area of specialisation, and the kinds of works you might review for the Sydney Review of Books. We encourage you to take up how your work has or will address equity and inclusion. Each applicant will be required to submit links to three representative samples of published work. If your essays and reviews are not freely available online, upload the relevant pdf files with your application.
Inclusion of a cv with the application is optional.
Fellowships will be awarded by a judging panel composed of Dr Jeff Sparrow (Melbourne), Professor Wenche Ommundsen (Research Professor at the University of Wollongong and Visiting Professor at Wuhan University), Professor Jing Han (Director of the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at the Western Sydney University) and Professor Vrasidas Karalis (Sir Nicholas Laurantus Professor of Modern Greek at Sydney University). Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by the end of July.
The program will commence in August. Successful applicants will be required to commit them to six regular deadlines before May 2022, beginning in early September 2021. Applicants will be paid six 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 12 July 2021.
We’re grateful to the Ian Potter Foundation for their generous support of the JUNCTURE Fellowship Program.