Bankstown Arts Centre and the Sydney Review of Books invite applications from women and non-binary writers from Western Sydney for a residency of up to four-weeks at the Incubate Artists Studios. There are several residencies available for writers who can work on projects onsite in Bankstown between May and August 2019.
These residencies are opportunities for writers to produce substantial pieces of non-fiction for publication on the Sydney Review of Books. They will allow the writers to develop a site-specific practice and to have their work published alongside Australia’s best writers.
Applicants will develop an essay that draws on the rich and diverse heritage of the Canterbury-Bankstown area, and are encouraged to take cues from the history of the studio space in which they will work. The studios are located on the site of the former Bankstown Women’s Rest Centre, a place that drew together women – particularly mothers – from the many local communities in the Canterbury-Bankstown area. Given this history, we are particularly interested in writers from culturally diverse backgrounds as well as multilingual writing that draws on and reflects the multicultural and multilingual population of the area. We are also interested in essays that include reflections on motherhood.
The resulting essays will form part of an ongoing portfolio of essays on place published on the Sydney Review of Books. Our place essayists have drawn on history, memoir, urban studies, literary history and other disciplinary tools to explore relationships between place and culture. You can read examples of their work here. Kiriaki Koubaroulis, who took up the inaugural Mother Tongues Writers’ Residency at the start of 2019, published her essay The Paper Trail.
This is a residency for women and non-binary writers. To apply, writers will submit a >300w EOI outlining how they will approach this project and a brief cover letter that maps their writing experience, relationship to Western Sydney, and interest in this project.
The successful applicants will workshop their pitch and process with the SRB editor before taking up the residency; they will work the draft essay into its final published form with the SRB editor at the conclusion of the residency. We’re looking for pitches that are rooted in the physical and social geography of Bankstown (and/or Canterbury) from writers who will benefit from working in place at the Incubate Artists Studios.
The successful applicants will receive a $1200 stipend, desk space for up to four weeks at the Incubate Artists Studio in Bankstown in May-August 2019, editorial oversight and publication on the Sydney Review of Books. There will also be opportunities for showcasing the work produced at a number of Bankstown Arts Centre events during 2019.
The applications will be read and judged by a selection panel composed of SRB and Bankstown Arts Centre representatives.
Applications due: 26 April 2019.
Apply via Submittable.
Send any queries to SRB editor Catriona Menzies-Pike on editor@sydneyreviewofbooks.com
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