black&write! Writing Fellowships

Applications for the 2025 Fellowships are open until 11:59 pm AEST on 31 January

Each year black&write! offers two Fellowships for First Nations writers, awarded through a national unpublished manuscript competition open to any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer currently living in Australia.

Two winners will each receive:

• $15,000 prize money
• editorial development with the black&write! Indigenous editors
• and a publication opportunity with University of Queensland Press (UQP).

Fellowship recipients will be expected to work cooperatively with our black&write! editors through the development period. Fellows are expected to commit to regular meetings with black&write!. Fellows are expected to work on the manuscript in good faith with a view to submitting it to UQP at the end of the Fellowship period.

Entry is free.

Please read the Guidelines before you apply.

After you apply

You will receive an automatic response confirming your application has been submitted.

You will receive a second email from the black&write! team once your application has been checked for eligibility.

Please contact us if you do not receive this second email within 7 business days.

Judging

The Fellowships will be awarded by State Library of Queensland on the advice of a judging panel with extensive knowledge of First Nations writing. The panel will be chaired by the Senior Editor, black&write! 

All entries will be judged against the following criteria: 

• literary and creative merit 
• potential value of a Fellowship on the entrant’s writing career 
• development required to bring the manuscript to a publishable standard 
• contribution to Australian literature. 

The shortlist will be announced in April 2025.

Every eligible entrant will receive individual feedback on their writing after the winners have been announced in May.

Due to the number of manuscripts received, the judges cannot provide a detailed manuscript appraisal. 

Questions? Get in touch with the black&write! team:

Email: Indigenous.Writing@slq.qld.gov.au

Phone: (07) 3842 9985

black&write! is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. We are proud to work with University of Queensland Press as the black&write! Fellowship publishing partner.

We acknowledge Magabala Books and Hachette Australia as previous publishing partners, and our collaborations that have produced outstanding First Nations titles for Australian readers.