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2017 Hazel Rowley Fellowship shortlist

Seven Australian writers have been shortlisted for the 2017 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship worth $15,000.  

The 2017 Fellowship has attracted a strong field of high-quality proposals and includes a broad range of subjects and topics.

“It’s wonderful to see the calibre of writing proposals from across Australia,” said Della Rowley, sister of biographer Hazel Rowley.  “I am thrilled that in its sixth year we were able to increase the Fellowship to $15,000 and that Hazel’s legacy continues to encourage and support Australian biographers.”

The shortlisted writers are:

  • Peter Edwards (Vic): A biography of Robert Marsden Hope
  • Thornton McCamish (Vic): A life of Robert Hughes
  • Craig Munro (QLD): Literary Lions: a group portrait of AG Stephens, P.R.‘Inky’ Stephensen, Beatrice Davis and Kenneth Slessor
  • Ann-Marie Priest (QLD): A biography of Australian poet Gwen Harwood
  • Judith Pugh (NSW):   Artist in a suit: a biography of William Dargie
  • Suzanne Spunner (Vic):  All about Rover Thomas
  • Terri-ann White (WA):  A biography of Fiona Stanley (through key objects)

The winner will be announced during Adelaide Writers Week, following the Hazel Rowley Memorial lecture to be given by Maxine Beneba Clarke at 5pm on Thursday March 9th.

The 2017 Fellowship will be judged by biographers Jenny Hocking and Arnold Zable along with Della Rowley and Lynn Buchanan, Hazel’s close friend.

About the previous Fellows

In 2016 the Fellowship was awarded to Matthew Lamb (TAS) for a cultural biography of Australian writer Frank Moorhouse.

 In 2015, the Fellowship was awarded to Caroline Baum (NSW), for a biography of Lucie Dreyfus (1870-1945).

The 2014 Fellowship went to Maxine Beneba Clarke (VIC) to re-trace her parents’, grandparents’ and ancestors’ migration journeys for her autobiography, ‘The Hate Race’– a memoir about growing up black in white middle-class Australia, which was published by Hachette in August 2016.

Stephany Steggall (QLD) used the 2013 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship to write a biography of Thomas Keneally. Stephany’s book ‘Interestingly Enough…’ was published by Black Inc. in September 2015.

The inaugural recipient of the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship in 2012, Mary Hoban (VIC), is writing about Julia Sorell.

About Hazel Rowley

“My books are about people who had the courage to break out of their confined world and help others to do the same” – Hazel Rowley

Before her death in 2011, Hazel wrote four critically acclaimed biographies: ‘Christina Stead: A Biography’ (1993), ‘Richard Wright: The Life and Times’ (2001), ‘Tête-à-Tête: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre’ (2005) and ‘Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage’ (2010). Erudite and accessible, these studies brought fresh attention to the lives and works of significant figures both nationally and internationally.

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