The shortlist for the Penguin Random House ‘Write It’ fellowship have been announced.
Launched by Penguin Random House Australia in 2018 to find writing and authors more representative of the society in which we live, Write It seeks to nurture and develop unpublished voices across all genres, focusing on First Nations and CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) writers, writers from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ and writers with a disability.
The successful applicants will be mentored by Penguin Random House Australia editors across twelve months, with the hope of publication. Additionally, as part of the fellowship, each of the successful applicants will receive a $2000 writing grant and the opportunity to participate in a PRHA Open House Session during which they will learn about various facets of publishing, including what goes into acquiring, editing, marketing, publicising and selling a book.
The writers making the shortlist include;
Ceilidh Newbury – Skates, Dates, and other Deadly Weapons (Young Adult Thriller)
Dayle Fogarty – After Dark (Speculative Fiction/New Adult)
Dorian Sutton – The Passenger (Literary/Coming of Age)
Jessica Landford – Rory Finch and the Empty House (Young Adult Spy Thriller)
Judith Monkhouse – Bitter Rain (Fiction)
Jules Ng – A Little Feverish (Literary Fiction)
Kait Newell – The Bones Are Here (Historical Romance)
Naomi Fogarty – The White Heart (Fantasy/Supernatural)
Skye Cusack – Checked Out (Romantic Comedy)
Tracey-Lee Daranjo – A Long Forgetting (Memoir/Non-Fiction)
Violet Marr – The Fine Art of Borrowing a Faerie (Fantasy)
Catherine Hill, the Head of Adult Editorial at the publisher shared that there’d been a huge increase in the number of submissions this year, and the quality of the work was impressive.
The successful applicants will be announced in mid-November.
