Mid-Career Fellowship Applications Now Open.

Submissions for the Magabala mid-career Fellowship are currently open. The deadline submissions is the 12th of September 2025.

The Magabala mid-career Fellowship is an annual award generously supported by Serp Hills Foundation. This opportunity, worth $10,000, is intended to provide valuable time for a mid-career author to work on a current manuscript.

The Fellowship is open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers and writers of junior, young adult and adult fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and memoir (please note children’s picture book manuscripts are ineligible). 

To enter you must have previously published at least two books. These can be in any genre or category, but they must have been traditionally published. Self-published works are excluded. You must have a manuscript underway and be able to outline how you would benefit from this Fellowship. If a publishable work is produced as a result of the fellowship, Magabala Books reserves the first right of refusal to publish the work. 

Applicants will be asked to provide:

• an entry form; 
• no more than 250 words explaining how this grant of money would benefit you; 
• a short outline of the plot of your manuscript of no more than 250 words; and 
• a sample of your manuscript. 

Download the application form here.

Please contact us at projects@magabala.com or call Magabala Books on 08 9192 1991 with any queries or to discuss your Fellowship project ideas.

The 2024 recipient was Jane Harrison, who is descended from the Muruwari people of NSW and an award-winning playwright and author of Becoming Kirrali Lewis. With the support of the $10,000 Fellowship, Jane continued working on her current manuscript Kirrali and Jandamarra. When asked about receiving the fellowship for this highly anticipated sequel, she stated:

‘Having a mid career scholarship from Magabala has given me the motivation to work on my script and a renewed sense of confidence in what I am working towards. I’m extremely grateful.’

For more information on previous recipients see: Magabala Fellowships

Magabala Books acknowledges Serp Hills Foundation for their generous support of this award.