Magabala Fellowships
Mid-Career Fellowships are NOW OPEN
Two grants available:
$10,000 Fellowship for a mid-career author
$10,000 Fellowship for a mid-career illustrator
Entries close: midnight AWST Monday 12th October
The Magabala Mid-career Fellowship was generously founded by Serp Hills Foundation in 2020. This opportunity, worth $10,000, is intended to provide valuable time for a mid-career author to work on a current manuscript.
In 2026, we are pleased to offer two Fellowships: the Mid-Career Fellowship for an author, and a new distinct Mid-Career Fellowship for an illustrator.
Fellowship for a Mid-Career Author
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 draft manuscript.
Fellowship for a Mid-Career Illustrator
This opportunity, worth $10,000, is intended to provide valuable time for a mid-career illustrator to develop a work in progress. The Fellowship is open to mid-career Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander illustrators and graphic artists who are developing new work for publication.
To enter you previously must have illustrated at least two published books. These can be in any genre or category, but they must have been traditionally published. Self-published works are excluded. You must have an illustrated 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 introduction to your current project;;
- a draft storyboard, roughs and sample artwork.
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.
Previous recipients:
2025 Fellowship recipient: Jeanine Leane
Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from southwest New South Wales. With the support of the $10,000 Fellowship, Jeanine will be supported in the ongoing development of her powerful genre-defying manuscript 'The Genealogy of Bruises'.
2024 Fellowship recipient was Jane Harrison.
2023 Fellowship recipient was Brenton E. McKenna.
2022 Fellowship recipient was Vivienne Cleven.
2021 Fellowship recipients were Sue McPherson and Charmaine Papertalk Green.
In 2020, the inaugural Fellowship was awarded to Tristan Michael Savage.