Mid-Career Fellowships CLOSED.

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). 

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.

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.