Generously supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the Overland writing residencies aim to address a lack of opportunities for underrepresented writers. The 2019 program has two categories: women writers who are the sole primary carers of one or more children, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writers at any stage of their writing careers.

During the residencies, the successful writers will receive a weekly stipend, private workspace at the Overland office and a mentorship with one of two extraordinary mentors, Jeanine Leane or Alison Croggon.

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2019 Overland writing residencies:

Residency One

(for women writers who are sole primary carers)

Recipient – Lucy Van

Lucy Van is the poet speaking on the synth-pop Figures EP produced by Laila Sakini (Purely Physical, 2017), and the co-author of the long-poem Breaking Lines with Autumn Royal (2018). Lucy is completing a book called The Beginning of the Poem and teaches poetry at the University of Melbourne.

About The Beginning of the Poem: The beginning of a poem is an ideal place to think about the relationship between poetic intention and discursive play; a place to examine selfhood through the labour of writing and the notion of writing as property. By bringing the theoretical and practical act of beginning poetry into focus, this book offers a fresh understanding of the pertinence of authorial agency – a persistent category for writers of colour – in the wake of poststructuralism’s demystification of the primacy of the author.

Residency Two

(for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writers)

Recipient – Susie Anderson

Susie Anderson uses words to reconnect with culture. A Wergaia woman from Western Victoria, her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in The Lifted Brow, Rabbit Poetry, un magazine, Artlink Australia and she was part of the anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia. (Image credit: Leah Jing McIntosh)

Building on research begun at State Library of Victoria in 2018, this project is a collection of memoir-based essays about female Aboriginal contemporary artists whose work deals with, responds to or disrupts the archive.

The 2019 Overland writing residencies are generously sponsored by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, with in-kind support from Victoria University