The program invites Australian creative writers to apply for a generous University of Sydney fellowship, including a $100,000 grant, to begin a project exploring issues around health.听
Expressions of Interest for the听Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Charles Perkins Centre 2026听opened at 8am on Tuesday 10 March, closing听 11:59pm on Sunday 12 April 2026.
The Charles Perkins Centre Writer-in-Residence Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of University of Sydney alumna and patron Judy Harris.
The fellowship provides a $100,000 grant and the unique opportunity to work on a project related to the issues that the Charles Perkins Centre is dedicated to solving, including health, wellbeing, food, ageing, social disadvantage and cultural identity.
The writer-in-residence also receives working space at the Charles Perkins Centre Research and Education Hub on the University鈥檚 Camperdown campus, full access to the University鈥檚 library, and the opportunity to work with our researchers, educators and clinicians
Participants in this residency are directed towards Australian writers in a creative genre including fiction, poetry, performance, creative non-fiction, digital media, or screen.
Since its establishment in 2016, the Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship at the Charles Perkins Centre has supported a number of Australia鈥檚 leading creative writers to collaborate with the interdisciplinary expertise at the Charles Perkins Centre to help bring to bear the power of creative writing to the communication of complex health and social challenges.
The Fellowship is highly sought-after in the arts industry and has greatly enriched the Charles Perkins Centre community in welcoming stellar representatives from Australia鈥檚 writing community to engage with our research and researchers. The works arising from the fellowships have encompassed a number of the Charles Perkins Centre research themes including ageing, cancer, the psychological impact of 鈥榥utrition wars鈥, maternity, biology, and hoarding.
Award-winning author and essayist Luke Carman is the听2025 Writer-in-Residence.听听Carman鈥檚 work focuses on life in the margins, geographically, socially and psychologically. His writing, including award-winning works such as An听Elegant Young Man,听Intimate Antipathies, and听An Ordinary Ecstasy, is celebrated for its experimental style and distinctive voice that captures the rhythms and contradictions of suburban life in contemporary Australia, as well as its ability to articulate the experience of being outside the dominant cultural narrative.
Writer, editor and critic Fiona Wright, author of poetry collection听Knuckled听and book of essays,听Small Acts of Disappearance,听joined the Charles Perkins Centre as its eighth Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence. Fiona will work on her third collection of essays, inspired by her experience of COVID, examining future perspectives on science, society and selfhood.
Writer and journalist听Lech Blaine, author of听Car Crash: A Memoir听and Quarterly Essay 'Top Blokes', will join the Charles Perkins Centre in mid-2023. Lech will study the heart and the brain, and the ability of diet and exercise to improve the condition of both. He will also contemplate the ethics of genetic editing and euthanasia.
罢丑别听Fellowship鈥檚 first poet, Sarah Holland-Batt, academic, poet and aged-care advocate will use her residency to complete her fourth book of poetry and a book of personal essays. Deep brain treatment, the unknown side of Parkinson鈥檚 disease, ageing and mortality are among the subjects Sarah explores.
Acclaimed novelist听Tracy Sorensen鈥檚 residency听was spent working on the story of a woman鈥檚 advanced abdominal cancer as told from the point of view of her threatened and affected organs to be published later in 2022.
Author and writing teacher Emily Maguire spent her residency learning about the emotional and psychological implications of hoarding to write her sixth novel,听Love Objects听(, 2021),听which examines social disadvantage, belonging, and health.
Written partly during her听residency, Alana Valentine鈥檚 play听Made to Measure听premiered at the Seymour Centre in 2019 to positive reviews, addressing issues of health including the psychological impact of the nutrition wars.听
Mireille writes novels, short fiction, essays, scripts and reviews and her听residency听saw her researching research inherited trauma in epigenetics and the concept of the 鈥渄oubled body鈥 in pregnancy. This work will underpin a novel exploring contemporary life through the idea of the double.
Charlotte Wood was the听Fellowship's first writer in residence., resulting in the Fellowship鈥檚 first novel听The Weekend听(Allen&Unwin) published in 2019. Dealing with friendship, community and ageing,听听The Weekend听was published to great critical acclaim and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, shortlisted for the Stella Prize, and won the Australian Book Industry鈥檚 Literary Fiction Book of the Year.
Phone:听+61 2 8627 1616
Email:听info.perkins@sydney.edu.au
John Hopkins Drive, Camperdown NSW 2006
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
