The Paragraph Fellowship

The Paragraph Fellowship is administered and presented annually by Time to Write. The Paragraph Fellowship is an annual grant of $25,000 for an emerging or early career writer of literary fiction. The Fellowship aims to help writers create their next work by providing financial support to write literary fiction with a view to publication.

Applications will be invited from a list of eligible writers nominated by the Nominations Committee. Applications must be received in full by the due date, 5pm AEST Friday 26 June 2026. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

The Paragraph Fellowship is supported through Time to Write, a sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation in partnership with Australian Cultural Fund.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible, nominated writers must:

1. Have professionally published between one and two works of quality fiction with the most recent being published in the last ten years (self-published books and books published only in eBook form are not regarded as professionally published.)

2. Be Australian citizens or permanent residents or refugees. Writers who are Australian citizens living outside Australia will be accepted

3. Be in the process of producing a work of literary fiction intended for professional publication in English

4. Agree to Paragraph Fellowship Terms & Conditions.

The aim of the Fellowship is to create time to write. It can be used to buy time out from paid employment and/or remove or mitigate other barriers to writing.

It doesn’t fund:

• Travel costs

• Equipment or technology acquisition

• Other people’s salaries or fees e.g. researchers, research assistants or editors

• Training or tuition costs

• PhD research

• Publishing subsidies

Writers must:

• Comply with eligibility criteria

• Submit an application by the closing date (to be advised)

• Confirm that the work contained in the application and to be produced with assistance of the Paragraph Fellowship is the original work of the writer and:

  • has not been generated using Artificial Intelligence tools;

  • has not been plagiarised

• Comply with the Australia Council Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts

• Agree to their bios and short summaries of their work to be published; to be publicised as part of nominated, shortlisted and Fellow of the Year announcements

• Be available for up to three appropriate public events which may include podcast recordings, festivals or other literary engagements or publicity of the Fellowship in the year of the Fellowship

• Agree to accept the assessment of judges and acknowledge the Fellowship in any publication resulting from the work supported during the Fellowship

• Produce one brief interim and one brief final report noting the impact of the Fellowship

• Register on the Australian Cultural Fund online platform to receive the Paragraph Fellowship grant. More information on this here. Fellows must have a valid ABN (this can be any kind of ABN - sole trader, for profit and not-for-profit, and does not have to be your own ABN but can belong to an individual or organisation related to the project).

• Agree to other terms and conditions as advised by us

• Time to Write reserves the right to review and change the guidelines, eligibility and terms and conditions as necessary. 

Applications will be invited from a list of eligible writers nominated by the Nominations Committee. Applications must be made online and must be received in full by the due date, 5pm AEST Friday 26 June 2026 to be considered.

Information required from applicants includes:

1. A short biography of the writer suitable for publication (up to 100 words)

2. A synopsis of the work currently under way (up to 200 words), suitable for publication

3. An extract from the work currently under way (up to 2000 words from the work)

4. Agreement to Paragraph Fellowship Terms & Conditions

5. A high level budget indicating how the writer intends to use the Fellowship.

6. A statement of up to 300 words including:

   • How far along the work is and estimated time of completion

   • The writer’s publishing intentions

   • How the Paragraph Fellowship would help the writer progress their work and the impact it will have on their ability to write.

Time to Write appoints a Nominations Committee from the literary and philanthropic communities. The Nominations Committee varies from year to year, with members selected from across Australia, on the basis of their experience, knowledge and passion for literature. The Nominations Committee may include writers, critics, journalists, editors, publishers, literary festival directors, programmers and keen supporters of literature.

The role of the Nominations Committee is to nominate one eligible writer each year for the Paragraph Fellowship. Members cannot self-nominate.

Time to Write appoints a panel of three judges selected from the literary community on the basis of their varied experience and perspectives. The Judging Panel is responsible for selecting a shortlist of up to eight writers, and the winner of the annual Paragraph Fellowship. The Judging Panel will make their selections without personal prejudice or preference.

We are excited to welcome as Chair of the Paragraph Fellowship Judging Panel for 2026:

Toni Jordan (Chair) – Toni Jordan is the author of the international bestseller Addition, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and adapted into a feature film, in cinemas in 2026. Her novel Nine Days was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards; Our Tiny, Useless Hearts was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award; and her two Schnabel family novels, Dinner with the Schnabels and Prettier if She Smiled More, were critically acclaimed. Toni holds a Bachelor of Science in physiology and a PhD in Creative Arts and lives in Melbourne. Her latest novel is Tenderfoot. 

Dr Rashida Murphy – is a writer, poet, reviewer and blogger. She has published her short fiction and poetry in various international literary journals and anthologies. Her debut novel, The Historian’s Daughter, was shortlisted in the Scottish Dundee International Book Prize in 2015 and is available now from UWA Publishing. Her collection of short stories, The Bonesetter’s Fee & Other Stories, was published in January 2022 with Spineless Wonders and was shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier’s Book Awards. Rashida has a Master’s in English Literature and a PhD in Writing from Edith Cowan University.

Siang Lu – is the Miles Franklin-winning author of Ghost Cities and the ABIA-winning The Whitewash, the co-creator of The Beige Index and the creator of #sillybookstagram. Ghost Cities was shortlisted for eight additional awards, including the ALS Gold Medal, the Voss Literary Prize, and The Age Book of the Year. In 2026, Ghost Cities will be published with Simon & Schuster's Summit UK and US imprints, and in 25 territories in translation thereafter. Siang is based in Brisbane, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Our sincere thanks to the members of the inaugural  Paragraph Fellowship Judging Panel for their expertise in shortlisting and selecting the Fellows in 2024 and 2025:

• Beejay Silcox (Chair) – Beejay is an author and critic. She was formerly Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers’ Festival and Chaired the 2024 Stella Prize.

• John Kinsella – John is an Australian poet, novelist, critic, essayist and editor – and the author of over 40 books.

• Elfie Shiosaki - Elfie Shiosaki is a Noongar and Yawuru poet and academic. Her debut book Homecoming won the 2022 Western Australian Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer and was shortlisted for the 2022 Stella Prize.