I’m thrilled, shocked and amazed all at once to have been one of the lucky twelve chosen for a fellowship at the Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers Centre in 2017.
The application required choosing just 1000 words from the manuscript, together with a synopsis and outline of your writing background and work on the manuscript. With so little to offer in terms of published work I responded straight from the heart in answer to the questions. In answer to why this project is important to me, I wrote:
Sarah Brooks’ story has haunted me since I first heard it a decade ago. I am intrigued by her life as a single well educated woman in such a remote part of the world, and living in close to abject poverty. I imagine that what kept her there was her deep connection to the landscape and to the Aboriginal people of the area.
In my working life I am an environmental advocate and university lecturer in sustainability and so these themes can’t help but inform my work. I hope that in understanding the past in relation to how we humans connect to this vast and still largely unknown land, it can help inform our future actions at this vital time of human history.
I’ll be KSP Writers Centre in July with a complete first draft to work on!