James McAuley Creative Fellowship

Applications are now open for 2023.

The residential multi-artform McAuley Creative Fellowship is offered by the College of Arts, Law and Education and is based at the University of Tasmania's Hobart campus.

It supports an established writer or artist to inspire and deepen engagement with the arts for students at the University of Tasmania and the wider Tasmanian community.

The Creative Fellowship residency is a minimum of two weeks but may be taken (with arrangement) for up to four weeks.

The 2023 McAuley Creative Fellowship is for poetry and is open to established poets residing in Australia. The successful applicant will have a strong track record of professional publication.

Applications are open from 15 March 2023 and close 15 April 2023. The Fellowship is to be undertaken from July 10 to July 24, 2023.

The Fellowship recipient will receive:

  • A $10,000 payment to cover travel and living expenses
  • Living accommodation provided by the University for the duration of the Fellowship (a modern, two-bedroom self-catering apartment in central Hobart)
  • Office space at the University

The 2023 McAuley Fellow will engage with Tasmania’s creative life and:

Deliver a masterclass on the writing of poetry for University of Tasmania students.

Meet with the literary community in Tasmania for an informal discussion/reading.

Present a public lecture/event at the Hedberg, Tasmania’s premier performing arts precinct.

Acknowledge the College and the University in any creative and/or critical work progressed during the Fellowship.

James McAuley was one of Australia’s most distinguished poets. He was appointed Professor of English at the University of Tasmania  in 1961 and remained Head of English until his death in 1976.

The James McAuley Memorial Fund was established in 1977 by private, public, and corporate donors to honour and perpetuate the memory of McAuley’s contributions to scholarship and teaching in the arts, and to the wider life of the University. The Memorial Fund supported a named annual lecture from 1979, but became inactive in the 1990s.

The McAuley Creative Fellowship, launched in 2023, pays homage to the original aims of the Memorial Fund while supporting contemporary creative writers and artists.  It is fitting that the first McAuley Creative Fellowship be for a poet.

The McAuley Creative Fellow will be announced in the first week of May 2023.

Contact and enquiries to SM-McCauley.Fellowship@utas.edu.au.