A generous grant from the WD Booth Charitable Trust has enabled Island Magazine to launch the WD Booth Charitable Trust/Island Emerging Writer Mentoring Program. This continues Island’s work developing emerging writers and editors in Tasmania. This new program offers emerging writers mentoring from established industry practitioners. It provides emerging writers with the opportunity to produce a major piece of publisher-ready writing and includes publication in Island, among Australia’s leading literary magazines. The program seeks to build the resilience and capacity of the writing sector in Tasmania.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
- Island magazine seeks applications from Tasmanian-based writers who have completed or are near to completing a long-form work.
- Up to five scholarships are available to Tasmanian-based writers.
- Candidates will be paired with mentors to assist in the development of their work.
- Candidates and mentors will manage their own relationship and program goals, in association with the program administrator. As a guide, expect approximately four meetings (either face-to-face, via video call, telephone or email)
- Candidates will make available for publication in Island an excerpt from their mentorship manuscript or a specially commissioned article, which will be edited according to Island’s editorial and production schedule.
- The program administrator will arrange disbursement of funds in association with the program.
- The governance and reporting over the life of the funding and the program will be managed by the Island board, with ultimate governance responsibility sitting with the Chair.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR CANDIDATES
- Access to the experience of the mentors, plus their contacts and strategic vision is the key benefits of undertaking the program. Formal mentoring and training for writers to produce work while simultaneously devising a long-term publication strategy is not readily available anywhere in Australia.
- Intensive assessment and development of your work by an established industry practitioner.
- Experience working with editors within a live production schedule.
- Publication in Island magazine
- $500 publication fee: payable upon submission of final edited work for publication in Island magazine.
HOW TO APPLY
Potential participants are invited to submit the following documents:
- a sample of their long-form work (one chapter only or up to 5000 words), clearly noting its genre.
- a synopsis of the entire work (one page only)
- a relevant career CV (one page only)
- a cover note outlining what you want to achieve with the mentorship and how the program will assist you to take your writing career to the next level.
HOW CANDIDATES ARE SELECTED
- The successful applicants will be chosen by the mentors and paired with them based on their writing style, what they want to achieve, and the target market for their work.
- Commitment to working with the mentor, delivering on time what has been agreed and a clear drive to take careers to the next level are integral.
WHO ARE THE MENTORS?
- Geordie Williamson, fiction editor, Island and chief literary critic, The Australian
- Sarah Holland-Batt, poetry editor, Island and award winning poet
- James Bradley, author and Pascall Prize winning critic
- Matthew Lamb, editor Island and Review of Australian Fiction
INTERESTED TO APPLY?
- Email island@islandmag.com with queries and submission documents.
- Submissions close 30 September 2014.
- Mentoring begins 10 October 2014.
- Manuscripts for publication to be completed by 1 March 2015.