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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
The Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship is offered annually to an Australian author to provide them with valuable time to work on a current manuscript. It is offered by the Blake-Beckett Trust, thanks to the generosity of one of our long-term members and supporters, Wendy Beckett. The prize pool was increased to $50,000 in 2023. The winner of the Scholarship will receive AU$35,000 and the runner-up will receive AU$15,000.
The Scholarship is open to writers of adult fiction in ANY genre, and writers of biography. Works of poetry, memoir, autobiography and children’s writing (including YA) are not eligible for this Scholarship.
To enter you must be a Full member of the ASA and have previously published a minimum of two books. These two books can be in any genre or category, but they must have been traditionally published.
Applicants must have a manuscript underway and be able to outline how they would benefit from this fellowship.
Applications open
9 July 2025, 9am AEST
Applications close
11 August 2025, 5pm AEST
Announcement of the winner
28 October 2025
The scholarship is open to only current Full members of the ASA. Not a member? Join here. Associate members can upgrade to Full membership here.
Applicants will be asked to provide two documents: a statement and a sample.
The statement consists of:
(a) no more than 500 words explaining how this grant money would benefit you;
(b) your author biography, including an overview of your publishing history, of no more than 150 words;
(c) a synopsis of your manuscript of no more than 250 words
The sample consists of:
(d) a small sample of your Manuscript of no more than 5 pages.
Documents must be submitted in 12 point, double-spaced in Word Document format.
The ASA is thrilled to share that Ann-Marie Priest is the 2025 recipient of the $35,000 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship for her biography Tell it Slant: The Life and Loves of Henry Handel Richardson. Lenny Bartulin is this year’s runner-up for his manuscript entitled A Calendar of Vandemonian Saints and will receive $15,000. The news was announced by Wendy Beckett at an ASA member event in Sydney on 28 October.
‘This year’s applications were outstanding and it was the most difficult year I can remember to judge in a long time. All of the books entered simply must be published. The winning two entrants should be obligatory reading and it is hard to think they might not have been written at all. Both were intriguing, beautifully written, and so worthy,’ says Wendy Beckett.
‘It makes me acutely aware yet again of how difficult a life it is for a writer to survive while writing a book. This shouldn’t be so; where would we be without writers? No books, theatre, film, TV, news? I hope the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship can go some way toward helping these very important writers to sustain themselves while they contribute to our lives in such a meaningful way.’
The winner and runner-up were picked by Wendy Beckett and the Blake-Beckett Trust from a shortlist of five authors, selected by assessors Shookofeh Azar and Elizabeth Tan:
ASA CEO Lucy Hayward says, ‘Congratulations to Ann-Marie Priest and Lenny Bartulin – both are accomplished writers with fascinating works-in-progress. Writing demands many things of authors, most significantly, their time. We’re delighted to be able to gift authors that time through this scholarship, thanks to the generous support of Wendy Beckett and the Blake-Beckett Trust.’
Ann-Marie Priest says, ‘I couldn’t be more delighted to receive the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. It is such a wonderful gift for any writer to be able to make a new book project their sole priority for a time, and I feel immensely grateful for this opportunity. I offer my warmest thanks to the ASA, the Blake-Beckett Trust, the stalwart judges who chose the shortlist, and Wendy Beckett, who whittled it down to two. I thank them especially for considering biographers for this scholarship as well as fiction writers, which is such a welcome affirmation of the place of biography in the Australian literary sphere.’
Lenny Bartulin says, ‘The Blake-Beckett Scholarship is a tremendous initiative and a terrific support for writers, particularly in increasingly difficult times for the written word. I am deeply grateful and honoured to have been awarded the runner-up prize, in what was a shortlist of wonderfully talented fellow writers. It is a rare privilege now to be able to dedicate purposeful time and singularly committed energies to my writing, and I thank the Blake-Beckett Scholarship, Wendy Beckett, and the ASA for their generosity and continuing dedication to Australian writing.’
Assessor comments
Ann-Marie Priest’s Tell it Slant: The Life and Loves of Henry Handel Richardson offers a fresh and rarely seen portrait of a significant author to early twentieth-century Australian literature, bringing to the forefront aspects of Richardson’s gender identity and personal relationships that have previously been overlooked or dismissed. Priest, with proven research experience and clear, nimble expression, promises to deliver a valuable and impactful biography.
With humour and warmth, Lenny Bartulin’s A Calendar of Vandemonian Saints imagines the lives of modern ‘saints’, whose small, idiosyncratic acts of grace are memorialised in a series of hagiographies. The prose in this unique project is both delightful and powerful, grounded in historical awareness and the study of classical works.
About the winner and runner-up
Ann-Marie Priest
Ann-Marie Priest is the author of the first biography of renowned Australian poet Gwen Harwood, My Tongue Is My Own (2022), and recipient of the 2017 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship. Her book A Free Flame: Australian Women Writers and Vocation in the Twentieth Century was shortlisted for the 2016 Dorothy Hewett Award. She is a senior lecturer at Central Queensland University.
Lenny Bartulin
Lenny Bartulin is the author of six novels, including Infamy (2013), Fortune (2019), and most recently The Unearthed (2023), which was shortlisted for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize and longlisted in the 2024 Tasmanian Literary Awards for the Premier’s Prize for Fiction. His work has been translated and published in Brazil and the US, and his poetry and prose has appeared in HEAT, Meanjin, and Island magazines.
About the scholarship
The Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship is offered annually to an Australian author to provide them with valuable time to work on a current manuscript. It is offered by the Blake-Beckett Trust, thanks to the generosity of one of the ASA’s longtime members and supporters, Wendy Beckett. The winner of the scholarship will receive AU$35,000 and the runner-up will receive AU$15,000.
On behalf of the Blake-Beckett Trust, the Australian Society of Authors is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2023 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, Emily Bitto and runner-up, Kate Mildenhall.
This year’s applications were assessed by Mirandi Riwoe and Anna Spargo-Ryan, who selected four shortlisted applicants:
Emily Bitto
Kate Mildenhall
Kirli Saunders
Michael Winkler
ASA CEO Olivia Lanchester says, “Huge congratulations to Emily Bitto and runner-up Kate Mildenhall, two brilliant writers whose important work will be fuelled by this scholarship. The Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship is a real joy for the ASA to promote. It is meaningful support for a writer to work on their manuscript and we have watched – with delight – as the scholarship has allowed past winners to publish amazing fiction. Our deepest thanks to Wendy Beckett for her role in giving Australian writers that greatest of gifts – time to write.”
Emily Bitto says, “I am incredibly grateful, encouraged, honoured and overjoyed to have been awarded the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship. This scholarship will make an enormous difference to me – materially, of course, but also in terms of my confidence in this project, which is very dear to my heart. I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to the judges, the ASA, and in particular to the Blake-Beckett Trust for providing such generous support for Australian literature and culture.”
Kate Mildenhall says, “One of the most precious gifts a writer can receive is funding for time to write. In an era of ever-dwindling arts funding, it is especially significant that Wendy Blake-Beckett offers this opportunity. I’m thrilled to share the Blake Beckett Trust shortlist with these wonderful writers and their projects, and honoured to have been selected for second prize.”
Emily Bitto’s Reasons to Leave is a multi-protagonist novel about a wave of Czechoslovakian migrants to the western suburbs of Melbourne. The writing is assured and touching, engaging with themes to do with belonging and labour. Bitto’s work will explore storytelling’s power to enrich both personal and national identity.
Kate Mildenhall’s We Bought a Town is a contemporary thriller set over three days and told from the perspective of nine characters. The novel engages with ideas concerning society’s fracturing values about how to deal with family and the land. The scope of this work is ambitious and exciting, and the judges were immediately impressed with the synopsis and writing.
Emily Bitto is an award-winning and widely published writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She has a Masters in literary studies and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and the published novel went on to win the Stella Prize in 2015. Emily’s second novel, Wild Abandon, was published in 2021 by Allen and Unwin, and was the winner of the prestigious Margaret and Colin Roderick Award in 2022. Emily has taught literary studies and creative writing at various institutions over the past decade, and is currently a tutor and course advisor at the Faber Writing Academy.
Kate Mildenhall is an author and podcaster. Her debut novel Skylarking was longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017 and the 2017 Voss Literary Award. Her second novel, The Mother Fault was longlisted for the 2021 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year and shortlisted for the 2021 Aurealis Science Fiction Novel of the Year. Her latest novel is The Hummingbird Effects. With writer Katherine Collette, Kate co-hosts The First Time Podcast – conversations with Australian writers – a podcast now in its sixth season. Kate is currently working on her fourth novel and undertaking a PhD in creative practice at RMIT University. Her first picture book will be released in 2024.
On behalf of the Blake-Beckett Trust, the Australian Society of Authors is thrilled to announce the winner of the 2022 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship, Ashley Hay.
This year’s applications were assessed by Shankari Chandran and Jennifer Mills, who selected the three shortlisted applicants:
Ashley Hay
Gretchen Shirm
Julienne van Loon
The judges were impressed by the exceptionally high standard of entries and felt that each of three shortlisted authors would have been a worthy winner.
Ashley Hay’s The Running Dream is an intriguing exploration of the subconscious in the era of climate crisis. The writing demonstrates a sophisticated project that promises to contribute meaningfully to the growing body of Australian climate fiction. Hay deftly navigates the shifting space between anxiety and optimism, resignation and resistance, with a cast of engaging and surprising characters.
Gretchen Shirm’s Blue Chair is an exciting work of testimonial fiction about the impacts of war crimes, based on her experiences working at the International Criminal Tribunal. A well-developed and deeply considered proposal which positions Australian characters in a global context. The Blue Chair explores a terrible period in recent history using these specific injustices to interrogate the universal and ongoing trauma of war.
Julienne van Loon’s Who is the city for? engages with ideas that are deeply relevant to contemporary democracy, such as the housing crisis, public space, intersectional privilege and community life. Interesting, engaging writing with a strong political impact, the extract demonstrates the power of literature in activism. The project is ambitious in its intellectual reach without losing any intimacy in its story-telling.
Ashley Hay’s work has been praised for its ‘intelligent scrutiny of the human psyche’, ‘a tenderness that is deeply compelling’ and its ‘simple grace’. Her previous novels – The Body in the Clouds, The Railwayman’s Wife and A Hundred Small Lessons – have received various prizes and nominations and been published internationally and in translation; a revised and expanded edition of her narrative non-fiction Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions, was published in 2021. She works as a writer, editor, facilitator and mentor, and has published in journals and anthologies including Cosmos, The Guardian, Reading Like an Australian Writer and Living in the Anthropocene. Between 2018 and 2022 she was the editor of Griffith Review.
Four shortlisted applicants were selected for the 2021 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship: Michelle Aung Thin, Kate Holden, Gretchen Shirm and Laura Woollett.
Michelle Aung Thin is the recipient of the 2021 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship with her winning entry The Japanese Photographer.
The shortlisted applicants for the 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship are Aoife Clifford, Eleanor Limprecht and Mark Smith.
Eleanor Limprecht is the recipient of the 2020 Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship with her winning entry The Coast.
The shortlist for the 2019 inaugural Blake-Beckett Trust scholarship included Shankari Chandran, Leah Kaminsky and Julienne van Loon.
The winner was announced as Shankari Chandran at the ASA Christmas Party on 11 December 2019.
