Category Archives: OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Applications: Inaugural Cinder Mentorship Program

In 2026, the Australian scholarly journal Cinder is transforming to a mentorship program. The program aims to support Higher Degree Researchers and Early Career Researchers to develop and submit a journal article to TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses.

If you are a Higher Degree Researcher or an Early Career Researcher (including independent scholars) who is seeking support to develop a draft scholarly paper suitable for TEXT, you are invited to apply. Early Career Researchers must be within 5 years of PhD conferral. You can read more about TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses here.

Successful applicants will be placed with a mentor – a topic or industry expert – who will read your work, provide feedback during a 30-minute meeting and review changes made in response to feedback. With mentor support, developed papers will be invited for submission to TEXT. You may negotiate a timeline with your mentor; however, it is anticipated that mentorships will not extend beyond 12 months.

The Cinder Mentorship consists of 6 places per year. Two places will be reserved for HDRs and ECRs from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The mentorship will also seek to support writer-scholars who are yet to be published or who experience barriers to support to develop scholarship.

To apply:

Write an application of no more than 1 page outlining:

A title, abstract and keywords of a proposed paper with the potential to be published in TEXT,
A short bio including relevant education, industry experience and any previous publications,
A short statement outlining the value of the mentorship to the applicant, including any information about your background you feel is relevant to the application, and
Your contact details.

Send applications and queries to the Cinder Mentorship Program coordinator, Ariella van Luyn: avanluyn@une.edu.au

Submissions open 1 January 2026 and will remain open until filled or 1 July 2026. You’re encouraged to submit early, as places may fill quickly.

Call for Expert Writing Mentors

We are inviting experienced academics, independent scholars and industry experts in writing, writing studies and adjacent disciplines to volunteer to act as Expert Writing Mentors as part of the Cinder Mentorship Program.

If you volunteer, your name and areas of expertise will be added to a list of mentors held by the mentorship coordinator. You may be contacted inquiring about your interest and capacity to read a draft paper, meet for 30 minutes with a mentee, and receive an account of their revisions in response to your feedback. If you agree, you will be put in touch with your mentee. You will be asked to provide a short progress update to the Cinder Mentorship Program coordinator. You may negotiate a timeline with your mentee; however, it is anticipated that mentorships will not extend beyond 12 months.

If you are interested in being an Expert Writing Mentor in the Cinder mentorship program, please submit:

Your name,

Position title and short CV,

Your best contact details, and

Areas of expertise

Expressions of interest and queries can be sent to Cinder Mentorship Program coordinator, Ariella van Luyn: avanluyn@une.edu.au

Closing Soon: AAWP 2025 Annual Conference Call for Abstracts

Movement & Stasis: 30th Annual Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference

University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3 – 5 December 2025

This year’s conference is on the theme of Movement and Stasis. We invite abstracts for conference presentations of 15 or 20 minutes in duration and pre-formed collaborative discussion panels (three to four panellists only) that reflect consideration of movement and stasis. We encourage any or all modes of presentation.

We welcome the submission of abstracts relevant to the creative writing discipline, on creative and professional writing practices and processes, research in creative writing, the teaching of writing and related issues.

The deadline for abstract submissions is 30 May 2025.

For more information and submission guidelines visit the AAWP website here.

2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize

The $150,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize is open for submissions in two categories – Adult and Children &Young (CYA) Adult. $100,000 will be awarded to the Adult category winner, with an additional $5,000 awarded to each of the remaining two shortlisted authors. In the CYA category, the winner receives $30,000, while the two short listers receives $5,000 each.

The prize is open to authors who are citizens or residents of Australia and New Zealand. Novels must have been first published between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025.

Submissions close 11 June 2025 5pm AEDT.

Learn more via the Historical Novel Society Australasia website here.

2026 National Library of Australia Fellowships

Open to researchers in various fields and disciplines, these fellowships offer financial and research support for residencies at the National Library. Providing extended access to Australia’s largest cultural collection, National Library Fellowships foster research that produces new knowledge to shape Australia’s intellectual landscape and contributes to public understanding of our collections.

The Library’s Fellowships offer experienced researchers an opportunity to undertake deep and sustained research at the National Library using the Library’s collections.

Fellowships are available to researchers who require onsite access to the Library’s uniquely held or extensive collections to advance their research towards publication or other public outcomes.

Applicants may work in any field or discipline where the Library’s collections have appropriate depth and breadth to support the desired outcomes.

Applications for National Library of Australia Fellowships and the Creative Arts Fellowship will close on Monday 5 May 2025.

Learn more via the National Library of Australia website here.

2025 Writers on the Reef Residency

The Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing at James Cook University is pleased to invite applications for its 2025 Writers on the Reef Residency.

The residency is open to published or emerging writers who have a current project to work on during their stay.

From the 13-20 August, 2025, 5 writers will be in residence at beautiful waterfront beach house in Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island.

This year’s residency invites writers of any genre with environmental themes, including but not limited to writing on nature, conservation, islands, oceans, beaches, Sea Country, ecosystems, sustainability, and island communities—or which may resonate in particular with Magnetic Island and its natural, social, or cultural history and habitat.

Applications close 2 May 2025.

Learn more via the JCU website here.

Don Bank Museum Writer in Residence Program

Writers of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoir and plays who are from Metropolitan Sydney are invited to apply for this unique opportunity to pursue their inspiration in the tranquil and historic Don Bank Museum whilst contributing to the cultural life of the local community.

This program aims to support writers at all stages of their career.

The successful candidate will benefit from a special one-hour consultation with a publisher from Penguin Random House, networking with the local writing community and Council’s Arts and Events initiaitives, and more.

Applications close Monday 14 April 2025.

Learn more via the North Sydney Council website here.

AAALS Creative Writing Competition

The American Association of Australasian Literary Studies (AAALS), together with the American Australian Association, welcomes submissions to our annual creative writing competition between 1-31 March 2025.

The competition invites entries in the following categories:

· Poetry

· Creative Prose

· Indigenous Writers Poetry

· Indigenous Writers Creative Prose

With the generous support of the American Australian Association, the value of these prizes has been increased. The winner of each prize will now be awarded US$1000, plus publication in the journal Antipodes.

Further details are available here: https://aaals.org/antipodes/, with submissions accepted through the Antipodes portal during March 2025: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/antipodes/submission_guidelines.html.

The Writer’s Way: A Writer’s (Re)treat to (Re)discover the Joy of Writing

The Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP)* is delighted to announce a new collaboration with The Writer’s Way retreats – immersive experiences designed to (re)connect writers with creativity, presence, and purpose.

Set in the spectacular Blackall Range of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland, The Writer’s Way welcomes writers of all backgrounds – creative, academic, and professional – to a retreat founded in mindfulness, not as theory, but as practice.

At The Writer’s Way retreats, you’ll explore meditative, contemplative, and reflective practices intended to deepen your connection to yourself as a writer, refine your creative process, and potentially, elevate the quality of your work. Whether you’re seeking a physical escape, a mental reset, or a spiritual (re)treat to strengthen your sense of purpose, The Writer’s Way provides a perfect setting, a tranquil space to (re)discover the joy of writing.

With limited places available, the next retreat runs 29 May – 1 June 2025.

For details and bookings: https://thewritersway.com.au.

*Special Offer: AAWP members who are Higher Degree Research (HDR) students or Early Career Researchers (ECRs) can apply for a special accommodation rate.

Call for book chapters–Pasts Imagined: Creative Methods in Knowledge Production about History, Memory and Culture

Creative methods are increasingly considered a source for new knowledge production, while the past has increasingly become a site of fascination and nostalgia for contemporary audiences and scholars alike. The popularity of media such as TV including Empress Ki (2013), Stranger Things (2016), Bridgerton (2020), Oppenheimer (2023), novels like Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles (2011) and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016) and podcasts like The Rest is History (2021—) demonstrate a hunger for representations of an imagined past. The past has also become highly politicised: it may seem like a safe haven in times when the future seems blighted by climate crisis, war and illness, while nationalists use an imagined golden age to justify conservatism and violence.

Yet, historical revisionism might also offer a way of giving voice to marginalised perspectives at the intersections of gender, sex, race, ability, sexuality, religion and embodiment. What, then, does this mean for contemporary artists, arts-workers and communities to return, revise or intervene in narratives about the past? In what ways can techniques like fictionalisation and anachronism draw attention to the links between past, present and future? What are the ethics and methodological responsibilities of representing the past in multiple media? In what ways can other versions of the past disrupt dominant knowledge systems and power structures?

Proposed chapters should interrogate these questions with examples across the creative arts, media, cultural studies and museum and gallery studies. Chapters should focus on examples drawn from creative practice and/or creative works or exhibitions. We are particularly interested in chapter proposals that problematise acts of construction, invention and anachronism and understand the epistemological value of such work.

Book editors: Ariella Van Luyn, Alina Kozlovski, Chris Muller

Title and 250-300 word abstracts for chapters of 5000-6000 words due: 3 March 2025

Please submit to avanluyn@une.edu.au

Book proposal developed and submitted: mid 2025

Developed chapters due: End 2025

Call for Papers: Affective Ambush and Life Narrative: Engaging with and Interrogating Emotional Responses During Research

Research symposium: 20^th June 2025

James Cook University, Townsville

Papers are invited with a view to development into articles for a confirmed special issue of Life Writing journal (scheduled for mid-2026).

Full final articles of 6000-9000 words are due 4 August 2025.

Abstract submissions are due 25 March 2025.

Call for Papers

Life writing about trauma and grief is a significant area of study. However, researching such areas takes a mental toll on researchers who must monitor and support their own wellbeing and mental health while investigating topics that can be triggering, depressing, and weigh heavily on their minds. Importantly, embodied emotions which arise in the research process can also be fruitful or useful to research and writing. There is limited research from a literary studies perspective that acknowledges and theorises this dual reality of conducting such research.

Our essay on this topic, “Affective Ambush: An Autotheoretical Approach to Understanding Emotions as Useful to the Research Process” has appeared recently in Life Writing. In this work we identify and articulate a phenomenology we call “affective ambush”, the experience of encountering emotional or traumatic life narratives in otherwise (traditionally) academic reading. In this work we investigate our own affective responses as researchers illuminating how involuntary psychological triggering during the research process might not only be managed, but might be productively acknowledged and used as a constructive or generative part of research methods.

We are interested in parallel experiences of other researchers encountering this phenomenon and aim to open up new avenues of relating to, understanding, and producing human-focused research.

We are seeking a diverse range of expert considerations of how researchers are impacted by affective responses to troubling, triggering, and challenging literary and cultural texts through the research process. We seek responses that move beyond a position of problematising the phenomenon and instead reflect on the utility and potential for emotions to enhance or engage us in deeper research. We highly encourage submissions that use an autotheoretical method.

We recommend potential contributors first read the essay on which this special issue will build, available open access here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14484528.2024.2344002

Our suggestions for engaging with this theme include (but are not limited to):

Researcher self-care while researching troubling texts and material
Trauma-informed approaches to methodology and life writing scholarship
The ethics of ambushing readers with traumatic life narration with or without explicit warning in academic texts
Exploration of an unexpected emotional/embodied response to an academic text you did not anticipate would elicit such a response (with an analytical eye to any life narrative approaches employed in the work)
What you have learned from and about working with trauma/triggering life narrative texts particularly in terms of affect, researcher identity and/or bringing research “back to life” (Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life, p. 10)
Reflective and analytical responses to non-life narrative texts which employ unexpected life writing approaches related to traumatic or grief-related experiences (for example, academic articles from other disciplines, autofiction, documentaries or films)
Developing affective literacies in the research context and the classroom
Autotheoretical engagements with life writing texts that employ affective strategies to explore trauma, grief etc.
The productive use of emotions in research, or emotions as a tool in the research process
Feminist approaches to embodied research and the blurring of academic/personal identity
Exploration of trigger/content warnings and their usefulness (or not) in the context of traumatic life narratives and life narrative research
Refusal of the body/intellect and emotion/reason dichotomies in academic works which employ life narrative approaches (regardless of discipline)
Balancing risk and safety in approaches to reading and writing life narrative texts related to grief and trauma
Institutional duty of care: what is the responsibility of institutions in this context? What can universities do to support researchers working on these topics?

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words by 25 March 2025 here: https://forms.office.com/r/9ti6K78ws2

Contact Emma Maguire (emma.maguire@jcu.edu.au) and Marina Deller (marina.deller@flinders.edu.au) with questions.

Editors
Dr Emma Maguire is a Lecturer in English and Writing at James Cook University. She researches gender, life narrative, media, and sexual trauma narratives. She is a member of the Life Narrative Lab, a steering committee member for the International Auto/Biography Association Asia-Pacific, and digital content co-editor for A/b: Auto/biography Studies. Emma has edited two journal special issues for M/C: Media/Culture journal, one for a/b: Autobiography Studies (forthcoming 2025), a forum for a/b: Auto/Biography Studies and has published life narrative research in Biography, Prose Studies, Life Writing, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, and the European Journal of Life Writing.

Dr Marina Deller is a creative and pedagogical researcher at Flinders University, South Australia. Their research investigates grief and trauma narratives, materiality, and object-based learning. Their work in these areas has been published in Life Writing and a/b: Auto/Biography Studies and is forthcoming in The Journal of Literature, Language & Culture. They are currently co-editing a special issue on #MeToo in life narratives for a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. They recently co-organised the IABA Asia-Pacific 2023 virtual conference ‘Life Narrative in Unprecedented Times: writing the unexpected, narrating the future’. They are the creative events curator and coordinator for the Life Narrative Lab.