Each resident will be offered a return airfare to undertake the residency, accommodation over the course of the residency week, and a $100 per diem for transport and meals. Dinner will be provided each night at the Whitlam House in Cabramatta, NSW.
Residents will also have access to:
- An introductory meeting with the mentor in the lead-up to the residency;
- A 1.5-hour workshop with the mentor, as well as an individual 1-hour meeting, over the course of the residency;
- Three 1.5-hour workshops, in-person and online, with two guest writers and the SRB Editor;
- A meeting to discuss the work developed over the course of the residency after the residency week.
We invite applications from First Nations writers, across every genre and level of experience (regardless of age), who are interested in engaging critically with their existing or emerging practice. You may be a short story writer, poet, or playwright looking for an opportunity to think more deeply about the implications of your craft. You may be a creative writing student wanting to develop your exegesis. You may, of course, be a practising or aspiring critic. We interpret ‘critique’ and ‘critical practice’ broadly to encompass engagement with both individual works of art and the assumptions or conditions of possibility behind art- or culture-making itself.
Ultimately, we are interested in a mixed cohort of residents, from the established to the unpublished, who are committed to building a strong critical relationship to an artform through reflection, articulation, and exchange.
Please submit your EoI through the SRB’s Submittable portal here.
EoIs should include:
- a brief CV (no more than 2 pages);
- a project outline (no more than 800 words).
The project you propose to undertake over the course of the residency can be either a new standalone work or part of an existing work. If part of an existing work, the outline should highlight how this work will benefit from the residency’s critical focus.
The residents will be selected by Wiradjuri author, scholar, and poet Jeanine Leane, Kokomini author and Director of Indigenous Studies, UTS, Graham Akhurst, and SRB Editor, James Jiang.
EoIs will be assessed on the basis of:
- Coherence and viability of project outline;
- Project’s potential to contribute new critical and cultural perspectives on contemporary understandings of Australian literature and art;
- Residency’s relative impact on applicant’s professional development.
Callout: 2026 SRB First Nations Critique Residency
In 2023, Wiradjuri writer, scholar, and poet Jeanine Leane published her seminal essay, ‘Cultural Rigour: First Nations Critical Culture’ in the SRB. The essay identified some of the systemic issues stymieing the reception of First Nations writing, from a lack of familiarity with, or respect for, the communal context from which authors emerge, to a tendency towards either hollow praise or casual dismissal.
This residency program aims to answer Leane’s call for cultural rigour and forms of critique responsive to the full range of ‘cultural perspectives, speaking positions, socio-cultural contexts, and intersections of identity’ present in Australian literature and art. It also joins in the efforts of recently established First Nations-led journals, such as Blue Art Journal and Sovereign Texts, to foreground critique as both a ‘cultural intervention’ and an assertion of sovereignty.
We are offering three places for a one-week residency, which will run through October 12-19 in Western Sydney. Residents will be notified by early September to allow time to plan around the residency.
The program is open to First Nations writers at any career level interested in developing or refining their critical practice, with the guidance of an in-person mentor. The mentor for the inaugural iteration of the residency will be Jeanine Leane.
Residents will also have the opportunity to attend online and in-person workshops led by Kokomini author and Director of Indigenous Studies at UTS, Graham Akhurst, Goorie and Koori poet, educator and editor, Evelyn Araluen, and the SRB Editor, James Jiang.
Applications are now open and close at noon on Monday, 24 August 2026.
See below for full details on eligibility and the application process.
Please direct any further queries to the SRB Editor, James Jiang, at editor@sydneyreviewofbooks.com.
We would like to thank our partners, the Whitlam Institute, for their support of the program and allowing residents to be housed at the Whitlam House in Cabramatta.
