We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the Write It Fellowship 2025.
We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for Write It, a fellowship established to discover, nurture and develop writers across all genres with a specific focus on under-represented communities.
Shortlist:
- Ceilidh Newbury – Skates, Dates, and other Deadly Weapons (Young Adult Thriller)
- Dayle Fogarty – After Dark (Speculative Fiction/New Adult)
- Dorian Sutton – The Passenger (Literary/Coming of Age)
- Jessica Landford – Rory Finch and the Empty House (Young Adult Spy Thriller)
- Judith Monkhouse – Bitter Rain (Fiction)
- Jules Ng – A Little Feverish (Literary Fiction)
- Kait Newell – The Bones Are Here (Historical Romance)
- Naomi Fogarty – The White Heart (Fantasy/Supernatural)
- Skye Cusack – Checked Out (Romantic Comedy)
- Tracey-Lee Daranjo – A Long Forgetting (Memoir/Non-Fiction)
- Violet Marr – The Fine Art of Borrowing a Faerie (Fantasy)
With the aim of finding writing that better represents the society in which we live, Penguin Random House Australia (PRH AU) established the Write It Fellowship in 2018 to engage with new writing talent who have interesting and diverse stories to tell, such as writers from a socio-economically marginalised background, LGBTQIA+, First Nations, CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) and/or writers with a disability.
This year we received an unprecedented number of entries, more than double those of previous years, underscoring the importance of fellowships that seek to amplify under-represented voices and foster a more inclusive publishing landscape.
Catherine Hill, Head of Editorial at PRH AU, said, ‘The quality of the 2025 submissions was impressive, with a wide variety of genres and styles. We had a lot of fun reading, and it was hard to pick the shortlist amid a great deal of talent. We congratulate the writers on our 2025 list and are looking forward to reading their full manuscripts.’
The successful applicants will be mentored by PRH AU editors across twelve months with the hope of publication. Additionally, as part of the fellowship, each of the successful applicants will receive a $2,000 writing grant and the opportunity to participate in a PRH AU Open House Session to learn about various aspects of the publishing process, including what goes into acquiring, editing, marketing, publicising and selling a book.
The successful applicants will be announced during the week of Monday 10 November 2025.
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