Applications are currently being invited for the Julia Darling Travel Fellowship, which is open to novelists, poets and playwrights over the age of 18 who live and work in the north of England who have at least one professionally produced or published work to their name.
It provides a grant of £2,000 to fund a period of writing and research away from home between June 2017 and May 2018, in the UK or internationally, and is open to individuals or groups of writers. It is inspired by Julia Darling’s love of travel and by the appreciation that she had of writing away from home, whether that was at creative retreats in the wilderness or in rented houses at the seaside.
Her work encompassed a wide range of forms from plays (for example, Manifesto for a New City, Fanny Cradock: the Life and Loves of a Kitchen Devil and Attachments) and novels to poetry (Sudden Collapses in Public Places) and performance. She had a unique and humorous voice that engaged readers even when her work explored her declining health and ultimate death from cancer.
She was always supportive of other writers—Lee Hall said of her, “Julia was a huge inspiration to me and she was a beacon of good sense, humour, ambition and right mindedness—as well as being a fabulous person whom I adored”—and so her friends decided that the best memorial to her would be this fellowship, a mean of helping other writers. It is managed by New Writing North and is crowd-funded.
In 2015, Chloe Daykin from Northumberland used the Julia Darling Travel Fellowship to travel to Norway to research her second novel. In 2016, Michelle Green was awarded £2,000 to travel to Hayling Island, the location of a new set of short stories.
To apply writers must write a brief description (up to 500 words) of how they would like to use the resource to advance their creative work, a short biography (up to 300 words) and state why now would be a good time for them to receive support (up to 300 words). To apply visit The Julia Darling Travel Fellowship. Entry is by online submission only.
The closing date is Friday 31 March 2017 and the winner will be announced in May.