A short statement regarding this week’s Australia Council funding announcement

We are devastated for our peers within the literary community who have received the news this week that they have been unsuccessful in their applications for renewal of their funding from the Australia Council.

For some of our most important and valued organisations this will have a very real and lasting impact on their ability to support and produce Australian literature.

We are particularly disappointed that organisations and publications that primarily support young and emerging writers have not been funded. That these writers will not have as many opportunities to develop and hone their craft is a loss for them as individuals, as well as for the audiences who would have had the chance to read their work.

It is of course disappointing that Emerging Writers’ Festival missed this opportunity for long term operational funding, but we offer our solidarity to organisations who have lost crucial funding for whose futures may be uncertain.

Kate Callingham, Co-CEO and General Manager and Michaela McGuire Co-CEO and Director.