Academi bursaries bear fruit

       

Earlier this year, Fflur Dafydd won the Oxfam Hay Prize for Emerging Writers 2009 for her first English novel Twenty Thousand Saints (Alcemi, 2009). Twenty Thousand Saints is a reworking and progression of her Welsh language novel Atyniad (Y Lolfa, 2006) which won the Literature Medal at the National Eisteddfod in Swansea in August 2006. Fflur Dafydd was awarded an Academi Writer’s Bursary in 2004-5, which resulted in these prize-winning novels.

This year has again seen the publication of a range of books written with the assistance of an Academi Writer’s Bursary. Poetry, prose, travel writing and fiction are all represented.

Tom Anderson was awarded an Academi Writer’s Bursary in 2007 to work on Chasing Dean (Summersdale, 2009). Tom Anderson was led into a writing career through journeys taken as a surfer. Chasing Dean is a mixture of novel and travelogue, set in the USA against the backdrop of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Mike Parker’s  Map Addict (Collins, 2009) combines history, travel, adventure, memoir and observation. Mike received an Academi Writer’s Bursary in 2007 to buy time to research and write this book.

Sarah Jackman’s third novel Never Stop Looking (Simon & Schuster Pocket Books, 2009), was written with the assistance of an Academi Writer’s Bursary. Her writing explores the psychology of characters in contemporary situations; Abbie’s husband Nick disappeared without trace and six years later she is still obsessed with keeping his memory alive.

Keri Finlayson’s first poetry collection Rooms (Shearsman Books) was published in 2009. Keri received an Academi Writer’s Bursary in 2005. Rooms develops two intertwining narratives. In the first, the poet remembers and re-imagines her grandmother as a young woman, and the family stories that surround her. The second concerns the history of film.

Bursaries are available to new and published writers and children’s writers. Bursaries are available for disabled writers in need of specialist equipment and assistance. The Miscellaneous Fund can offer small-scale support to help cover the travel or research costs of specific writing projects.

If you would like to apply for a 2010 Academi Writer’s Bursary, make a note of the closing date: Saturday 31 October 2009. The guidelines and application forms are available to download from the Academi website: click here or contact Academi post@academi.org / 029 2047 2266