Queensland Writers Centre Varuna Fellowship Recipients 2023
Tuesday 18 July 2023
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2023 Queensland Writers Centre Varuna Fellowships.
Award-winning Brisbane writer of fiction, non-fiction and journalism Kristina Olsson is the recipient of the Established Writers Fellowship; Moroccan-Australian writer, group facilitator and counsellor Nadia Mahjouri is the recipient of the Underrepresented Writers Fellowship; and we are proud to announce the addition of a third Fellowship for an Indigenous Writer in 2023, awarded to Gunggari writer and editor Nadia Johansen.
Kristina Olsson
Queensland Writers Centre Established Writers Fellowship
Kristina Olsson is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and journalism. Her 2009 novel The China Garden won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Kibble Prize. Her 2013 memoir, Boy, Lost, garnered multiple awards including the Queensland, New South Wales and West Australian Premiers awards for non-fiction and the Kibble Prize. Her most recent novel, Shell, launched the legendary Scribner Australia literary imprint and was shortlisted in several major literary awards. She is currently working on a memoir set in Sweden and northern Norway that tracks the life of another lost child.
Nadia Johansen
Queensland Writers Centre UNDERREPRESENTED Writers Fellowship
Nadia Johansen is a Gunggari person from south-west Queensland who is living on unceded Yuggera and Turrbal land. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts in creative writing at QUT and has a background working in Indigenous community organisations. Nadia loves genre fiction, especially Indigenous Futurism.
Nadia Mahjouri
Queensland Writers Centre UNDERREPRESENTED Writers Fellowship
Nadia Mahjouri is a Moroccan-Australian mother of five. She is a writer, group facilitator and counsellor, specialising in perinatal mental health. She has a professional background in health policy and academia, focusing on ethics and feminist philosophy.
Her writing has been shortlisted for The Deborah Cass Prize, QWC Publishable Competition, SBS Emerging Writers Competition. She was awarded a 2022 Arts Tas ASA Mentorship and a lutruwita playwriting mentorship from Australian Plays Transform.
Her short story Leaving Home will be published in forthcoming anthology Emergence (2023 Hardie Grant) and her debut novel The Half Truth will be published in 2025 by Penguin Random House.
Each year, Queensland Writers Centre offers residential Fellowships in partnership with Varuna, The National Writers’ House, including the Queensland Writers Centre Established Writers Fellowship and Queensland Writers Centre Underrepresented Writers Fellowship.
For more information about the Fellowships and other Queensland Writers Centre residencies, visit www.queenslandwriters.org.au/residencies.
Express your interest in next year’s Fellowship offerings at www.queenslandwriters.org.au/eoi
