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2019 Residential mentees announced

Congratulations to Hayley Lawrence, Polly Jude, Nick Westhoff and Robert Walker

About the program

The mentorship provides five days in a glorious Byron shire location with accommodation and some meals provided, one-on-one mentoring with Marele Day and the company of three other committed writers.  It’s an experience that many have described as life-changing, a time to forge lasting friendships and discover what lies at the heart of your work.

This is an outstanding opportunity to participate in a writing experience that has already proved to be a launch pad for regional writers. Established in 2001, the roll call of past participants who are now published authors continues to grow every year. You can see them all and read testimonials about the residential mentorship experience on our Alumni Successes page.

Key Dates

• Applications are now closed. Applications for the next residential mentorship will open in March 2020.

Eligibility

Eligible writers must: be 18 years of age or over; reside in the catchment area (from Tweed Heads to Taree and west to Kyogle); be a current 2019 member of Byron Writers Festival. Manuscripts should be fiction or narrative non-fiction.

Mentorship selection

Three professional writers will judge the entries. The four mentorship recipients will be selected from a shortlist and selection will be according to: suitability of the work for the mentorship scheme; potential of the work; and appropriateness for the development of the writer in the residency context. The judges’ decision is final. Unsuccessful applicants will not be given individual feedback on their submission.

About the mentor

Marele Day has been the mentor for the program for the past seventeen years and will be taking this role again in 2019. Marele is the author of four crime novels – The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender; The Case of the Chinese Boxes; The Last Tango of Dolores Delgado and The Disappearances of Madalena Grimaldi as well as a collection of crime-comedy stories, Mavis Levack, PI.  Other novels include the best-selling Lambs of God, which was published to international acclaim with film rights optioned by Twentieth Century Fox; Mrs Cook: The Real and Imagined Life of the Captain’s Wife; and most recently The Sea Bed.  She is a highly experienced speaker, teacher and mentor, and has won several awards, including the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

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