Delighted to announce that I’ve been awarded Creative Australia’s Keesing Studio for Australian writers in Paris! I’ll be heading to France later this year to spend a month working on a memoir/auto-fiction about the year I spent dressed as Marie Antoinette (My Year as a Fairy Tale): can’t wait!

The Keesing studio was bequeathed on a 75 year lease by the late Nancy Keesing back in 1985 as an opportunity for Australian writers to work in a new and inspiring environment. It’s an incredibly generous gift and one which a former writer-in-residence, playwright Vanessa Bates, has described as life-changing. At any one time, the Cité hosts about 300 artists working across a diverse range of media and artforms, so the potential for creative and cross-cultural collaborations is rich.

Thanks to everyone who has helped get My Year as a Fairy Tale off the ground! The Centre for 21st Humanities at the University of Newcastle provided seed funding for the initial performance – thanks in particular to Hugh Craig and Ros Smith. The performance was documented a number of talented people including videographer Jess Coughlan, filmmaker Tyler Beckley and crew, photographer Lizz Mackenzie, with costume design and construction from Kadisha Patterson and Tamara Findlay, and a nifty logo by Caelli Jo Brooker. Many others helped with make-up, hair, locations, venues, photography, funding, encouragement and …. cake!!! After the performance, when I decided to write a book about the experience, acclaimed writer and writing mentor, Kathryn Heyman, suggested the memoir form.