Lockie Fellowship

Eligibility

To be eligible for this scholarship, you must:

• be an established writer residing in Australia;
• be engaged in an original creative and/or critical work. This can be a work in progress, a new work or a work which is near completion, with the work aiming to advance the study of literature in Australia; and,
• have a publishing record (which can include books, chapters, articles or any other written works including online that are not self-published).

Selection criteria

Eligible applicants will be assessed on how their project will best advance literature within Australia, including the project's literary merit and the research intentions of the applicant.

Preference may be given to proposals that foreground one of the following topics: the environment, the human and non-human, creativity, empathy, pandemic studies, science, race, migration, protest, and community.

Eligible applicants must complete the online application form and upload the following documents:

• a project statement including proposed work to be undertaken during the fellowship;
• a project and publication timeline;
• a writing sample (no more than 10 pages); and,
• a Curriculum Vitae, including a current publication record (no more than 5 pages).

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome via email within 6-8 weeks after the closing date.

Mary Anne Margaret Lockie

Mary Anne Margaret Lockie included in a gift in her will to the University of Melbourne in 1949. Known as the Lockie Bequest, the gift was established in order to support the advancement of literature in Australia.

The Lockie family were graziers from the Puralka and Strathdownie districts of Victoria and the South Australian border. Mary Anne Margaret Lockie lived in a house called ‘The Caves’ about two miles outside Mount Gambier. She walked into town a couple of times a week to buy groceries and to stock up on books from the library. On 28 April 1949, she collapsed and died suddenly in the town’s main street. A search of her house revealed two suitcases filled with silver coins. The estate turned out to be large, including unspecified investments and ‘a number of house properties in Mount Gambier and big amounts of cash’. Her gift in will left money to a local institute and made provisions to maintain the family grave. But by far the largest bequest was to the University of Melbourne, to be used ‘for the advancement of literature within Australia’.

- Dr Rachael Weaver, 2022 Lockie Fellowship recipient.