Who can apply   

• Only individuals may apply to this category. 
• You must be a practicing artist or arts worker.   
• You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian Permanent Resident.
• You are working on a literature project.  

Who cannot apply   

You cannot apply if:   

• you are a group or an organisation   
• you have submitted another application to the same round of the BR Whiting studio residency  
• you have an overdue grant report   
• you owe money to Creative Australia.  

Industry advisors and Creative Australia staff will consider applications according to the assessment criteria. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by early December 2026. 

Applicants must address the following assessment criteria: 

1. Quality 

Industry advisors will assess the quality of the artistic and/or cultural development activities proposed in your application. 

They may consider: 

• your artistic practice and quality of your previous artistic works
• the vision, ideas and artistic rationale for your proposed residency  
• your level of motivation and approach to personal learning, collaboration and development. 
   

2. Viability 

Industry advisors will assess the viability of the proposed activities.  

They may consider: 

• feasibility and relevance of proposed activity in the context of the residency context
• realistic and achievable planning within the residency period. 
   

3. Impact  

Industry advisors will assess the expected impact of the proposed activities on your career. 

They may consider: 

• how the residency will contribute to the development of your artistic practice, including relevance and timeliness
• how the residency will strengthen your professional networks, international engagement and future opportunities for collaboration.

You should submit support material with your application. Assessors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.

What you should provide

We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact us.

There are three types of support material you may submit:

1. Artistic support material

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.

Types of support material we accept

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).

You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material.

These URLs can include a total of:

• 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording
• 10 images
• 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing).

Please note: Our assessors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.

If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.

Other accepted file formats

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:

• video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media)
• audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
• images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
• written material (Word and PDF).

2. Biographies and CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project.

Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.

3. Letters of support

Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants, or the broader community. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.

If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.

You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.

The BR Whiting studio is situated near the River Tiber and within walking distance from the Roma Trastevere train station and the old district of Trastevere, which alongside its historic significance, boasts some of the best pizzerias and bars in Rome. 

The studio is located on the eighth floor of a security building. A lift travels to the seventh floor, where there is a short set of stairs leading to the studio. The apartment consists of a spacious multi-purpose room, a bedroom, bathroom, and library annexe. It contains a collection of more than 2,000 books that previous residents have added to over the years. A door from the main room leads onto a leafy terrace that overlooks the rooftops of Rome and its surrounding hills. The main room contains the kitchen and dining area, a desk, sofa, sofa bed, storage cupboard (containing vacuum cleaner, ironing board etc.), coffee table, electric heater and wood stove. There is also a printer and a television. The bedroom contains a clothes cupboard and a double bed. Bed linen, towels and blankets are supplied. There is a washing machine in the bathroom, a telephone and ADSL internet connection. 

Residents are responsible for cleaning the apartment and for purchasing cleaning materials. 

The BR Whiting studio is not wheelchair accessible and has limited flexibility regarding physical access needs. A guide dog, and/or a carer could accompany the artist for the residency, as the living quarters can accommodate two people.

While the studio would accommodate a couple and a small child over five, it is not recommended for families. There are no parks or facilities in the area and the apartment is quite old.

Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts

All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

All successful applicants are required to comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children, including working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will additionally be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

^{Photo: Lauren Eiko}

Max Easton is a writer from south-west Sydney. His first novel, The Magpie Wing, was longlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award, with its acclaimed follow-up, Paradise Estate released in 2023. Now, Autonomy, the third in an ongoing series will be published by Giramondo in August 2026. 

Residency project: 

During the three-month BR Whiting Residency period, Max will be developing his fourth novel, I Pentiti. Set in Italy from 2018-2027, it follows the activities of the four members of a DIY punk group, alongside their engagement with squatted social centres known as CSOA. He will be conducting research regarding Italy's radical history, its ties to underground music, and Italian subcultural activity more broadly.  

^{Photo: supplied by artist} 
Leanne Hall is an award-winning author for young adults and children. Her most recent YA novel, The Gaps, won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, an Adelaide Festival Award for Literature and the Ethel Turner Prize at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Leanne has also had short stories published in Meanjin, Best Australian Stories, and the anthology Growing Up Asian in Australia. Leanne was an Asialink Artist in Residence at Peking University in 2013, the 2018-2019 Children’s Literature Fellow at the State Library of Victoria and holds a Doctorate from RMIT University.  

Residency project: 

Leanne will work on a novel that weaves together the stories of two visitors to Rome in two different time periods. In 1977, Lina should be searching for her missing boyfriend, but instead finds herself fascinated with the time Chinese painter Pan Yuliang spent studying in the city. In 1928, the painter Lin struggles to master the new medium of sculpture, and dreams of a future woman who is able to bridge East and West. 

^{Photo: supplied by artist}

Katerina Gibson is a writer and bookseller living in Naarm. Her debut collection Women I Know won the 2023 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Steele Rudd Award, and was shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing. Her stories have appeared in HEAT, Granta, Overland, The Griffith Review, Meanjin, and New Australian Fiction, among other places. She has been Felix Meyer Scholar, and recipient of support from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Katerina was named SMH Best Young Australian Novelist in 2023 and 2025. Her debut novel The Temperature was published with Scribner in 2024. 

Residency project: 

Set between Italy and Australia, ‘Solastalgia’ is about attempting to build a home amidst corroding landscapes and futures. The novel follows Sonja, a young writer, unmoored and on the cusp of her thirties after some surprising critical success in her twenties. While living in Melbourne, she decides to embark on a backpacking trip through Italy. In Italy, and on return to Australia, she contemplates art, landscapes, her friends, family and strangers, while also reflecting on her position as a white settler, tourist, and a child of the military-industrial complex. In the wake of a breakup with her long-time partner, she grapples with how to make a home in shifting and forever-changing environments. 

2024-2025 

• Kirsten Tranter
• Michael Fitzgerald
• Izzy Roberts-Orr
• Eileen Chong
• Katherine Lilley
• Jessie Tu 

2023-2024 

• Jane Harrison
• Susan Anderson
• Mireille Juchau 

2022-2023

• Eunice Andrada
• Louris van de Geer
• Bella Li
• Gretchen Shirm

2020-2021

• Lisa Gorton
• Fiona McGregor
• Robert Lukins
• Sandra Thibodeaux

2019-2020

• Gabriella Coslovich
• Stuart Cooke

2018-2019

• Fiona McFarlane
• Emily Bitto

2017-2018

• Kristel Thornell
• Josephine Rowe