International Travel Fund for Authors and Illustrators

Support for authors and illustrators to travel internationally to attend events and activities associated with the international publication and promotion of their work.

About the opportunity

Individuals or international literary organisations may apply to support authors and illustrators to travel to attend events and activities associated with publication and promotion of their work in international markets. The proposal should include a program of activities designed to engage international readers.

This funding may assist with international air fares and other travel costs associated with participation in literary festivals, book tours or other promotional events.

Contributions of $5,000 per successful applicant are available.

Who can apply:

  • Published Australian authors and illustrators of literary works.
  • International literary organisations including festivals and publishers.

Who can’t apply:

  • Applicants who have not provided the required support material – a letter of invitation/confirmation from the literary organisation.
  • Individuals and organisations who have an overdue grant report
  • Individuals and organisations who owe money to Creative Australia.

What you can apply for:

  • Travel costs including international air fares and accommodation
  • Other costs associated with participation in literary festivals, book tours or other promotional events.

What you can’t apply for:

  • Travel and other costs to attend academic conferences
  • Travel to attend writing courses
  • Travel to research new work.

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, providing 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.

Applications will be considered by Creative Australia in consultation with industry advisors.

Applications will be assessed against the following assessment criteria:

  1. Quality
  • Quality of the work
  • Significance and range of the activities planned.
  1. Viability
  • Timeliness of the opportunity
  • The level of the publisher or international literary organisation’s support, including any financial contribution.
  1. Impact
  • Impact of the proposed activities on the author or illustrator’s career.
  • Impact of the proposed activities on reader engagement.

You must submit support material with your application. Creative Australia and industry advisors may review this support material to gain a better sense of your project.

Your application will only be eligible if it includes the following essential support material:

  • a letter of invitation/confirmation from the literary organisation.

The following support material may also be included with your application:

  • a biography of the author or illustrator
  • up to five pages of the author or illustrator’s work, preferably from the work/s to be internationally promoted/published.

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs.

You can provide up to three URLs that link to content that is relevant to your proposal.

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application as written material (Word and PDF).

Key dates

Applications closed

Please note: To apply you must be registered in our Application Management System a minimum of two business days prior to the closing date.

Apply now

Contact

If you need help with your application,
contact Artists Services.

Related Links

International travel fund for authors and illustrators FAQs

No. This fund is to support activities associated with international trade publication and promotion of Australian authors and book illustrators.

No. This fund is to support activities associated with international trade publication and promotion of Australian authors and book illustrators.

No. You can apply to Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups for this type of activity.

Only if a book shop appearance is part of a broader suite activities.

Applications should be for a suite of activities rather than a single event. Applications which include a program of activities rather than a single event will be more competitive.

Yes.  The international publisher or organisation should outline their financial contribution or other support.

Yes.

Yes. However, the purpose of the fund is to enable an author to travel to support the international publication of their work.

A strong proposal will have either an international publisher in place, or will clearly demonstrate that the travel will assist in securing one.

A proposal may also demonstrate that the activity will increase international attention and demand for writing by unique Australian voices such as works by Australian First Nations writers.

Yes. You will need to provide information in the application about the pseudonym.

Yes. It will assist in the assessment of your work if you provide book sales data to help the advisors understand your readership.

Yes. It will assist in the assessment if you can explain where your work sits within the genre and why it is an excellent example of this genre.