Time To Write
It is hard to be a writer in Australia. It can be an isolating existence, average income is low, and most writers need to support their writing with other employment.
Publishing a first book is a major achievement but it doesn’t always make a big difference to a precarious financial existence.
Time to Write was built on a recognition of the difficulties writers in Australia face in earning a living from writing.
The problem is twofold and is borne out in research and in practice.
First, writers in Australia have a hard time making ends meet, with many writers’ incomes falling below the living wage.
Recent research shows the average income generated by a practicing Australian writer is $18,200, and due to the need to generate income from other sources, writers spend only half their time producing original work.
Second, even for successful, published writers, there is limited financial support from creative agencies, government or philanthropists in Australia for the work-in-progress phase – the vast majority of literary prizes and awards are for completed works.
Despite the challenges, Australia has many great writers who don’t give up and continue to make great contributions to our cultural life.
Time to Write was established by Bronte Adams and Claire Murray because we value this contribution. We used the occasion of the 21st birthday of a public policy business we started in 2002 to do something to make it a little easier for writers in Australia.
With the assistance of friends and colleagues who were happy to donate their time, we spoke with writers, and other professionals in the literary and philanthropic spaces. Two big messages emerged:
Even after you’ve published your first book, the challenges don’t stop. In fact, it’s not uncommon for writers to face a “valley of death” where they struggle to produce their second or even third novel
The best thing you can provide a writer with is… time to write
Delighted with the willingness of others to help, we set about designing a process that would maximise the funds that go to emerging and early career writers-in-progress, and minimize the bureaucracy around it.
Time to Write launched the Paragraph Fellowship in 2024, an annual $25,000 grant to an emerging or early career writer to continue writing after they have published their first work of literary fiction.
Over time and with the support of other donors, the aim is to extend Time to Write fellowships beyond literary fiction, and into other genres like poetry and play.
The Paragraph Fellowship is an initiative of Time to Write, a sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation.
