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The 2027 Peter Blazey Fellowship winner will be announced in at the Queenscliffe Literary Festival on 17th October 2026. We are a proud sponsor of the 2026 Queenscliffe Literary Festival.
Entries for the 2028 Fellowship will open in April 2027.
2022 recipient Dženana Vucic is the author of the newly released – after war – an unwavering exploration of brutality and its consequences. Read more about after war.
The winner of the $20,000 Peter Blazey Fellowship for 2026 is Mykaela Saunders, for a work in progress about her uncle, working-class Koori poet Kev Saunders. Read more about Mykaela Saunders and other past recipients.
About
This Fellowship honours the larger-than-life figure of Peter Blazey (1939-97). He was the journalist, author, and gay activist who got the scoop on the death of Harold Holt; wrote the definitive biography of Henry Bolte; was party to the riot that led to Sydney’s first Mardi Gras parade; served as Press Secretary to the Environment Minister in the Whitlam Government; worked for The Australian, National Times, and OutRage Magazine; and ran for by-election in 1978 (before homosexuality was decriminalised) under the slogan ‘Put a Poofter into Parliament’.
From left, Peter Blazey and friends. Photo by William Yang
Read about Blazey in his audacious, irresistable and uncalled-for memoir: SCREW LOOSE.
The Peter Blazey Fellowship will award up to $20,000 to a writer in the non-fiction fields of biography, autobiography, and life writing, to further a work in progress.
To be eligible for this fellowship, you must:
- be a writer engaged in a work in progress in the non-fiction fields of autobiography, biography or life writing;
- be residing in Australia;
- have a publishing record which can include books, chapters, articles or any other written works including online that are not self-published;
- not be using the manuscript as part of a submission for a higher degree
More information about how to apply at the University of Melbourne.
Past recipients include Mykaela Saunders, Dženana Vucic, Ju Bavyka, Fiona Murphy, Declan Fry, Ellen van Neerven, Cassandra Pybus, Julia Leigh, Mark Mordue, Kim Mahood, Helen Ennis, Robyn Davidson and Sara Hardy.
Recipients have gone on to win nearly every major non-fiction prize in the country, from the National Biography Award to the Nita May Dobbie, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, to premiers’ literary awards in many states.
2025 recipient Ju Bavyka said:
“I am deeply honoured to receive the 2025 Peter Blazey Fellowship. My career path has been far from linear, due to my family history and migration experiences. As such, my writing practice has emerged gradually. I am especially grateful that my multidisciplinary approach has been recognised as valid, and for the trust of the selection committee. More than just financial support, the Fellowship is a profound acknowledgement of my work, which is important to me.”
Clive Blazey AM said of his brother:
“Peter Blazey was a larger-than-life figure with a vital interest in politics of all kinds, a hectic energy and a creative curiosity that propelled his many friendships with other writers, artists and troublemakers. We’re pleased that the award has proven a steppingstone to publishing success and to literary career-making, with a high number of writers going on to win critical acclaim for the books they created through this prize in Peter’s name.”
Tim Herbert, Peter Blazey’s partner, said:
“Almost all of those who have received the Fellowship have gone on to complete and publish their work. Often there’s a familiar theme entailing marginalisation, stigma and the personal courage required to compel societal change. As a ‘78er’, caught up in the riot that would become the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Peter Blazey would be very pleased.”
The Peter Blazey Fellowship was launched by the Hon. Justice Michael Kirby in May 2004 and has been made available through the generosity of Clive Blazey and Tim Herbert, brother and partner of Peter Blazey.
Listen to ABC radio — Overnights with Greta Jackson — for more info on the Fellowship
Watch the Peter Blazey Fellowship promotional video
Find out more about past recipients
Proud sponsor of Queenscliffe Literary Festival
The Peter Blazey Fellowship is a proud sponsor of the 2025 and 2026 Queenscliffe Literary Festival – find out more
