About the opportunity
North America is the largest rights market in the world for Australian publishers and rights sellers, with New York at the heart of its publishing industry. It is also the hub for one of the world’s largest communities of literary agents and scouts.
The program will provide Australian rights sellers, literary agents and publishers with the opportunity to develop their experience in the North American market, extend their networks, and pitch titles to North American editors.
The delegation will undertake a five-day program of industry meetings, market briefings and networking opportunities. The Australia Council will work with the delegates to develop a tailored schedule of meetings.
The Australia Council will support eight delegates with $4,000 each towards the cost of participating; delegates will be responsible for all associated costs including but not limited to visas, flights, accommodation, travel insurance, PCR tests, ground transport, meals and incidentals, and tickets to events.
Delegates announcement
The Australia Council is pleased to announce the delegation of rights sellers, literary agents and publishers taking part in the 2022 New York Publishers’ Program.
This is the largest delegation in the history of the program and includes both small and large publishing houses and literary agencies representing adult and children’s titles.
The delegation demonstrates the necessity of Australian rights sellers to resume face-to-face meetings, which responds to the findings of our recent research on international rights sales, which highlighted the high value of in-person networking, and the ‘clear opportunity to unlock further growth in international rights sales of Australian literature through investment, and to rebuild connections disrupted by COVID-19’.
Participants in the five-day program will have the opportunity to develop their experience in the North American market, extend their networks, and pitch titles to North American editors.
The delegation includes 14 Australia Council supported delegates and 5 self-funded delegates. It will be led by the Australia Council’s Head of Literature, Wenona Byrne and Director of the Left Bank Literary Agency, Gaby Naher, and the delegates below.
Click on the images below to open the biographies.
Delegation leaders
Wenona Byrne, Head of Literature, Australia Council for the Arts
Wenona Byrne, Head of Literature, Australia Council for the Arts
Prior to joining the Australia Council, Wenona worked in publishing for 12 years including nine as international rights manager at Australia’s largest independent publisher, Allen & Unwin. While at Allen & Unwin, Wenona worked closely with Australian authors and literary agents, pitching titles to international publishers in North America, the UK, Europe and Asia. Wenona also worked on Australia Council initiatives including the Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program.
At the Australia Council, Wenona has led initiatives designed to stimulate and expand the demand for Australian books. This includes managing the translation fund, and leading groups of publishers and agents to New York, Shanghai and Frankfurt to meet with publishing counterparts in the world’s biggest markets.
Gaby Naher, Co-Director, Left Bank Literary
Gaby Naher, Co-Director, Left Bank Literary
Gaby is one of the partners at Left Bank Literary and represents a range of quality fiction and non-fiction for adult readers. Her clients include Stella-prize-winning Heather Rose, New York Times #1 bestseller, Candice Fox and multi-award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Dr Norman Swan.
Prior to establishing The Naher Agency in May 2008, Gaby worked as a literary agent, publicist and bookseller in Sydney, London and New York. She is the author of four books and has a Doctorate of Creative Arts.
Delegates
Annabel Barker, Director, Annabel Barker Agency
Annabel Barker, Director, Annabel Barker Agency
Annabel Barker is a literary agent specialising in books for children and young adults. She founded Annabel Barker Agency in 2020 after more than twenty years working for major children’s publishers, including Hardie Grant and Pan Macmillan in Melbourne, and Hachette Children’s Books in London. Her background is primarily in international rights, and she has enjoyed an extensive career working with children’s publishers across the world.
Annabel now represents some of Australia’s most-loved writers and illustrators for young people. With a collaborative and open approach, she works closely with her clients on projects for all ages, from picture and chapter books to middle-grade and young adult. Annabel also enjoys working on illustrated projects, including graphic and hybrid illustrated novels and memoir
Annabel looks for writing and illustration that showcases the depth of the Australian experience. She is proud to be part of Australia’s vibrant children’s book community,
and loves nothing more than helping Australian children’s creators find international recognition and success.
Tash Beslie, Kids Publisher, Affirm Press
Tash Beslie, Kids Publisher, Affirm Press
After nearly 20 years in children’s publishing Tash has worked in a variety of roles across publishing, marketing and sales. She has worked on best-selling junior fiction series including Billie B Brown, Zac Power and Go Girl! and was series concept creator for the HumanKind picture books. She’s created the publishing and book marketing programs of global and local brands like Star Wars, ABC Kids and The Wiggles and brought classic children’s book franchises to Australia including Miffy, Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie-the-Pooh.
As publisher at Affirm Press she is acquiring and commissioning across all categories from books for babies to teens and selling foreign rights. A daughter of working-class migrants, books unlocked a cycle of struggle and hardship. She believes strongly that books should be a right not a privilege and that all children should be afforded the same life-changing magic of books.
Danielle Binks, Literary Agent, Jacinta Dimase Management
Danielle Binks, Literary Agent, Jacinta Dimase Management
Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based writer and literary agent with Jacinta di Mase Management. She is the author of bestselling middle-grade novel The Year the Maps Changed (North America forthcoming in October with Quill Tree Books), and award-winning YA novel The Monster of Her Age. Danielle was also editor and contributor to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of short stories inspired by the #LoveOzYA (love Aussie YA) movement. As well as being an author and agent, she now teaches various creative writing courses in the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University in Melbourne.
As an agent with Jacinta di Mase Management, Danielle has a particular love and focus on youth-literature and represents authors like Jenna Guillaume, Denis Knight, and Fiona Hardy – as well as illustrator Sher Rill Ng, and graphic novelists Rachel Ang, Briar Rolfe and Sarah Firth.
Danielle always seeks to uphold the Jacinta di Mase ethos of finding books that ‘engage, entertain, and inspire,’ – and to that end she represents adult titles, like Indigenous author and playwright Jane Harrison’s much-anticipated adaptation of her play The Visitors (forthcoming, HarperCollins Australia), and representing actor and producer Aaron Fa’aoso as the first Torres Strait Islander to release a memoir with a commercial Australian publisher (Pantera Press, September 2022).
https://daniellebinks.com/
Jacinta Dimase, Director, Jacinta Dimase Management
Jacinta Dimase, Director, Jacinta Dimase Management
Founder and lead agent of Jacinta Dimase Management, Jacinta started her career in book selling, and sales and marketing, before starting her own agency in 2004 after many years with two of Australia’s premier literary agencies. A member of the Australia Council for the Arts’ Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) Program committee from 2013-2016, Jacinta is the past President of the Australian Literary Agents’ Association (ALAA), a current member of the RMIT Program Advisory Committee for the Master of Writing and Publishing, and an ALAA representative for the Australian Inclusive Publishing Initiative.
Jacinta is passionate about hidden histories, and stories that entertain, engage, and inspire. The agency represents quality, commercial, and award-winning fiction such as the New York Times’ best-seller, Lost Boy Found (Grand Central), non-fiction including history, memoir, politics and social issues such as Fight Like a Girl by feminist firebrand Clementine Ford (OneWorld Publications).
The vibrant children’s list embodies the agency motto: Books that engage, entertain, and inspire, and includes some of Australia’s best illustrators and creators, such as Ann James’ best-selling I’m a Dirty Dinosaur (Kane Miller), multi-award winning middle-grade, such as The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks (Quill Tree Books), and young adult titles such as Jenna Guillaume’s What I Like About Me (Peachtree Publishing), which has recently been optioned for film.
The Jacinta Dimase Management team work closely with creators to develop their work before presentation to publishers in Australia and throughout the world via a global network of co-agents and literary scouts. Jacinta is looking forward to meeting other publishing professionals, learning more about the US market, and discovering opportunities for collaboration.
Kelly Fagan, Publisher, Allen & Unwin
Kelly Fagan, Publisher, Allen & Unwin
Kelly Fagan is a book publisher with many years’ experience in the industry. She is currently with Allen & Unwin, and has previously worked at Random House, Black Inc., and at HarperCollins in Sydney and London. In 2013 she was awarded the Unwin Fellowship.
At Allen & Unwin she commissions and publishes a wide range of non-fiction and fiction, including books by Clare Bowditch, Hannah Gadsby, Dylin Hardcastle, Paige Clark, Isobel Beech, Madeleine Gray, Andrew Webster, Brigid Delaney, Vicky Xu, Wil Anderson, Helen Hoang and Kitty Flanagan. Flanagan’s book 488 Rules for Life was the highest selling Australian book published in 2019, and took out the non-fiction prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Clare Bowditch also won Best New Writer that year.
Kelly is also the series publisher for Anh Do books at Allen & Unwin, managing the creation, marketing and production of seven different series of children’s books, with twelve new titles per year. In 2022 these series combined reached sales of 1 million copies in Australia.
Kelly has recently worked with Nakkiah Lui on the creation of Joan Press, which is Allen & Unwin’s first new adult publishing imprint in 20 years, and sits on the advisory board for OPEN BOOK, the internship aimed at removing barriers from entry level roles across the publishing industry.
Grace Heifetz, Co-Director, Left Bank Literary
Grace Heifetz, Co-Director, Left Bank Literary
Grace grew up between Sydney and the Blue Mountains and has lived in London and San Francisco. She returned to Australia in 2002 and began working at Curtis Brown until mid-2019.
Her clients include authors such as Chris Hammer, Bri Lee, Emily Maguire and Nakkiah Lui. Grace is one of the partners in Left Bank Literary and is also on the board on the Blue Mountains Writers Festival and the National Young Writers’ Festival.
Katy McEwen, Rights Manager, Pantera Press
Katy McEwen, Rights Manager, Pantera Press
Katy McEwen started her career in bookselling in the UK and then worked in marketing and publicity roles for both a small independent publisher and for Penguin Books in London, on the Viking imprint, giving her a strong background in the industry.
After moving to Sydney, she discovered the world of rights, working firstly as a Rights Executive on the children’s books and then on the adult list at Allen & Unwin, including administration and management of rights sales and distribution to the UK and US.
In 2014 she joined Pantera Press as Rights Manager. Pantera Press is an independent publisher (shortlisted for the ABIA Small Publisher of the Year for the last 5 years), and also a social purpose business that uses its profits to fund projects that work to close the literacy gap in Australia.
Katy is responsible for all subsidiary rights sales for a wide range of adult fiction and non-fiction titles, as well as a small list of children’s titles. She works with agents and scouts in the US and translation agents throughout the world to bring their books to the widest possible audience, as well as with audio producers and film contacts.
Jordan Meek, Senior Rights Executive, Penguin Random House Australia
Jordan Meek, Senior Rights Executive, Penguin Random House Australia
Jordan Meek is the Senior Rights Executive at Penguin Random House Australia.
She is responsible for selling rights in both the adult and children’s lists in all markets outside of Australia and New Zealand. Jordan handles English language rights sales (North America and the United Kingdom), translation rights sales and, film and television. She is involved in the process from the initial pitch through to negotiation of offers, and finalising of contracts.
Jordan graduated in 2016 with a Master of Publishing from The University of Sydney, has worked as a bookseller, ran a book subscription service and volunteered at Sydney Writers Festival and Newcastle Writers Festival.
You can read more about how Jordan got into rights in her Books+Publishing Rights Profile.
Jane Novak, Director, Jane Novak Literary Agency
Jane Novak, Director, Jane Novak Literary Agency
Jane Novak is a literary professional with over twenty-five years’ experience in bookselling and publishing. She is passionate about Australia’s local industry and the promotion of Australian books and writers across the globe. The Jane Novak Literary Agency represents writers across all genres as well as a number of literary estates. Her clients include Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, David Malouf, Patrick White, Gerald Murnane, Behrouz Boochani, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Suzie Miller and Jennifer Robinson.
A sole operator, Jane was born into a family of booksellers and got her first job as a publicist at Pan Macmillan Australia. After almost thirteen years at Pan she left to take a job at Text Publishing as the Publicity Director. After seven happy years there, Jane took over the Barbara Mobbs Agency and has been working under her own name since 2017. Jane’s long service across bookselling, publishing and agenting has given her a valuable 360-degree view across the industry.
Libby O’Donnell, Head of International Rights & Business Development, Harper Collins Publishers
Libby O’Donnell, Head of International Rights & Business Development, Harper Collins Publishers
Libby O’Donnell is Head of International Rights and International Business Development at HarperCollins Australia, where she has worked since 2012 across both adult and children’s publishing lists, which include works by multi-award-winning and bestselling authors, both locally and internationally, to cutting-edge debut authors. Her most recent successes have included global English-language and translation publishing deals, and major film and television partnerships, for authors such as Trent Dalton, Meg Mason, Donna Hay, Matt Stanton, Katrina Nannestad, and Freya Blackwood, amongst many others. She regularly meets with publishers, editors, agents, scouts and producers, in markets outside Australia, and attends bookfairs in Frankfurt, London, Bologna, Taipei, and Tokyo, as well as market investigations and sales meetings in the US, China and Korea.
Prior to that Libby represented children’s and educational publishers at the Australian Publishers Association, including international representation of the Australian industry at major international book fairs. She has also worked in the publishing industry in Japan, where she lived for almost three years after her undergraduate degree, and in bookselling. Postgraduate studies between 2009 and 2012 led her to undertake research tours in Japan and India, studying transnational Australian children’s literature in the region.
She is the 2011 recipient of the Pixie O’Harris Award (ABIA) for her contribution to Australian children’s literature, was a founding member of the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation Board, and the Hello from Australia: Children’s Book Illustration Exhibition initiative at Bologna Book Fair.
Benython Oldfield, Director, Zeitgeist Agency
Benython Oldfield, Director, Zeitgeist Agency
Benython Oldfield is the Sydney-based Director of Zeitgeist Agency. He manages writers’ careers in literature, screen, theatre and media. In the early 2000s Benython worked at Random House. After a 2006 fact-finding tour of Chinese publishing with legendary Agent Toby Eady, Benython left Random to find writers to agent in Shanghai. There he met his business partner Sharon Galant, who now runs Zeitgeist Brussels. Benython returned to Sydney from China in 2007, and fifteen years on represents 50 writers and is focused on literary fiction, memoir, narrative non-fiction and YA.
Zeitgeist highlights include the adaptation of Holly Ringland’s hit global novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (HarperCollins) into a 7-part Amazon TV series by Made Up Stories starring Sigourney Weaver & Alycia Debnam-Carey. Hip Hop and Hymns by Mawunyo Gbogbo (PRH), Murong Xuecun’s Deadly Quiet City: Stories from Wuhan (The New Press), Welcome to Your Period and Welcome to Consent by Yumi Stynes & Dr Melissa Kang (Walker), newcomer Kate Scott’s novel Compulsion (PRH) and Antony Loewenstein’s The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Sells Its Occupation (Verso/Scribe).
Instagram: @zeitgeistwriters | www.zeitgeistagency.com
Melanie Ostell, Literary Agent, Melanie Ostell Literary
Melanie Ostell, Literary Agent, Melanie Ostell Literary
Melanie Ostell has worked in trade publishing as an editor, publisher, educator and now literary agent. In 2002 she spent three months in-house with publishers in London and New York on a Churchill Fellowship. A senior editor at Text Publishing for more than ten years, Melanie has also freelanced with major Australian publishers and held publisher positions in Perth and Sydney. She has led writing workshops across the country and taught at several universities.
Melanie’s current focus is building her client list and recent agenting successes include Tara June Winch and The Yield, an international bestseller and winner of innumerable awards; bestselling debut thriller writer Kelli Hawkins’ Other People’s Houses; literary debut bestseller Jessie Tu’s A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing, winner of the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards Best Literary Fiction Award; and Janine Mikosza’s remarkable, critically lauded memoir Homesickness, published May 2022, which ‘pushes memoir forward’.
Jane Palfreyman, Publisher, Allen & Unwin
Jane Palfreyman, Publisher, Allen & Unwin
Jane Palfreyman is an Australian editor and publisher with over 30 years’ experience. After starting at Picador/Macmillan, she became Publishing Director at Random House, where she edited and published writers including Tom Keneally, Charlotte Wood, Frank Moorhouse, Gail Jones and J.M.Coetzee.
In 2007, Jane joined Allen & Unwin, where she publishes an eclectic list, including award-winning bestsellers Jasper Jones and Honeybee by Craig Silvey, The Weekend by Charlotte Wood, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, Scrublands by Chris Hammer, Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz and The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, which has sold over 1.5 million copies.
Among the careers Jane has helped launch are those of Michelle de Kretser, Malcolm Knox, Christos Tsiolkas, Sarah Bailey, Chris Hammer, Clementine Ford, Jessie Tu, Jacqueline Bublitz, Ella Baxter and Bri Lee. She is also very proud of her feminist list which includes Charlotte Wood, Clementine Ford, Bri Lee, Jane Caro and Roxane Gay.
Jane has published six Miles Franklin Literary Award winners and two Stella Prize winners. Five titles she published at Allen & Unwin were recently named by the Sydney Morning Herald in the ‘25 Best Australian Novels of the Last 25 Years’.
Carey Schroeter, Rights & International Sales Manager, Books for Children & Young Adults, Allen & Unwin
Carey Schroeter, Rights & International Sales Manager, Books for Children & Young Adults, Allen & Unwin
Carey Schroeter is the Rights and International Sales Manager, Books for Children and Young Adults, with Allen & Unwin, Australia’s leading independent publisher. Carey joined Allen & Unwin in 2013, has been attending the Bologna and Frankfurt Fairs since 2016, and was part of the 2019 New York Publishers’ Program delegation.
Carey’s 2022 New York list is an impressive array of exciting new titles from either highly acclaimed internationally respected creators, or debuts authors. Titles span from picture books (fiction and non) through to YA fiction including: Will Kostakis’ We Could Be Something, a warm funny coming out and coming of age; and The Lorikeet Tree by master storyteller Paul Jennings that explores family tensions, the sibling relationship and terminal illness.
Middle-grade fiction includes the spooky The Glow by Sofie Laguna and Marc McBride; Kate Constable’s time-slip Tumbleglass; Mars Awakens and Mars Underground, a space adventure duology from emerging author HM Waugh; and for junior readers Hercules Quick titles by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner; and Karen Foxlee’s new fun fantasy adventure series called Miss Mary-Kate Martin’s Guide to Monsters, illustrated by Freda Chiu.
Picture books include Shadow Catchers by Kirsty Murray and Karen Blair; Big Cat by Jess Racklyeft (illustrator of Iceberg); Duckling Runs Away by Margaret Wild and Vivienne To; When the Lights Went Out by Lian Tanner and Bruce Whatley; and Your Brain is a Lump of Goo a new non-fiction from Idan Ben-Barak and Christopher Nielsen; plus so much more!
Anna Solding, Director, MidnightSun Publishing
Anna Solding, Director, MidnightSun Publishing
Anna Solding is the founder and director of independent publishing company MidnightSun Publishing. Anna is also the co-founder and director of the Australian Short Story Festival. She has travelled the world as a publisher, partaking in delegations to China, Korea and India, and she has published many books that have been shortlisted for or won awards, both in Australia and internationally. Every year Anna attends the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and now that MidnightSun’s adult list is growing, she is looking at also attending Frankfurt Book Fair.
A writer and editor, Anna has a Master’s and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and is the co-founder of two literary magazines. She loves stories that have language that sings and characters that sweep you away. Literary fiction with a twist and hybrid stories that veer towards crime, speculative fiction or
thrillers excite her. In picture books, she loves unexpected and untold stories from history, and books that take children’s experiences seriously.
In all of her list she includes books with diverse characters, books including fierce emotions and desires, books about our changing world and books that will stay with you long after you have finished reading, as these are her passions.
Hayley Tomlinson, Rights and Contracts Manager, University of Queensland Press (UQP)
Hayley Tomlinson, Rights and Contracts Manager, University of Queensland Press (UQP)
Hayley Tomlinson began as Rights and Contract Manager for the University of Queensland Press (UQP) in March 2022.
Prior to working at UQP, Hayley has worked in rights and acquisitions at Bolinda, and was most recently Acquisitions Manager at Wavesound, where she published ABIA-shortlisted audiobooks Honeybee (Craig Silvey) and Mammoth (Chris Flynn).
Hayley has also spent time working at Macmillan and Melbourne University Press (MUP).
Despite having been drawn to the publishing industry from a creative perspective, her understanding of commercial business continues to grow exponentially.
Hayley is always looking to achieve best practice in terms of publishing protocols and to maximise rights sales for UQP’s titles.
Hayley is committed to finding new markets and readers for UQP’s writers, and this program will help ensure Australian books from UQP are read more widely across North America while simultaneously extending UQP’s own international reputation.
Terri-ann White, Publisher, Upswell Publishing
Terri-ann White, Publisher, Upswell Publishing
Terri-ann White was director of UWA Publishing 2006-2020 and founding director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (1999 – 2011) at the University of Western Australia. For twelve years from 1982 she was an independent bookseller, as owner of the Arcane Bookshop in Perth. Her fiction and non-fiction writing has been published widely. Over the past two decades she has been a passionate collaborator with other artists: dancers, visual artists, and musicians. In Perth in 2021 she launched a new venture: Upswell Publishing, with a focus on distinctive works in fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry, translations, and works of hybridity.
Alexandra Yatomi-Clarke, Managing and Publishing Director, Berbay Publishing
Alexandra Yatomi-Clarke, Managing and Publishing Director, Berbay Publishing
Alexandra Yatomi-Clarke is the founder and publishing director of Berbay Publishing, an award-winning independent children’s publishing house based in Melbourne, Australia. After many years of experience in the arts and publishing, Alexandra decided to start Berbay Publishing to fill a gap in the market for high-end, innovative children’s books from ages 0 -12.
Their books contain stories with universal appeal and an eye for playfulness. They publish stories that have depth—that are imaginative, poignant and humorous.
Stories that provoke thoughtfulness, inspire empathy, and are directed towards the child. But they also feel strongly that books should be beautiful. So, their design-centric list is filled with the work of artists from Australia and around the world whose illustrations help engage the reader and enhance the reading experience.
Alexandra is heavily involved in the conceptual development and creative direction in all of Berbay’s titles and her mission is to publish books that will inform, delight, charm and challenge children with intelligence, ingenuity and fun.
Australian rights sellers, literary agents and publishers working in the following areas of creative writing are eligible to apply: fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, young adult and/or children’s books.
Please check the general eligibility requirements on the Australia Council website.
Applicants are required to respond to the following selection criteria:
- Demonstrated understanding of, and commitment to, North American markets and networks including demonstrated suitability of your represented books and authors to the North American market. Applications must include an indicative overview of the titles you wish to introduce to the North American market.
- The timeliness of this opportunity and a demonstrated ability to plan and deliver on any international outcomes that may arise.
- The impact of participation in this delegation in developing future international opportunities and enhancing international reputation.
You must include an indicative overview of the titles you wish to introduce to the North American market with your application.
You must also submit a one-page risk management/COVID-safe plan (in any format) with your application. If your application is successful, you are responsible for your own COVID-19 safety planning and risk management. This includes taking into account the latest Australian Government COVID-19 health and travel advice.
Your plan should address how you would manage the costs and impacts of quarantine and/or any additional travel and accommodation required, if international borders were to close or you were to become unwell while overseas. If you require a template, you can download one here.
No artistic supporting material or budget is required.
Australia Council staff will assess applications according to the selection criteria above and will seek recommendations by industry advisors as needed.
You will be informed of the outcome of your application by mid-June 2022.
If you plan to have your grant administered by a third party (i.e. paid to an organisation rather than to you as an individual), you must ensure that the administrator is registered in the Australia Council’s online application management system before you begin your application. This means you cannot complete or submit an application if your administrator is not registered. Please note registration in the application management system can take up to two days to process.
You must consider how you will promote health and safety and mitigate risk. This includes taking into account the latest Australian Government COVID-19 health and travel advice.
If your application is successful, you will be responsible for your own COVID-19 safety planning and risk management. You must consider the costs and impact of quarantine and/or any additional travel and accommodation costs required if international borders were to close or if you were to become unwell while overseas.
You must submit a one-page risk management/COVID-safe plan (in any format) with your application. Your plan should address how you would manage the costs and impacts of quarantine and/or any additional travel and accommodation required, if international borders were to close or you were to become unwell while overseas. If you require a template, you can download one here.
Additional information
Once you submit your application, we will send you an email acknowledging receipt of your application.
After you submit your application, we first check it meets the eligibility criteria for the grant or opportunity to which you are applying.
Applications for this program are assessed by Australia Council staff, and industry advisers as required, against the published assessment criteria for the relevant grant program.
We aim to notify you of the outcome of your application no later than 6 weeks after the published closing date for the applicable grant round.
Once all applications have been assessed, you will be contacted about the outcome of your application. If you have been successful, you will also be sent a funding agreement. This outlines the conditions of funding, how you will be paid and your grant reporting requirements. The following accordion items outline these stages in more detail.
If your application is successful, you will receive an email advising you a grant is offered. You must then agree to the conditions of your grant, which represents the Australia Council’s contract with you – this can be done online, by email or by letter. Payment of a grant will not be made until the grant conditions have been agreed and accepted by all the relevant parties.
You should not start a project that depends on a grant until all relevant parties have agreed and accepted the grant conditions and we have evidence of such acceptance on file.
Standard grant conditions require you to, among other things:
- seek prior approval for making a change to a funded project (for example, changes in the activity budget; changes to key creative personnel; or changes to start or end dates)
- respond to requests for information about the project or grant
- satisfactorily account for how the grant is spent (if you do not you will be required to return all monies for which you cannot satisfactorily account)
- comply with all applicable laws
- acknowledge the Australia Council’s support in all promotional material associated with the project; this includes use of the Australia Council’s logo and a standard text of acknowledgement.
- provide artistic and financial acquittal reports at the end of the project
- return any unspent grant funds at the completion of your project or on notice from us to return such unspent funds.
Grant agreements must be signed by a legal entity – either a legally constituted organisation or an individual. For unincorporated groups, see the section on administered grants
All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an ABN. Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).
The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account into which we pay the funds. There are no exceptions to this rule. If applicants cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant’s name, they will need to nominate an administrator for their grant.
Groups/ensembles/collectives, unincorporated associations/ unincorporated entities and other bodies with no legal status do not need an administrator if they have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and bank account in their name. If they are unable to provide an active ABN and bank account that matches the name of the applicant, they must nominate an administrator. The name of the administrator must match the name of the ABN and bank account into which funds are paid if the application is successful.
If we approve your application you will need accept the conditions of the grant in a funding agreement.
After you accept your funding agreement online, we will automatically generate a payment for the grant on your behalf. You do not need to send us an invoice.
We will pay grant funds directly into your nominated bank account within two weeks after acceptance of the funding agreement. Grant payments cannot be postponed.
If you do not wish to have the grant funds paid directly into your bank account you can choose to have your grant administered by another individual or legally constituted organisation (Doesn’t apply to Arts Projects – Organisations).
When you apply, you will be asked to provide an active Australian Business Number or ‘ABN’. The ABN that you provide must correspond to the name of the applicant (or the administering body, if one has been nominated). When you accept your funding agreement, you will be asked to enter the details of the bank account you wish the grant to be paid into. The name associated with that bank account must correspond to the name in which the ABN has been registered.
Grant reports are required on completion of your project. Acquitting a grant means accurately reporting on the funded activities and the expenditure of Australia Council funding.
Please read your funding agreement to check details of the grant acquittal material you should provide.
The grant acquittal report is where you tell us:
- how you spent your grant
- what the artistic outcomes of your funded activity were.
If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report at the times and in the manner detailed in your funding agreement, the Australia Council will not make any further payments that may be due to you, and you will not be eligible to apply for further grants.
If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report, the Australia Council may ask you to pay back all or part of the funding provided to you.
Grant reports are used by the Australia Council to fulfil obligations of accountability to the Australian Government. They are also essential to the development work of the Australia Council. The reports help us evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of grant categories and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists in the field.
Reporting for Multi-year Funded Organisations
Organisations in receipt of multi-year funding are required to submit financial, statistical, and artistic reporting on an annual basis.
All reporting is submitted online via the Australia Council’s arts organisations reporting system.
If you are not sure what reporting you need to submit as part of your annual reporting, or what information to provide, please get in touch with your Australia Council contact.
All recipients must acknowledge that the Australia Council provided funding for their activities. When you acquit your grant, we will ask you how you acknowledged the Australia Council.
For printed or online material use our logo and this phrase:
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body OR The (company name) is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Logos for download and guidelines for the use of our logos.
Where projects do not have a public outcome, or do not produce any printed or online material, you will need to think about how best to acknowledge the Australia Council funding.