Writers to document life in the time of COVID-19

Adelaide Writers Week earlier this year. Writers festivals in Sydney and Brisbane were forced to cancel because of the pandemic.

Australian writers have been offered a $375,000 lifeline to create new work about life in the coronavirus era.

In a statement on Monday, the Copyright Agency announced a new series of grants for writers, visual artists and publishers while bringing forward $1.8m to the first quarter of the next financial year.

The largest single pool of money, the Emergency Action Fund, consists of $150,000 for writing and visual arts projects that respond to COVID-19. Most of the grants will total $5000, with a maximum of $20,000 available for individual cases. Applications open on Tuesday.

Another $55,000 will support writers festivals to bring their programs to life online, with Australian participants to be paid the fees they would have received if the events had gone ahead as planned. The Sydney Writers Festival, which had been scheduled to run from April 27 to May 3, was forced to cancel last month in response to the health crisis.

The funding also includes $60,000 to support the publication of 20 to 30 new pieces by Australian writers to be published in The Guardian under the working title of Our Year of Fire, Flood, and Plague: Australian writers respond to the challenges of 2020. Another $10,000 will be spent to turn those pieces into a book.

The agency is also making available $25,000 for visual artists to document the crisis in their work.

The new grants have been made available from the Copyright Agency’s Future Fund, established in 2013 to deal with emergency events.

Copyright Agency chief executive Adam Suckling said: “The creative infrastructure that supports the production, promotion and sales of writing and visual arts work is being smashed. This means writers, visual artists and publishers are doing it very tough. COVID-19 could have a truly devastating effect on the work of Australian writers and visual artists and on the value and reach of Australian storytelling.

“While no one doubts the resilience of Australian creators, they do need support to nurture and bring to readers and audiences works that entertain, challenge and inform us all.”

The news comes after the Sydney and Brisbane writers festivals, as well as the Australian Book Review, were among the casualties of the Australia Council’s latest funding round, announced on Friday.

Also on Friday, Australia’s largest independent book publisher, Allen & Unwin, said it was seeking a 20 per cent reduction in hours and salary from all staff for the duration of the pandemic.

In a statement, chief executive Robert Gorman said: “We greatly value our staff and their support and loyalty, and when we get to the other side of this we will continue to be a strong and sustainable business. In the meantime, this temporary reduction in working hours will in no way prevent us from continuing to champion our authors and bookstores, the two great partners to our business.”

Meanwhile, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called on the Morrison government to change its JobKeeper package to better support casual workers in the cultural sector.

“The Morrison government needs to wake up to the value of the arts, not only for cultural and social cohesion purposes but the $112bn it contributes to our economy each year,” she said.