Launched at Bathurst Writers’ and Readers’ Festival, a new fund has been set up in memory of the late Bathurst writer Tracy Sorensen.
The community is invited to support the fund, which will provide an annual $ 3,000 stipend for an emerging writer to attend a residency and develop new work.
Bathurst-based Tracy Sorensen was an author, activist, environmental campaigner, teacher, filmmaker, journalist, and crafter. She died in May 2025.
Her debut novel, The Lucky Galah (Picador, 2018), was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Russell Prize for Humour Writing, the UST Glenda Adams Award for New Writing (NSW Premier’s Literary Awards), the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2018, and long-listed for the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2019 and the Dublin Literary Award 2020. Her second novel, The Vitals, was published by Picador/Pan Macmillan in 2023. Both novels played with giving voice to non-humans: The Lucky Galah is narrated by a pink and grey galah, and The Vitals is narrated by a middle-aged woman’s abdominal organs.
“Tracy was an avid supporter of the Bathurst Writers’ and Readers’ Festival and a much-respected Australian writer; it’s very special to be able to create this opportunity in her memory,” said Arts OutWest executive director Kylie Shead.
Arts OutWest are coordinating donations, with just over $4000 collected so far, which will support the first year and go a long way to a second year. Donate via: artsoutwest.org.au/the-tracy-sorensen-emerging-writers-residency/
Bathurst Writers’ & Readers’ Festival is a project developed in partnership between Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bathurst Library, Books Plus and Arts OutWest.
