Following the announcement of a strong shortlist of seven in February 2024, South African poet Sihle Ntuli has emerged as the Patricia Kailis Writing Fellow for 2024. The shortlist consisted of Balli Kaur, Karthika Nair, Ko Ko Thett, Mamta Sen, Priya Basil, Sanam Maher, and Sihle Ntuli.
The Patricia Kailis International Writing Fellowship is a residency based at the Centre for Stories in Perth, Western Australia, open to writers living outside Australia. It is named after Dr Patricia Kailis who was a highly respected doctor, academic, astute businesswoman, community leader and philanthropist. The matriarch of the Kailis pearling and fishing family, Dr Kailis was also a remarkable medical researcher who lay the groundwork for the identification of genes related to certain diseases. The fellowship is made possible with the generous donation of her son Dr George Kailis.
Centre for Stories program director Robert Wood judged the 2024 applications alongside author Roanna Gonsalves and senior producer at Performing Lines, WA Jeremy Smith. They had the following to say: “The judging committee appreciated Sihle’s attention to the craft of writing itself, his service to the literary community as a whole, and his lived experience as it informs an aesthetic and ethical perspective. We will value his contribution as an artist and a person, and know that our community here will be elevated and enriched by his presence.”
The fellowship which is valued at $35,000 will allow Sihle to work on a manuscript in Perth for three months in 2024.
Sihle is a recipient of the 2023 Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies Writing Fellowship. He is also a Best of the Net, Eric Hoffer Book Award, and Pushcart prize nominee. He is the author of four poetry books including two poetry chapbooks, Rumblin (uHlanga 2020) and The Nation (River Glass Books 2023), alongside two full length collections, Stranger (Aerial Publishing 2015) & Zabalaza Republic (Botsotso Publishing 2023).
Congratulations, Sihle!
