Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre 2023 Fellowships announced

I am beyond thrilled to let you know that I am a Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre Fellow for 2023!

The Centre announced the Fellowship recipients earlier this week:

This annual fellowship program provides placements for dedicated aspiring, emerging and established writers looking to develop a writing project. These successful applicants will have the time and space to work in an inspirational environment with special access to Katharine's Cottage, where celebrated novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard wrote most of her works. While in residence at KSP, these fellows also have access to an active community of peers through our many writing groups and workshops.

This means at some point next year I will have two weeks of immersive and focused writing time at this beautiful-looking centre in the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia, where I will be working on my PhD novel. Hopefully by then I will be well and truly on a third draft…maybe a fourth.

At the start of the year I vowed that 2022 would not be another year that I lost to imposter syndrome, which means I’ve put my hat in the ring for many things like this, things I might have been scared off applying for in previous years. Not all of them have come off but that wasn’t the point - the point was to try. That was the deal I made with myself. Just try - no expectations or cherished outcomes beyond that. The lesson Liz Gilbert taught me four years ago seems to have finally sunk in.

To say I can’t wait for 2023 now would be an understatement! Getting this news has been utterly wondrous and spirit-lifting. The day I got the email, I kept checking it to make sure I hadn’t misread it! It’s amazing what can happen when you get out of your own way and just try.

Thank you so much KSP - see you next year!

my favourite podcasts for inspiration, motivation + courage

Photo by PhotoMIX Ltd. from Pexels

As a freelancer, podcasts are one of my favourite ways to get out of my own head and gain some wisdom and advice. If you work by yourself, like I do, it can be a valuable way to feel connected with others and conversations that are happening in the wider creative community.

When I’ve spent a long day at the desk and feel I’ve been going nowhere, I’ll take a break and go for a walk to stretch my legs and get some fresh air - and I’ll usually pop on one of these podcasts to give me some inspiration, comfort, renewed energy or a different perspective.

Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert

This podcast is a few years old now (recorded in 2015 and 2016) but I’m so grateful it’s still online because every single episode of it is gold and balm for the creative soul. If you loved the book Big Magic, you must listen to this wonderful podcast.

The premise behind it is that, around the time her book Big Magic was released, Liz Gilbert - who surely needs no introduction, certainly not to readers of this website! - put out the call to artists all over the world to write her a 200-word essay about what they were struggling with creatively, whether it was fear, writer’s block, disappointment, or anything in between. Liz then picked half a dozen or so people to appear on the podcast who she encourages on their creative path, to move beyond their fears and find their joy in creativity again. She gets a few guest stars in to help as well, who are all very knowledgeable, motivating and empathetic. No matter what creative field you work in, you’ll find inspiration, comfort and the courage to carry on.

Phil’s picks:

• Living the Dream and Facing the Nightmare

• Show Up Before You’re Ready

• Leap Into The Fire

• Who Gets To Decide If You’re A Legitimate Artist?

Hashtag Authentic

This is a wonderful podcast featuring interviews with a wide variety of creative people, sharing their journeys and insights into authenticity, whether it’s online, offline or in your work (often all three). I am particularly drawn to women who share their journeys of emotional resilience and there are plenty of them among the guests of this podcast!

Phil’s picks:

• Episode 23: How to stop playing small, with Tara Mohr

• Episode 43: Building a courage habit and living alongside our fears, with Kate Swoboda

• Episode 81: Building Community, online and beyond, with Sophie Hansen

How to Fail with Elizabeth Day

I don’t think you can go wrong with any episode of this excellent podcast if you want some reassurance that absolutely everyone - especially anyone who is considered a “success” - has experienced failure. Usually soul-crushing, life-altering failure. But often it’s that big failure that set them on a path that they wouldn’t have found themselves on otherwise.

Phil’s picks:

• Ella Mills

• Marian Keyes

• Kristen Roupenian

• Deborah Frances White

• The episode where Dolly Alderton interviews Elizabeth

Dear Sugars

Oh, how I loved (still do) and miss this podcast! Hosted by two magnificent writers and human beings, Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond, this is an advice show podcast where the Sugars deal with all manner of human emotions and experiences, from the dark and murky to the simple “make the call” variety. Always enlightening and hopeful, and a reminder that empathy is one of the greatest human traits. New episodes are no longer being made but their archive is well worth trawling through.

Phil’s picks:

• The Price of Our Dreams, with George Saunders

• The Power of No, Parts One and Two, with Oprah Winfrey

• The Double Bind of Female Ambition, with Hillary Clinton

But wait, there’s more

And just in case your “Listen Now” section isn’t long enough after this post, here are some other favourite podcast episodes that I’ve often replayed depending on the day, mood and what I needed to hear!

• Ctrl Alt Delete - Lucy Sheridan on social media comparison

• Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday - “The Humble Journey to Greatness” with Cheryl Strayed

• Five of My Life - Layne Beachley

• Tea and Tattle - The Girl Who Climbed Everest

• The Deliciously Ella Podcast - How To Break A Habit and Make Lasting Changes

I’d love to know - what are your favourite podcasts to listen to when you need a boost of courage or inspiration?

you have waited long enough

Be brave enough to do what you really want.

You have waited long enough.

Humble yourself to really take on your true vocation.

Where you’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked before, be tested more than you’ve ever been tested, and where you’ll have to give everything you have, over and over again.

Where you’ll soar and fall, cry tears of joy and pain.

Where the counsel and support of others will help, but ultimately you’re on your own.

You have to crack open your own head and break your own heart.

You have so much to learn and then you’ll have to forget it all every time you meet the blank page or the blinking cursor.

Every time it will be like wading into cold water. The longer you wait to dive under, the harder and scarier it gets. You have to go under.

You have to do the work.

Not just the appearance of it. Not setting up your laptop and latte with a lovely view and curating a perfect Spotify playlist to write to.

Put your eyes where they need to be.

On the work.

Don’t let your talent and drive and ideas sit out for so long they get flat like sparkling water left in a glass.

Embrace it. Seize it. Fight for it.

Let go of your ego’s need to control everything and be prepared to get lost.

Get down on the floor, be of the earth.

Your voice matters. The stories you want to tell matter.

Give these women their voices, the voices they didn’t have while they lived.

Let go.

Lose yourself.

Who knows what you’ll find?