Graphic Storyteller Fellowship

Graphic Storyteller Fellowship

non/fictionLab Graphic Storyteller Fellowship 2026.

Our inaugural non/fictionLab Graphic Storyteller Fellowship has been awarded to Kolkata-born and Perth (Boorloo) raised comic artist Soolagna Majumdar. Majumdar received a $15,000 stipend and will base herself for six weeks with non/fictionLab.

The fellowship was developed by non/fictionLab’s academics Melody Ellis, Ronnie Scott and Stayci Taylor, funded with the generous support of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. It recognises comics as a vital form of Australian storytelling. 

"Fellowships like this affirm that the process of developing and making a comic are worthy of investment,” said Majumdar, whose art has been featured in publications such as Vice Media, Cordite Press and The Westerly Magazine.  Majumdar will complete a three-week residency at RMIT’s iconic McCraith House on the Mornington Peninsula working on her graphic novel, ‘Food Bird’.  

Picture of McCraith house. It is a pale, weatherboard house with a large balcony and surrounded by eucalyptus trees. McCraith House.
Soolanga Majumdar Soolanga Majumdar

She will complete an additional three-week residency at RMIT’s Melbourne campus, accommodated in the city and working in an office among the Creative Writers, providing an opportunity to engage with a community of comics, undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars, and participate in a public event. 

“Bringing Majumdar to RMIT will be a huge treat for the non/fictionLab. The lab has a great history of working with galleries and exploring how writing looks and feels and operates in the world, including through visual practice, and having a visitor of Majumdar’s imagination and calibre will be one of our highlights for 2026,” said Associate Professor Ronnie Scott. 

About Graphic Storytelling at RMIT

RMIT hosts comics students across diverse programs in Creative Writing, Media and Design, and non/fictionLab hosts a thriving body of comics PhDs. The Fellowship’s directors are Ronnie Scott, Melody Ellis and Stayci Taylor. Ronnie is a researcher on Folio, an Australian Research Council project collecting stories and oral histories of Australian comics. Melody and Ronnie co-convene Gutter Stars, a collective of 16 creators who workshop comics, read scholarship, and make experimental comics with partners like Glom Press, Pink Ember Studio and the Emerging Writers’ Festival. Stayci co-directs the Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing), which advances comics practice as a creative writing form.

About the Fellowship

Please check back later in 2026 for information about future opportunities.

Graphic Storyteller Fellowship illustration. Image by Reimena Yee.

The main purpose is for the Fellow to work independently on their comics for six weeks. We will also negotiate a program of participation in the ‘city block’ including at least one public event (such as an in-conversation, reading or lecture), and at least one event for the RMIT community (for example, a workshop). At the end, we'll also ask for a brief report to develop this pilot program in future years. Published work should acknowledge the non/fictionLab Graphic Storyteller Fellowship, RMIT University and the Copyright Agency.

Families can be accommodated in McCraith House, and we may be able to accommodate families in the city, to be discussed with the successful Fellow. City accommodation will be wheelchair accessible. However, McCraith House is not: it has two storeys, with the main living area only accessible by stairs. As McCraith House is heritage-listed and does not include a purpose-built studio space, all artmaking processes and materials must be clean and non-invasive in nature.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures