Graphic Storyteller Fellowship

Graphic Storyteller Fellowship

non/fictionLab Graphic Storyteller Fellowship 2026.

The inaugural non/fictionLab Graphic Storyteller Fellowship is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. This program is open to established artists working broadly in the field of comics – graphic novel, manga, cartooning, nonfiction comics or experimental narrative art – resident in Australia.

The successful artist receives $15,000 and is based for six weeks in RMIT University’s non/fictionLab, a world-leading centre for creative practice research with a strong culture of Creative Writing, Comics and Graphic Storytelling.

The Fellow will spend three weeks of immersive practice at RMIT’s historic and iconic McCraith House, living and working in a modernist landmark on the Mornington Peninsula. Located in Dromana/Kangerrong, McCraith House is an architectural treasure of the 1950s and offers breathtaking views across Port Phillip Bay.

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

The Fellow will then spend three weeks at RMIT’s Melbourne/Naarm campus, accommodated in the city and working in an office among the Creative Writers. The main purpose of this time will be creative making, but the 'city block' will include chances for the artist to engage with our robust community of comics (and comics-curious) undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars, as well as the wider community through a public event.

Applicants will be notified in November and the Fellow announced in December.

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

The Fellow receives:

  • accommodation in Dromana/Kangerrong (three weeks at McCraith House) and in Melbourne/Naarm (three weeks of accommodation close to the RMIT City Campus)
  • a cash stipend of $15,000
  • office space at RMIT University, such as a room shared with a Creative Writer or the non/fictionLab’s Urban Writing House
  • unless the selected Fellow is already Melbourne-based, return airfare to and from Melbourne/Naarm
  • travel to and from Dromana/Kangerrong and public transport within Melbourne
  • other access to University facilities.
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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