The Di Yerbury Residency for 2026 is now open.

If you have enjoyed and are enjoying reading postcards from Jan Conway, Ann Beaumont, Cindy Broadbent and Belinda Murrell from their stays in Barnstaple, you might like to polish your submission and apply for this unique opportunity, generously offered each year by our Patron, Di Yerbury.


The Di Yerbury Residency in England for 2026 is now open. 


Barnstaple is in Devon, the county where the novel Lorna Doone is set and has many interesting local attractions.  


Download the form below for details and to apply. 


Please note entries close on 30 October 2025. The winner will be announced on 11 February 2026.

The Society of Women Writers offers a UK Residency to a Female Writer

This residency is generously donated by our Patron, Emerita Professor Di Yerbury.

The residency is located in the beautiful North Devon town of Barnstaple. As a major tourist centre, it has excellent public transport and car access to the moors, famous beaches and very pretty villages.

 

Winners:

Nell Jones - 2025

Janette Conway - 2024 

Belinda Murrell - 2023 

Ann Beaumont - 2021 (postponed due to COVID-19, was undertaken from June to August 2022)

Cindy Broadbent - 2020 (postponed due to COVID-19, was undertaken from May to July 2023)

Helen Thurloe - 2019 
Helen used the residency to undertake research for an historical fiction, currently titled Borrowed Milk. Set in Exeter, Devon in the 17th Century, the story concerns a married woman who is hired as a wet-nurse, to breastfeed and raise the child of a wealthy merchant family.

Valerie Pybus - 2018 
Valerie planned to consolidate preliminary research already undertaken in Devon and Cornwall in 2017, into the history and social fabric of these areas of England. Her focus was on the families that lived in the centuries-old mining communities, with all the dangers and difficulties that entailed. Her story West of Tamar, an historical novel set in the years 1910-1915 - a time of great change - revolves around one West Country family and the society in which the family struggled to survive. 

Terri Green - 2017 
The residency supported her writing and research for a novel set in Shakespeare’s London.

 

To apply you must satisfy the following criteria:

  • be a member of the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc for at least 12 months at the time of submitting your application and be a paid up member for the year prior to departure
  • be over forty-five (45) years of age at the time of taking up the residency
  • be available to spend a minimum of ten weeks at the residency
  • be a resident of NSW or ACT (proof required, e.g. copy of licence, rates notice etc)
  • be researching or writing a manuscript, fiction or non-fiction, set in or linked to and has its main focus in the United Kingdom
  • the work must be a work-in-progress, not an already or almost completed manuscript

Requirements (either hard copy or email attachment):

  • a copy of your CV (no more than one A4 page)
  • a summary of your proposed manuscript (500 words)
  • a research and/or writing plan you intend to carry out in the UK
  • a chapter of a previous book or a short story or an article you have written
  • proof of your NSW or ACT residency

What is offered:

The successful applicant will be offered accommodation in a comfortably furnished one bedroom apartment for over 55s in the town of Barnstaple, North Devon for a period of up to three months from June to September. Electricity and phone calls are included as part of the residency.

What is not included:

Airfares, including travel insurance, domestic travel costs and meal allowance, will not be covered by the residency. These costs will need to be met by the recipient for the period of her stay or she should seek funding from other agencies to assist with these expenses.

Acquittal:

Upon completing the residency, the recipient will be required to give an address to the members of the Society of Women Writers (NSW) at its February literary luncheon in 2022.

A written report of approximately 1200 words is required for publication in the Society's magazine Women’s Ink!

Fees:

  • Must be a member of the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc for at least 12 months at the time
    of submitting your application and be a paid up member for the year prior to departure
  • Non-members of SWW are welcome to enter after becoming a member however same requirement as above

Di Yerbury Competition - CLOSING DATE:

30 October (no later than 5pm)


ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNER

February the following year

SEND APPLICATIONS TO:

Society of Women Writers NSW Inc.
PO Box 1083
Hunters Hill NSW 2110
or email applications to swwpresident@gmail.com (with all required attachments)

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2025 Di Yerbury Residency – Daniella (Nell) Jones.


Nell’s proposed manuscript, The Ingenious Professor, the imagined life of Joseph Lycett, gives voice to gentleman Joseph Lycett, convict, engraver, and artist who has left behind limited written records. His short and eventful life, from 1775 to 1828, begins in Staffordshire, UK, where he originates. It is filled with numerous personal challenges and contradictions, through several years of incarceration and his eventual transportation in 1813 to NSW, convicted of forgery. As the central character of the novel, he is depicted as a complex individual, who has a tumultuous life, marked by devious and deceitful criminal activities, intricate relationships, artistic pursuits, and a persistent struggle with alcoholism. Lycett’s life is marred by multiple convictions for forgery and, despite gaining his freedom in 1821 and publishing his Views of Australia in England in 1824, he returns to forgery and is arrested in Birmingham in 1828. He chooses to end his life, rather than face another trial. 


The narrative delves into Joseph’s personal life, as a young artist, his early romances, his marriage to Elizabeth and her untimely death in 1808. It explores his relationship with Mary Stokes his common law wife, who faces charges alongside him in 1810. The novel highlights Joseph’s complicated family dynamics, placement of his daughter, Mary Ann, in the Female Orphanage in Sydney while he serves his sentence, and his reconnection with his younger daughter, Emma, who resurfaces in Australia after Mary Stokes abandons her. Lycett’s interactions with key historical figures such as Commandant Wallis of Newcastle, Governor Macquarie, James Squires, brewer, Absalom West, printer, and Awabakal leader, Burigon are also explored. The complexities of colonialism, including the Appin Massacre in 1817, carried out by Wallis, Joseph’s friend, are woven into the story. 


The narrative emphasises Lycett’s remarkable ability to design and paint while incarcerated in NSW. His role as Macquarie’s convict artist and his paintings of Newcastle, after a second charge of forgery in Sydney in 1815, are central to the story. Lycett captured the daily lives and customs of Awabakal and Worimi Nations of the Hunter Region and are highlighted in depth.


Lycett’s battle with alcoholism, is a persistent theme in the novel, exacerbated by the loss of his first wife, an event that leaves him grabbling with profound sorrow. The struggle significantly intensifies the narrative. It portrays how alcohol fuels his grief and his hallucinations are often centered on the recurring presence of a selkie, which he believes embodies his departed wife. This becomes a central element of his psychological and emotional turmoil. His obsession is a coping mechanism and a manifestation of his inner world. The story extends beyond Joseph life, to explore the lives of his daughters, who face their own misfortunes of rape, bigamy, forgery, and abandonment. 


The novel offers a rich and immersive narrative that vividly depicts the complexities of Lycett’s life as a convict figure in the historical context of colonial Australia, marred by redemption and loss. The story of one family brought to ruin, not just once, but three times within one generation.


Nell has heavily researched the Australia part of the story in the past two or so years, and written drafts of Australian chapters. She wishes to visit England to continue her research of Joseph Lycett’s UK story, before and after his transportation to Australia, particularly archives and research centres to find further family, art and biographical information, property, and court records focused on the main characters.


Nell Jones was born in Adelaide in 1964 and has Dutch and Welsh heritage. She began writing at the age of 12, and her first play, Dead Man’s Alley, which explores the struggles of homeless men in Melbourne, was performed at the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney. Her second play, The Blind Forty, set on the Torrens River during the Great Depression, was staged at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. Nell has received a Master Writers Grant from the Australia Council and has written numerous plays for youth theatres and schools as part of her work as a drama teacher and director.


Her debut novel, The Lost Sister of Groningen, inspired by her mother’s experiences during World War II and 1950s Australia, was launched at Sydney’s Tap Gallery in 2010 and later launched at the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival (URWF) in 2011. Her second novel, A Token for Perry, was launched at 371 Gallery in Marrickville by acclaimed author Libby Hathorn. In 2012, her poetry collection, The Sky Is My Religion, was supported by the URWF, where she performed her poetry daily alongside Balinese musicians and dancers in an immersive art exhibition at Dewangga Gallery. The collection was launched with a special performance featuring Balinese dancers and a 30-piece orchestra.


In 2021, her poem How Time Has Ticked a Heaven Around the Stars was featured in an anthology by Infinity Books for Dylan Day celebrations, along with her haiku Celestial Turmoil, which was showcased on an event poster. Her poem Coquun was shortlisted for the 2021 Bridport Prize (UK). Other works include Blazing Star for Dylan (2021), In Ceremony of a Fire Raid Past (2023), and At Last My Love, My Foxy Darling (2024), all featured in International Dylan Day celebrations. In 2023, she was longlisted for International Dylan Thomas Day’s Love the Words with her poem Elegy, Is it a Dream? and also wrote the foreword for The Magic Cube of Time by poet Vatsala Radhakeesoon, published by Impspired (UK).


In June 2024, she was featured in the What/How/Why Exhibition at Lighthouse Arts Newcastle, where she wrote a piece, Metamorphosis: In Conversation with Nell Jones and Artist Jaimee Hyland, an artist showcase highlighting local creatives.


Nell holds two degrees in Education and lives by the sea in Newcastle. She retired from teaching in 2021 and has dedicated herself to writing full-time. She completed an Artist-in-Residence placement at Lighthouse Arts Newcastle in 2022 while working on her third novel, The Ingenious Professor, based on the life of artist Joseph Lycett. 


For more information, visit her website: www.thelostsister.ning.com.

Congratulation to Janette (Jan) Conway on being awarded the 2024 Di Yerbury Residency.


Jan writes:


The concept for my proposed book, The Photo Album, germinated in response to a granddaughter’s questions about her ancestry. I, too, had often wondered who were these people that stared at us from within the vibrantly coloured pages of the old photo album.


Sepia images come into view as I turn the pages of the 180-year-old photo album I inherited from my father – images of my ancestors. The album has character too, leather bound, each silver-edged page illustrated with birds and flora of Australia, the Pacific and South America. With convict 5 x great grandparents arriving in 1791 and 1792 respectively, my family history spans almost the entire Australian colonial era to the present day.


The Photo Album will explore and bring to life these forebears with narrative biographies of each individual or family as they arrive on Australian shores. 


Those individuals who make up the family tree represented in the old album were a diverse bunch. From convicted thieves, pickpockets and highwaymen to surgeons, military men and farmers … but where were the women?


To fully populate my family’s story, I will seek out the women hidden in the shadows of their men – in humble cottages to grand manors, in villages, towns and cities, in churches – across England, Wales, Ireland and in the remote corners of Australia.


To truly know these forebears in Australia, I must understand them in the past. The story will take each one back to their roots in the United Kingdom. What was happening in their lives that they were forced or decided to independently emigrate to a land that hadn’t yet been officially named? Was the struggle to shelter and feed a family overwhelming? Perhaps a career change was demanded by superiors. It’s possible the politics of the day forced some to consider their options. Who did they leave behind?


Once in the colonies, it is not always the miscreants that cause problems for the establishment. With the arrival of Dr Edward Luttrell in 1804 as Assistant Colonial Surgeon, disputes with consecutive governors erupt over his medical practice. As the choicest land is granted to family along the Hawkesbury River, Aboriginal communities and ceremonial lifeways and practices are usurped. Skirmishes and fatalities occur on both sides.


In the 1830s will the Pedder, Corrigan and Storey families in Van Diemen’s Land act and behave any differently?


How does this disparate group of characters meld to be the family I know today? What will be the ultimate legacy of this ancestry to Australia?


In 2018, before attending a memoir workshop in Paris with Patti Miller, I was fortunate to spend time in the UK, visiting the Hertfordshire Archives and the National Archives, Kew. While there is much to be discovered online today, there is nothing more visceral than seeing, handling and smelling documents that tell an ancestor’s story of over 200 years ago. To walk in villages, enter homes and churches soaking up the smells, sounds and atmosphere was invaluable as I researched and began drafting The Photo Album.


 

Judges’ Report


It is an honour and a privilege to judge the Di Yerbury Residency applications. The Residency is a prestigious award and a rare opportunity for writers to concentrate solely on their writing and research. The high standard of applications from our SWW Members made the judging process quite a challenge. We have, however, selected Ann Beaumont as the recipient of the Society of Women Writers Di Yerbury Residency 2021. Congratulations to Ann and a warm thank you to all who submitted applications.
Ann Beaumont    ‘Flesh Peddlers
Ann’s application is thorough and clear. She has a viable and fascinating work in progress and a clearly defined Research and Writing Plan. Ann has done preliminary research, walking the paths of her characters in East Sussex. Her character Harriet is fiery and an agent for change. The project is topical for today for it is important to know more about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, and Women in White who were the forerunners of female emancipation. As in The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka  (Stella Prize 2014), reframing this history is most appropriate as women struggle towards equality in so many areas today.
Ann’s resume is very impressive. Her credentials as a researcher, historian and author are compelling. As a published author with at least six books to her name and several commissioned family histories successfully completed, her track record of publishing is assured. There is the possibility of a trilogy. The sample chapters from her previous book are well-written, well-researched and engaging for readers.
In our opinion, Ann would make excellent use of the Di Yerbury Residency, which would give her tangible support to write Flesh Peddlers, a powerful story for today


Other applicants submitted well-expressed, worthy and persuasive proposals, including an example of the new interest in the reconstruction of lives and achievements of women who have been overshadowed. The search for the woman behind the hero is important and relevant today. Applicants had all carried out some preliminary research in England.
Each applicant has an impressive professional writing career, and submitted fine samples of writing which demonstrated lyrical and poetic talent. Applicants have been short-listed in prestigious competitions and coveted awards. Each is a worthy candidate for the Di Yerbury Residency.
However, some applications were not as clear and advanced as the proposal from the winner. So it was our decision that Ann Beaumont would gain the most benefit from the Di Yerbury Residency 2021. 


Colleen Keating and Sharon Rundle, Judges
14 December, 2020