Nardi Simpson, Copyright Agency-UTS New Writer in Residence

Article updated 17 May 2022

Nardi Simpson, a Yuwaalaraay storyteller and performer from Sydney, has been awarded the New Writer’s Fellowship for 2022, taking on the role of the Copyright Agency-UTS New Writer in Residence.

The program is run by the Creative Writing department in partnership with the Copyright Agency’s cultural fund.

Nardi says on the role:

I am so excited to become part of the UTS writing community through the Copyright Agency-UTS New Writer's Fellowship. My heart and mind are full with the promise of relationship, knowledge, connection and words that await me in those buildings. I expect to be listening, thinking and writing furiously and I particularly look forward to the learnings I will receive form the wonderful staff and students at UTS. I can’t wait to take my place in my new writing family.

Based in Sydney’s Inner West, Nardi has a background in music, training at the Eora Centre of Aboriginal Studies, Visual and Performing Arts, and touring for two decades as a songwriter and performer with the band Stiff Gins.

Since 2014, Nardi has participated in a number of writing workshops and programs, including Indigenous Writers’ mentorship programs with Writing NSW and FATSIL Young Indigenous Writers Initiative. She also co-wrote and performed the theatre piece ‘Spirit of Things: Sound of Objects’ at the 2016 Liveworks Festival.

Nardi’s debut novel Song of the Crocodile, refined during her time as a recipient of the 2018 State Library of QLD’s Blak&Write! Indigenous Fellowship, was released by Hachette Australia to wide acclaim the following year and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Over the course of the program, Nardi will be working on her second novel The Bellbird. This story centres around the titular Bellbird, a young Koori woman living on the streets of modern-day Sydney. The character is inspired by Dilboong, the daughter of historical figures Woollarawarre Bennelong and Barangaroo.

As part of the Creative Writing department, Nardi will also give guest lectures and be available for consultation with students in the program.

The residency will support the creation of my second novel, The Bellbird - to be published by Hachette Australia. This story is an imagining of an historical figure, Dilboong (Bellbird), the only child of seminal First Nations figures Barangaroo and Bennelong. I am seeking to create a story inspired by her that invites us to feel what it is to be part of this city’s particular cultural and urban landscape (of which those UTS towers stand ominously tall!). I’m sure it will be a case of her and her country writing me rather than the other way round!

Past Fellows have produced brilliant works during their time in the program. Anwen Crawford’s genre-bending (Stella Prize-shortlisted) memoir/poem/essay No Document was released in April 2021. Bri Lee’s brilliant examination of education and social stratification Who Gets To Be Smart: Privilege, Power and Knowledge was released in June the same year. The 2021 resident, Christopher Raja, is now completing his work The Cameleer, which he outlined in his essay A Quest for Pure Fiction.

In May 2022, Nardi Simpson was one of three extraordinary storytellers to open the 2022 Sydney Writers' Festival.

Follow Nardi on Twitter @nardiga