The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) has announced the 20 successful applicants for its 2008/2009 round of mentorships.

The ASA received over 350 entries in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult, graphic novels, children's, and picture book illustration. ASA executive director Jeremy Fisher said this year's applications ‘were of a very high standard, particularly poetry'.

The 20 recipients as chosen by judges Judith Beveridge, Angelo Loukakis, Sophie Masson, Sally Rippin and Fisher, will work closely with a mentor of their choice for over 30 hours over 12 months.

The 20 successful applicants are:

• Katherine Battersby (Qld, children's)
• Tony Berry (Vic, fiction)
• Stephanie Bishop (UK, fiction)
• Karen Blair (WA, picture book illustration)
• Michelle Cahill (NSW, poetry)
• Meredith Capp (Vic, picture book illustration)
• Susan Coleridge (Vic, YA)
• Adam Deverell (Vic, YA)
• Michelle Dicinoski (Qld, poetry)
• Andrea Dudley (Qld, fiction)
• Rosalind Dunphy (NSW, children's)
• Meg English (NSW, picture book illustration)
• Mitchell Lewis (NSW, fiction)
• Georgina Luck (Vic, fiction)
• Victor Marsh (NSW, nonfiction)
• Brenton Mckenna (SA, graphic novel)
• Kathleen Noud (Qld, YA)
• Jean O'Hart (WA, nonfiction)
• Sarah St Vincent Welch (ACT, fiction)
• Elizabeth Stewart (Vic, children's)

Five applicants were highly commended:

• Juliana Ryan (Vic, fiction)
• Helen Fong (NSW, nonfiction)
• Waratah Rose Gillespie (NSW, nonfiction)
• Carolyn Leach-Paholski (Vic, poetry)
• Karen Atkinson (WA, fiction)

The mentorships are funded by the Copyright Agency Limited.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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