Congratulations to Belinda Murrell
on winning this year’s
Di Yerbury Residency in Barnstaple, Devon.
The applications shortlisted for the 2023 Di Yerbury Residency were outstanding. They each demonstrated a solid background of writing and publishing, study and research, accomplished writing skills and a publishing track record. All have received various writing and publishing awards.
The writing samples were of a high standard, demonstrating the applicants’ command of the necessary attributions for publication. Research and writing plans were detailed and showed how the Di Yerbury Residency would assist their current writing and research.
It made our task of selecting a winner extremely difficult. It took several weeks of considering and assessing the applications to come to a decision.
We believe that our chosen winner meets the residency criteria and the spirit of the Di Yerbury Residency. We feel sure that she will make the most of her opportunity to research and write her novel while overseas.
The award this year for a proposed novel with the working title The Shadow Girl goes to:
Belinda plans to research and write the first draft of a proposed novel set during the 1930s and 1940s, ‘shining a light on the courage and achievements of a forgotten Australian woman war correspondent … inspired by the remarkable true-life story of Margaret Gilruth’ and the ‘fascinating World War II history of young English and Australian women working for the secret Y listening stations in Abbots Cliff, near Dover, decoding enemy messages from German pilots and naval vessels’.
We congratulate Belinda Murrell and wish her all the best with her research and look forward to reading her novel The Shadow Girl when it is published.
Colleen Keating and Sharon Rundle
Judges, Di Yerbury Residency 2023
Dianne Yerbury AO is an Australian university administrator and company director. She was the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia from 1987 to 2005. She was Australia’s first female Vice-Chancellor, and was also the longest serving Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University.Wikipedia
