Chloe Daykin announced as winner of inaugural Julia Darling Travel Fellowship
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Northumberland writer Chloe Daykin has won the inaugural Julia Darling Travel Fellowship. Chloe was announced as the winner at Rendezvous 2, a celebration of Julia’s life and work at Live Theatre, Newcastle.
New Writing North established the prize in conjunction with the family and friends of the late writer Julia Darling. The fellowship is worth £2,000 and is to assist a writer to undertake a period of travel, which will inform their creative work.
Chloe – who has recently secured a publishing deal for her first children’s book, Fish Boy – plans to use her fellowship to travel to Norway, researching for a second children’s novel. In her proposed book, the main character must make a journey across the wild, foreign landscape of Norwegian mountains, rivers and fjords to discover something about his identity. Using the fellowship grant, Chloe intends to make the journey on which she will send her protagonist. Chloe said, ‘I feel exceptionally proud and a bit overwhelmed to be doing it in the name of Julia – it’s such an honour and makes all the hairs on my arms prickle up just thinking about it.’
Julia Darling’s work encompassed a wide range of topics and forms, from plays and novels to poetry and performance. She was an exceptional artist with a unique and humorous voice that engaged readers even when her work explored her declining health and ultimate death from cancer. Julia was also a kind and generous writer who supported and encouraged many other writers to develop their work and their creativity.
The Julia Darling Travel Fellowship has been established to mark the tenth anniversary of her death. It is inspired by Julia’s love of travel and by the appreciation that she had of writing away from home.
In this first year the fellowship is supported by New Writing North. In future years we hope that the prize will be crowd funded by those who knew Julia and appreciated her contribution to the arts. A crowd funding appeal has been launched on JustGiving. To contribute, please text JULI01 and the amount you would like to donate, eg, JULI01 £10 to 70070.