In late July this year, a brilliant and beloved young woman, Kat Muscat, tragically died. At only 25, Kat was already an accomplished and widely published writer, and was the editor of Voiceworks magazine from 2012-2014. She touched an extraordinary amount of people through her writing and her warm and generous friendship, and was an integral part of the Melbourne literary and feminist communities.
This past Thursday, Express Media (publishers of Voiceworks) announced the inaugural Kat Muscat Fellowship at its awards night. The Fellowship, valued at $3,000, will be awarded annually to a young Australian woman aged between 16 and 30 (including trans women, genderqueer and non-binary folk) whose writing or editing demonstrates Kat’s values and continues her legacy.
Kat’s writing embodied her personal mantra of feminism, empathy and defiance, and the recipient of the Fellowship will take up her notion of challenge: exploring bold subjects, thinking deeply and critically about the world and the culture we consume, and reflecting and building on the craft of writing or editing.
Kat’s celebrated, incisive work of pop culture, gender, sexuality and mental health have been compiled by the The Lifted Brow, and were illustrated by illustrator Lynley Eavis for the Wheeler Centre.
The Fellowship is supported by the generosity of the community and the Muscat family. Contributions are welcome to ensure the longevity of the Fellowship.
For information about the Kat Muscat Fellowship including application guidelines please visit the Express Media website.