Denmark poet Renee Pettitt-Schipp says $50,000 Regional Arts WA grant will strengthen her writing career

Denmark poet Renee Pettitt-Schipp has received a $50,000 grant set to strengthen her creative career.

Pettitt-Schipp was one of four established regional artists from across WA to receive $50,000 each over two years as part of Regional Arts WA’s inaugural Regional Artist Fellowships.

The artists use their fellowships to cement their careers in the arts as well as contributing to their economy through local arts development.

Pettitt-Schipp said the fellowship would allow her to take her writing career to the next level.

“Juggling two jobs and my doctoral studies, my creative life was almost at a standstill. Now I have time to move slowly, think carefully and research widely, a fitting response, I feel, to the complex times we now find ourselves in,” she said.

“It gives me time to research the natural and built environment around me and has already enabled me to build on rich collaborative opportunities in my community.

“I look forward to meeting with scientists and elders, historians and academics, artists and activists over the next two years.”

Pettitt-Schipp will develop a manuscript, All the Stories We Do Not Know, through research into local history and biodiversity in the Great Southern and Wheatbelt.

“All the Stories We Do Not Know seeks to explore the tensions and contradictions in what it means to be a seventh generation white West Australian living in the shadow of a complex colonial history, as well as in the contemporary context of a climate emergency, while being surrounded by abundance and beauty,” she said.