By Susan Wyndham
Thomas Keneally, the author of more than 50 books in 50 years, could be described as a one-man industry.
Like all successful industries, he reinvests and shares some of his wealth.
Ashley Hay will continue her dream novel with the gift of time made possible by Thomas Keneally.Credit: Edwina Pickles
In March, Keneally gratefully received an Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature from the Australia Council for the Arts. However, he privately declined the $50,000 prizemoney, asking that it go instead to a mid-career writer.
This week, Brisbane novelist Ashley Hay received a $50,000 grant, made possible by Keneally's generosity, and met her benefactor in the personal library he donated to the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts.
Hay, 44, has published six books, including the critically acclaimed World War II novel The Railwayman's Wife, and wants to begin her fourth novel, about a dream transmitted virally between people in the near future.
Her grant was "an extraordinary honour" and would "make space to concentrate on fiction for 16 or 18 months, which feels a very generous time", she said.
Since Keneally received his award the federal Minister for the Arts, George Brandis, has withdrawn $105 million (more than a third) of the council's budget to fund a government-run arts program, which has not yet been detailed.
Keneally and Hay want to voice their respect for the council's system of peer-assessed grants.
"The idea of a government department directly administering funding is worrying," Keneally said. "I don't think it's the right way to run the arts. Politicians with short-term agendas are not well placed to make decisions.
"Supporting writers is not throwing money into a pit, it's supporting an industry of writing that did not exist when I was young," he said.
Keneally's career was kickstarted in 1966 by a $4000 grant from the Commonwealth Literary Fund, the predecessor to the Australia Council.
However, recipients were checked by ASIO then and he said, "Here again we have an Attorney-General who is also Minister for the Arts and there could be the temptation to run candidates through ASIO or through your own political sensibility."
Keneally, who will turn 80 in October, had an Australia Council grant in the 1970s, but returned the money when two book contracts followed.
"I was at a time in my life when I was secretly proud not to have to depend on the Australia Council," he said.
However, he recognises that many writers with well-received books behind them can be stopped by "crises of liquidity".
Jill Eddington, the Australia Council's director of literature, said Hay's grant application was successful in the normal process after being "scored very highly by her peers on excellence and viability", and then she and Keneally made "a very beautiful fit".
"I have an amazing amount of respect for the peer-review process," Hay said. "What you have to deliver for the application, especially the new application since March, helped me to clarify what I want to do and strengthen the project.
"The fact that it's your peers who say they think this is worthy is like a fantastic review at the beginning of the process."
Keneally's gift enabled 22 rather than 21 writers to receive grants in the latest (March) round, which gave $1.3 million to writers and literary organisations and a total $9.1 million across the arts.
The council cancelled its June round of grants after the budget cut. However, it promises another in September while deciding how to use its 2015-16 budget.