Applications close 3 Feb
In partnership with Red Room Poetry, this fellowship for six poets includes a residency at Varuna, one-on-one mentorship, and a poetic commission as part of the national Poetry Month in August 2026.
Applications close 9 Dec 2025
The Ann Moyal Non-Fiction Fellowship encourages excellence in non-fiction writing and supports writers developing an original work drawn from the broad fields of the humanities and social sciences. Three writers will be selected for a three-week residency, 28 Sept - 19 Oct 2026.
Applications close 11 Dec 2025
Varuna alumni are eligible to apply for a four-week residency at Cove Park, Scotland, with the opportunity to present at Wigtown Book Festival.
Applications close 28 Jan 2026
Commit to your writing and make 2026 the year you finish your memoir. In this in-depth online masterclass, award-winning author Kris Kneen will lead a small group of writers over 9-months, with structured exercises, readings and feedback designed to help you finish a draft of your memoir.
Applications close 28 Jan 2026
This six-session intensive masterclass offers the opportunity to get started on a new writing project or breathe life into a project you have abandoned or are struggling with.
Self-paced online course
Bring the Varuna magic to you with this nine-part online, self-paced course on point of view with Jane Messer. Explore this important element of writing craft, analysing sample readings from well-known authors and being prompted with a series of exercises.
Self-paced online course
Bring the Varuna magic to you with this eight-part online, self-paced course on writing for wellbeing. This revitalising program enables you to explore writing as a practice for your own wellbeing, including techniques for getting started (or re-started!).
Thank you all for coming to the 2025 Festival, and trusting in us for another year. 'Twas a weekend of laughter, curiosity, big ideas and challenging conversations. The Blue Mountains Writers Festival returns Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November 2026.
The Creative Producer - First Nations is a new, part-time position reporting to the Creative Director, working across Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival programming and logistics, strategic planning, Varuna’s First Nations fellowships and masterclasses, as well as community engagement in the region.
Yesterday, we said goodbye to our wonderful Residency Producer Jaala Hallett, as she departs Varuna and sets off for travels around the world.
The recipients of the 2025 Queensland Writers Centre Fellowships have been announced.
This year, Varuna are partnering with Blue Mountains City Council to present a Schools program and two free workshops and a panel in the main Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival program, as part of Council’s Safe to Be: In Our Community campaign.
We are delighted to announce the recipient of the 2025 Writing NSW Fellowship.
This week, we were thrilled to attend the awards ceremony for The Whitlam Institute’s What Matters? Writing Competition for young people, to award Claire Heo the Artistic Merit Award for her piece, nestled in the numbers.
The six recipients of the 2025 Arts NT Residential Fellowship have been announced.
The recipients of the 2025 WestWords Varuna Emerging Writers Residency have been announced.
The Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival returns to Katoomba on 31 Oct - 2 Nov 2025 for its fifth year, with a weekend of ideas and creativity featuring Australia’s sharpest minds and most expansive thinkers. Early-bird passes are on sale now.
The six recipients of the 2025 Varuna Climate Fellowship have been announced.
We are taking expressions of interest from Varuna alumni who are interested in joining our Disability and Inclusion Action Group. This is a paid position.
We are delighted to announce the 38 writers who have been awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2026, having received an unprecedented 541 submissions this year.
A huge congratulations to Varuna alumni Hasib Hourani, for winning the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and James Bradley, for winning the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, at last month's NSW Literary Awards.
The six recipients of the Writer’s Space Online Fellowship for writers with disability have been announced.
We are delighted to announce that award-winning Australian poet Eileen Chong will be travelling to Shanghai this September for a two-month residency.
