Ready to dedicate some time to your poetry?
Join Varuna’s in-person weekend workshop with Felicity Plunkett and find a community of fellow poets ready to read, write and develop poetry together.
Across the weekend, you'll dive into a rich range of poems and prompts exploring form, craft and practice, drawing on Felicity's deep well of experience as a poet, critic, editor and educator. Expect to leave inspired, challenged, and equipped with new tools to sustain your poetry long after the workshop ends.
Each session includes short presentations and exercises, lively discussion of poems that will spark new thinking, and generous space to draft, share and workshop your own work.
Felicity will guide you through:
• Starting and developing strong drafts
• Giving and receiving feedback that's tailored, attentive and genuinely useful
• Building habits that sustain a creative practice for the long haul
Every participant gets the chance to workshop a poem of up to one page, which can be shared in advance of the weekend. You'll also have dedicated blocks to write in response to fresh prompts and share that new work with the group, receiving thoughtful feedback from both Felicity and your fellow poets over the weekend.
Whether you've done a Varuna poetry masterclass before or are joining us for the first time, this course assumes participants will have some experience reading and writing poetry.
Come away with new poems, new connections, and a treasury of prompts, practices and encouragement to carry your creative practice forward.
ABOUT FELICITY PLUNKETT
Dr Felicity Plunkett is a poet and critic and educator with decades of experience. She is Poetry Editor with Australian Book Review. Her books are A Kinder Sea (UQP), Vanishing Point (UQP) and the chapbook Seastrands (Vagabond) and editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP). She is also a widely-published writer of reviews, essays and the occasional short story. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney, and was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award during her years teaching full-time in universities, including the Universities of Sydney, Queensland and New England. She was Poetry Editor with University of Queensland Press for a decade and continues to edit other poets’ work for several publishers. She has extensive experience as a mentor and creative editor. Felicity was Chief Examiner of NSW’s HSC English Extension course for five years and works as a mentor with students and teachers. This year, she was awarded the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize.
KEY INFO
WORKSHOP: Making Poems with Felicity Plunkett
Dates: 14 & 15 November 2026
Time: 10am-5pm
This workshop is an 18+ event.
VENUE, PARKING and ACCESS
This is a seated event.
Parking onsite is limited to individuals with access needs. Please email varuna@varuna.com.auto request a suitable parking spot.
Drivers can drop-off their passengers onsite and then move to the recommended parking area.
Recommended parking is curb-side on Cascade St (not Sherman Avenue) and walking to Varuna's main entry.
Varuna's driveway, car park and gardens are uneven and care is recommended when accessing the property at all times.
If you require T-loop, closed captions, Auslan interpreters or accessible parking, please contact Varuna directly on varuna@varuna.com.au or call 02 02 4782 5674 to speak to Erin English.