Varuna Climate Fellowship

In March 2024, Varuna welcomed 7 residents for our inaugural Climate Fellowship, supported by The Bridge Awards, a philanthropic organisation that provides funding for arts, community, healthcare and environmental projects.

With combined backgrounds in literature, academia, journalism, grassroots organising and activism, the residents worked on writing projects related to climate change and the environment. Each had time and space to write, as well as the opportunity to network and connect with others working in their field.

As an organisation, Varuna has always had interest in and commitment to the environment. The organisation has a longstanding partnership with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society and is undertaking ongoing work to future-proof their property, reduce waste and become carbon positive. The annual Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival always incorporates climate writing, culminating in the Mick Dark Talk for the Future, an environmentally focused keynote address. It is our hope that this fellowship furthers our connection to the important work being done in this field.

The climate fellows for 2024 included:

Claire Albrecht is an award-winning poet and editor based in Newcastle. She was the 2019 Emerging Writers Festival fellow at the State Library of Victoria, a 2020 Varuna ‘Writing Fire, Writing Drought’ fellow, and a resident at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, New Mexico in 2022. Her work investigates anxiety and the connections between poetry and photography. Claire’s manuscript sediment was shortlisted for the 2018 Subbed In chapbook prize, and her debut chapbook pinky swear launched in 2018. Her most recent book handshake was shortlisted for the Puncher & Wattmann First Poetry Book Prize. Claire is Editor-in-Chief of The Suburban Review and Manager of Australian Literary Studies.

Claire continued her work on a speculative fiction manuscript which explores future ethical decisions between human loss and environmental survival.

Mibu Fischer is a Quandamooka saltwater scientist with engagement skills for strengthening partnerships between First Nations communities and the research sector. Her specific interests are around Traditional Knowledge (science) and management practices being considered within modern day fisheries, coastal and conservation management. She joins with other Indigenous and Traditional practitioners to strengthen the global Indigenous voice and leadership in areas of marine research and coastal Indigenous livelihoods. Her goal is to bridge a gap that draws attention to the Indigenous communities facing the frontline of impacts and changes to coastlines, ecosystems and livelihoods from climate change.  

During the fellowship, Mibu focused on writing publication pieces for her PhD candidature at the University of Tasmania, where she is looking at opportunities for Indigenous science and knowledge to be appropriately included with climate adaptation planning and climate science. As part of this research, she is exploring decolonial methodologies and approaches.

Dr Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer. She served as a lead author on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, a global review of climate change science. Her writing has appeared in The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, The Guardian, Griffith Review, Harper’s Bazaar and The Conversation. She is the author of two books – Sunburnt Country: The future and history of climate change in Australia and Humanity’s Moment: A climate scientist’s case for hope. Joëlle also contributed to The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg and Not Too Late: Not Too late: Changing the climate story from despair to possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabu.  

Joëlle worked on a Quarterly Essay On climate peril and paralysis during her time at Varuna.

Claire O’Rourke is an author, environmentalist and advocate, with two decades working in journalism, communications and campaigns across Australia and around the world. Claire helps others take action on climate change, currently as Australia Director, Social Movements at The Sunrise Project. Claire’s first book, Together We Can, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2022. Previously Claire was National Director of Solar Citizens, a community-led renewable energy advocacy organisation. 

During the fellowship, Claire explored different ways of telling hopeful, inspiring stories of climate action from Australia and around the world, so people understand the power and potential in making the changes we need now.  

Yolanda Waters is an environmental social scientist, dive instructor and founder of Divers for Climate, who is passionate about encouraging community climate action and protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems. With individuals and communities playing a critical role in protecting our ocean, Yolanda believes that the most powerful way she can make a difference is by using her research and communication skills to inform evidence-based campaign strategies and contribute to building strong community engagement across a range of cultural contexts.

During her stay at Varuna, she worked on a non-fiction book about how we bring the voices of the ocean into the climate movement, and why it matters.

Co-founders of PermaQueer, Guy Ritani and Toad Andrew Dell are currently drafting their first book, while navigating how their concept might work with the publishers. The project looks at the intersection of Queerness and Ecological design, particularly into the identities and social structures we indirectly uphold that destroy our environment. It uses permaculture design methodology to reframe our social ecosystems and identify how thriving ecosystems would work in contrast to the ones we currently have. It illuminates much of the social norms in desperate need of regeneration if we're to take meaningful climate action and systems redesign towards an equitable future within the planetary boundaries. It hopes to highlight a potential pathway to regeneration from within for meaningful and lasting climate action.