Early-bird Passes on sale now

The Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival returns 31 October - 2 November 2025.

Applications close 15 July

This 6-week course with Jack Heath is designed to help you refine the elements of crime and thriller writing and finish your novel, with discussions of key writing techniques and feedback on your work.

Registrations open:
16 Aug - 20 Sep program

The Writer’s Space Writing Group is returning to Katoomba Library in 2025 with a free, six-week program open to writers with disability. Writers at all levels of experience and working in any genre are welcome. Spaces limited to 12.

Applications close 11 August

Writing NSW awards a single one-week Varuna residency to members of Writing NSW for manuscripts, plays or poem collections ready for the next stage of development.

Applications close 12 August

Designed for writers of all levels, genres and narrative art forms, this 12-session masterclass with BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and author Anthony Mullins will show you how to craft an authentic and powerful narrative structure.

Applications close 26 August

This 8-week online program drills down deeply into how to craft dialogue on the page, ensuring that each of your character’s voices is unique, shaping their distinct speech patterns, and working on questions about who speaks, and when.

Applications close 26 August

This 10-week course is designed to help you strengthen the fundamentals that aspiring authors often overlook, hone your approach to revising stories for submission, and work towards writing your own knockout short-story collection.

Applications close August 28

In this five-week masterclass you’ll have the opportunity to read a lot, write a lot, receive written and verbal feedback, explore a trove of original prompts and diverse forms, explore and enhance aspects of your creative practice and have a one-to-one consultation about your work.

Applications close 23 September

Scenes are the building blocks of novels, plays, screenplays, short stories, and even works of creative non-fiction. This 8-week program with Brooke Robinson will sharpen your writing to create truly powerful scenes.

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!).

Applications open March 2026

Offered in partnership with the Henry Handel Richardson Society, this short story writing fellowship promotes the life and legacy of Henry Handel Richardson, and is offered to an outstanding short story submission as part of the Varuna Residential Fellowships.

Applications now closed

This program is presented in partnership with the Northern Territory Government through Arts NT. Submissions are welcomed from eligible NT-based writers.

Applications now closed

Writers focused on climate change and the environment are invited to apply for a week-long residency, with the opportunity to network and connect with others working across literature, academia, journalism, grassroots organising and activism.

Applications now closed

Varuna’s most prestigious award, running since 1991. Up to 38 fellowships will be awarded to emerging and established writers across Australia, offering between two and four weeks in residence, with mentorship.

Applications now closed

Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer Eleanor Dark, this three-week writing fellowship will be awarded to a fiction application of outstanding quality.

Applications now closed

Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer and social activist Eric Dark, this three-week writing fellowship will be awarded for a non-fiction application of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing.

Applications now closed

Established in memory of Mick Dark, who bequeathed Varuna House to the writers of Australia, this three-week writing fellowship will be awarded to outstanding Environmental Writing.

Applications now closed

As part of the Varuna Residential Fellowships, a two-week fellowship with travel costs covered and a $600 stipend is awarded to a writer of outstanding talent who is experiencing financial hardship. This Fellowship is made possible in 2025 by a member of our alumni association.

Applications now closed

This three-week fellowship will be awarded to a First Nations writer who applies for a Varuna Residential Fellowship and whose work is of outstanding quality.