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 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.

Applications close 19 February 2026

Expand and nurture your practice as a poet in this 4-month program. We’ll create an encouraging and inspiring community, and support the development of original work, from single poems to sequences, and explore how to build a collection for publication.

Applications close 10 March 2026

Designed for writers of all levels, genres and narrative art forms, this 16-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 14 April 2026

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.

Applications close 13 May 2026

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 2026

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.

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 now closed

Six online fellowships will be offered to writers with disability and/or who are D/deaf, providing mentorship, professional development, and the opportunity for peer feedback.

Applications now closed

For over 20 years, Conor Kostick has been teaching his popular 10-week Finish Your Novel course at the Irish Writers Centre and Varuna are delighted to offer it in Australia and New Zealand.

Applications now closed

This program is presented in partnership with the Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing (RCALC) and is open to emerging or established writers, living in regional and remote parts of Australia.

Applications now closed

This eight-session masterclass for writers in any genre will develop your skills in positioning yourself as an observer, and bringing nuance and humour to the story you would most like to tell.

Applications now closed

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 now closed

In this 8-week online workshop series Kris Kneen will lead a small group of writers with the aim of learning to write about sensuality and sexuality with ease.

Applications now closed

Held in collaboration with the Irish Writers Centre, this online fellowship connects writers from Ireland and Australia, with mentorship, networking and peer feedback, plus Q&As with Pip Williams and Penguin Random House publisher Meredith Curnow.

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.