Recharge Your Poetry Practice with Felicity Plunkett
Recharge your poetry practice! 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 August 28, 2025.
Dates: 6-8pm Thursdays* October 2, 9, 23 and 30, 2025. In week 3 of the program there is no group Zoom.
Note over the course of the program all participants will have a 30 minute one-on-one consultation with Felicity Plunkett by Zoom.
Delivery: Online
Fees: $695 or $600 for Varuna Alumni. Negotiable payment terms if you cannot pay upfront
Places: 8 participants will be selected
*Please note that we may be able to offer two cohorts, and if so, the second program will run on Wednesday evenings in the same weeks as the classes below. You will be asked your availability in the application form.
“The masterclass was my weekly poetry oasis, all abundance. It was so much more than an ‘abstract-forms-and-how-to-do-them’ kind of discourse with discussions expanding into questions of how the line, the stanza, the poem, the manuscript shapes and is shaped the world around us. I also wrote some banger poems!”
ABOUT THIS MASTERCLASS
Recharge your poetry in this five-week intensive with Felicity Plunkett. New work inspired by prompts and exercises and weekly readings will be shared with the group for suggestions and feedback, and each writer will have opportunities in class and online for feedback from Felicity and the group.
Each writer will also have a 30 minute one-to-one session with Felicity, focused on their work.
This online masterclass is filled with prompts and possibilities to start new poems. We’ll create an encouraging and inspiring community to support the creation and development of original work so you finish the course with new drafts, new ideas and directions, and renewed enthusiasm.
Each week will begin with a presentation sharing prompts, forms and ways into new poems.
These will relate to a treasury of online materials and links. The course will introduce a unique range of materials informed by Felicity’s expertise as a writer, editor and educator, and will include sustenance for your creative practice and opportunities for each poet’s work to receive close feedback.
If you are a poet who has done this program before and are keen to apply again please feel free to contact amy@varuna.com.au to discuss whether the program will be suitable for what you need.
ABOUT FELICITY PLUNKETT
Felicity Plunkett is a poet and critic. She is the author of A Kinder Sea (UQP), Vanishing Point (UQP) and the chapbook Seastrands (Vagabond) and editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP). She is 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 and has extensive experience as a mentor and creative editor. She was Chief Examiner of NSW’s HSC English Extension course for five years and also mentors students and teachers.
PROGRAM OUTLINE
Week 1: Finding form, Thursday 2 October
Formal and thematic patterning, inhabiting, breaking and inventing form.
Week 2: Fingerprint, Thursday 9 October
Your distinctive perspective, lineage and orientation.
Week 3: Hot line, week of 16 October
A week of written feedback by Felicity and the group, and no group Zoom session.
Week 4: By ear, Thursday 23 October
Music, rhythm, voice.
Week 5: People also ask, Thursday 30 October
Process, logistics and other FAQ.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications close 28 August, 2025.
Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with peers and the balance in the group.
Course fees are $695 or $600 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront. Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 or email amy@varuna.com.au to discuss your application.
Please refer to Varuna’s general submission guidelines for any questions on formatting your work.
TESTIMONIALS
“Felicity has incredible skill in understanding where a poem is trying to go and helping it get there. The feedback from other participants was incredible but I also feel much more confident I know how to work independently now.”
“Felicity brings a unique set of gifts to facilitating this masterclass. Each module provides a rich selection of readings, writing prompts and materials for discussion. These reflect Felicity’s extensive experience as a poet and academic. As a teacher she creates an inspiring, safe forum for rigorous workshopping of poems. The feedback I obtained during the masterclass from Felicity and the other participants was invaluable.”
““Felicity tailored an extraordinary mix of individual motivational advice and personal supportive workshopping in a very limited time span… I am inspired to make my work as good as it can be, to further my own growth as a poet and writer with the tools Felicity and the workshop group have furnished me with.” ”
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
