Recharge Your Poetry Practice
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.
Dates: 6:00-8:00pm (AEST) Thursdays* October 1, 8, 15 and 29, 2026. 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: $795 or $745 for Varuna Alumni. Negotiable payment terms if you cannot pay upfront
Applications close: 5pm (AEST) 26 August 2026
Places: 8 participants will be selected (small group).
*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!”
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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 some close feedback. The course aims to offer an array of possibilities, so workshop feedback by Felicity and peers will be succinct, unlike the more concentrated work in From Poem to Manuscript.
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.
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Week 1: Finding form, Thursday 1 October
Formal and thematic patterning, inhabiting, breaking and inventing form.
Week 2: Fingerprint, Thursday 8 October
Your distinctive perspective, lineage and orientation.
Week 3: Hot line, week of 12 October
A week of written feedback by Felicity and the group, and no group Zoom session.
Week 4: By ear, Thursday 22 October
Music, rhythm, voice.
Week 5: People also ask, Thursday 29 October
Process, logistics and other FAQ.
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Felicity Plunkett is the author of A Kinder Sea (UQP), Vanishing Point (UQP) and the chapbook Seastrands (Vagabond) and editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP). Felicity was awarded her PhD from the University of Sydney and, after fifteen years in academia, was Poetry Editor with University of Queensland Press for a decade. She is Poetry Editor with Australian Book Review and a widely published poet, critic and essayist. In 2026 she will be part of the jury of the Montreal International Poetry Prize. Over the last fifteen years Felicity has worked with a host of poets (and the occasional fiction or non-fiction writer) as creative editor. Felicity is acknowledged for her expertise as a poet, interlocutor and creative editor, who loves to accompany poets as they develop their work, always exploring the creative and poetic possibilities with care, sensitivity and a focus on craft and poetics.
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“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.”
— Alexandra McCallum, 2024 participant, From Poem to Manuscript 16 week program“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.”
— Alison Gorman, 2024 participant, From Poem to Manuscript 16 week program“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.”
— Lucy Alexander, 2021 and 2023 participant -
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 $795 or $745 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.
Applications close at 5pm (AEDT) on 26 August 2026.
All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their submission by 7 September 2026.
Please refer to Varuna’s general submission guidelines for any questions on formatting your work.
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
