Lamplight Residency with Charlotte Wood, Michael Robotham and Carol Major

This week-long online residency includes:

• Two one-hour online sessions (one-on-one) with Varuna Writing Consultant Dr Carol Major to talk about your current project

• An online Q&A session with Charlotte Wood, prizewinning author of six novels and two books of non-fiction

• An online Q&A session with international best-selling crime writer Michael Robotham

• Daily facilitated professional networking opportunities with your peers throughout the week, including the opportunity to share work, talk about process, and receive feedback about your work.  

• And finally, a virtual dinner with your peers on the Saturday night with a recipe from our beloved chef Sheila Atkinson to cook at home if you choose.

Places limited to six only. 

Participants need to allow at least 1 hour at specific times every day for programmed sessions, with the expectation that you will spend at least three hours dedicated writing time each day (although this is flexible according to your own personal circumstances). 

Participants will need a reliable internet connection, and a computer or mobile phone with a webcam and microphone.

Cost & eligibility: This program is currently only available to Varuna Alumni, or those who have previously received a Varuna Invited Residency or Quick Response Residency.

The cost of the program is $395.

Program dates: Monday 20 April – Saturday 25 April

To book your place, please visit TryBooking. For program enquiries please contact amy@varuna.com.au.

Charlotte Wood

Charlotte Wood is the author of six novels and two books of non-fiction. Her latest novel is The Weekend, which has been published internationally and has been shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Indie Book Award in 2020.

Her previous novel, The Natural Way of Things, won the 2016 Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, was joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction.

Her non-fiction works include The Writer’s Room, a collection of interviews with authors about the creative process, and Love & Hunger, a book about cooking. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Literary Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper among other publications. In 2019 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant services to literature, and was named one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence. 

Her latest project is a new podcast, The Writer's Room with Charlotte Wood, in which she interviews authors, critics and other artists about the creative process.

Michael Robotham

Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was an investigative journalist working across America, Australia and Britain. As a journalist and writer he investigated notorious cases such as the serial killer couple Fred and Rosemary West. He has worked with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes. 

Michael's 2004 debut thriller, The Suspect, sold more than 1 million copies around the world. It is the first of nine novels featuring beloved Joe O'Loughlin. Good Girl, Bad Girl is the first book in an exciting new series featuring forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven and was shortlisted for the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Novel. Michael has also written four standalone thrillers. In 2015 he won the UK's prestigious Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award with his standalone thriller Life or Death and in 2020 The Secrets She Keeps was adapted for television.

Dr Carol Major

Dr Carol Major has been a professional writer for over thirty years and works with writers across all narrative forms. Her skill is in drawing out the writer’s vision and matching it with crafting tools. She is originally from Scotland, later educated in Canada and now lives in the Blue Mountains of Australia, a location she feels holds the ingredients of all three landscapes in one place.

Narrative voice is also a passion: who is telling this story to whom about what, and most importantly, why? What is the motive to tell? She believes it is a key ingredient in creating an authentic narrative voice.

Carol is the oracle. She has an intuitive understanding of what a writer is doing and needs. She sees the bigger picture, sheds light on characters hiding in the dark and rekindles the imagination.

Dr Leah Kaminsky, Winner of the Voss Literary Prize 2016

Winner of the 2019 International Book Awards Literary Fiction & Historical Fiction

Carol instinctively grasps the vision behind the work and reflects it back to the writer, generating confidence and resolve. Her knowledge of writing craft, her mastery of form, and her insights into creative endeavour are invaluable.

Vicki Laveau-Harvie

Winner of the Stella Prize 2019

Every writer dreams of finding someone like Carol Major. Her insight, wisdom, passion and uncanny way of penetrating the very heart of your work is deeply valuable for a writer at any stage of their career, or any stage of their project. Like the very best therapists, Carol knows exactly how far to push, how much to challenge, and how to support you to make your work the best it can possibly be. Carol's input into my novel The Children's House (published by Penguin Random House in 2018) was profoundly important. She understood exactly what I was trying to achieve - perhaps better than I understood it myself - and how and where I was failing in that aim. Carol's words of wisdom, and her brilliant insight, helped me to raise the novel to another level - and to become a much better writer. I cannot thank her enough and look forward to more conversations with her as I embark on my new novel.”

Alice Nelson, author of The Children’s House and The Last Sky.  

Amy Sambrooke, Creative Director, Varuna the National Writers’ House & Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival

Amy has worked in the cultural sector throughout her career. Prior to joining Varuna, Amy spent 8 years at the Whitlam Institute developing community and school programs and managing communications, marketing and outreach for the Institute's public policy work and high-profile events program. Amy has worked as a producer and reporter for 702 ABC Sydney as well as in commercial radio. She has also worked as an arts publicist and media trainer.

Veechi Stuart, Executive Director, Varuna the National Writers’ House & Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival

Veechi's career has taken her on many adventures, including working as a journalist, writer, editor, publisher and business consultant. Before working at Varuna, Veechi worked as a columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald and as Publishing Manager for Woodslane Press. She is the author of over a dozen non-fiction titles, including bushwalking guides for both the Blue Mountains and Sydney.

Sheila Atkinson

Sheila is Varuna’s chef extraordinaire and has become legendary in Australia’s writing community for her wonderful meals for Varuna guests. While running her restaurant in Katoomba many years ago, she was asked to cater for meals for Varuna guests. For two years she did both jobs, eventually selling her restaurant because she loved the Varuna job more. Sheila's many professional lives have included being a makeup artist for television, an organiser of arts festivals and a restaurateur.