The Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival returns to Katoomba on 31 Oct - 2 Nov 2025 for its fifth year, with a weekend of ideas and creativity featuring Australia’s sharpest minds and most expansive thinkers. Early-bird passes are on sale now.

The six recipients of the 2025 Varuna Climate Fellowship have been announced.

We are taking expressions of interest from Varuna alumni who are interested in joining our Disability and Inclusion Action Group. This is a paid position.

We are delighted to announce the 38 writers who have been awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2026, having received an unprecedented 541 submissions this year.

A huge congratulations to Varuna alumni Hasib Hourani, for winning the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and James Bradley, for winning the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction, at last month's NSW Literary Awards. 

The six recipients of the Writer’s Space Online Fellowship for writers with disability have been announced.

We are delighted to announce that award-winning Australian poet Eileen Chong will be travelling to Shanghai this September for a two-month residency.

The recipients of the 2025 Varuna International Exchange New Zealand have been announced.

The twelve recipients of the Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship for 2025 have been announced.

The Eleanor Dark Foundation is delighted to announce that its application for multi-year funding from Create NSW has been successful, guaranteeing $240,000 in annual funding from 2026 through to 2028.

The six recipients of the Roderick Centre Online Fellowship for Regional and Remote Writers for 2025 have been announced.

The recipients of the 2025 Ann Moyal Non-fiction Fellowship have been announced.

The recipients of the 2025 International Lamplight Online Fellowship - Ireland have been announced.

The recipients of the inaugural Trans and Gender Diverse Fellowship have been announced.

The recipients of the 2025 Red Room Poetry Fellowship have been announced.

The recipients of the inaugural First Peoples India-Australia Exchange have been announced.

The recipients of our 2025 Writer’s Space Fellowships have been announced.

The recipients of the Arts NT Fellowship for 2025 have been announced.

The recipients of Whitlam Essay Residency for 2025 have been announced, with six essayists receiving a week-long residency at the Whitlam Prime Ministerial home in Cabramatta.

The recipients of Affirm Press Fellowship for 2025 have been announced, with four writers receiving a week-long residency at Varuna.