Applications open Dec 2026

Commit to your writing and make 2027 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 open in early 2027

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 open early 2027

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 open early 2027

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 open early 2027

A deep-dive writer development program designed for writers with a manuscript substantially underway, or with a draft completed, this 5-month masterclass provides a unique opportunity to receive feedback on your manuscript and the guidance and support to take it to the next level.

Applications open mid 2027

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 now closed

Energise your writing and deepen your critical reading with Emily Maguire. This 10-week course will develop your writing craft through close reading and applied writing practice.

Applications open mid 2027

A memoir doesn’t need to go from A to B in a timeline that marches with a calendar. In this innovative workshop, Kris Kneen will take you through a different process of structuring your memoir, weaving different stories across multiple timelines, organised by a unifying theme.

Applications now closed

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.

Applications now closed

This 6-week course with Anthony Mullins will introduce you to the power of story outlines, be it for planning, problem solving, analysis or pitching. Whether you're writing a novel, a screenplay, or a play, an outline can give you the ability to see the big picture and remember why you wanted to write this story in the first place. 

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

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 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

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 now closed

Work alongside Miles Franklin award winning novelist Sofie Laguna to breathe life into your novel, taking it out of the ‘too hard basket’ and shaping it into the story it deserves to be.

Applications now closed

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 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.