NSW LITLINK VARUNA PROGRAM 2010

Arts NSW generously funds the NSW LitLink Program – with four exciting professional development opportunities for writers living outside Sydney. These programs link New South Wales’ unique network of regional Writers’ Centres – Northern Rivers, New England, Hunter, Central West, South Coast, Riverina (Booranga) and Blue Mountains (Varuna).

The NSW Litlink Varuna Writing program uses and extends the resources of Varuna, the Writers' House, Australia's national centre for residencies and writing programs.

Depending on the program, writers selected will have valuable time at Varuna to work on their project or consultation time with a member of the Varuna Creative Team (Peter Bishop, Helen Barnes-Bulley and Carol Major) or have their poetry published by Picaro Press.

"Receiving the Litlink Award for my unpublished novel was validating, particularly as the judges were general readers. I have had good responses from the handful of publishers but no publication offer. Winning Litlink boosted my confidence - an assurance I was on the right track. Varuna has proven the perfect setting for a concentrated examination of what my novel needs to give it lift-off. Working with Carol Major has been extraordinary. From the basic premise that a manuscript can be a cage she suggested doing a range of exercises instead of plodding through a rewrite. The aim was to distill the essence of why I was writing the novel, and to find the core of the issues and characters' concerns and motivations. It worked.
It has been a privilege having time in the Varuna environment, where writers and writing are valued and nurtured, with access to a wealth of experience."        
Dael Allison, LitLink Unpublished Manuscript Award, 2009

In 2010, the following programs are available exclusively to writers living in regional NSW:

• NSW LitLink Varuna Residencies (3 places)
• NSW LitLink Full Manuscript Readings and Consultations (8 places)
• Byron Bay Writers’ Festival/Varuna LitLink Unpublished Manuscript Awards (3 places)
• Byron Bay Writers’ Festival/Varuna LitLink Picaro Poetry Publication (1 place)

Applications for NSW LitLink programs will open from March 1 and close on March 31.

The closing date for the Picaro Poetry Publication ONLY is April 30.

To apply, you need to read the NSW LitLink Varuna Program Application Guidelines.

NSW LITLINK VARUNA RESIDENCIES

The aim of the NSW Litlink Varuna Writing Residential program is to give writers the benefit of guidance as they use the time to develop their manuscript. There will be three 2-week residencies to take place at Varuna August 23 – September 5, 2010. Residencies are open to writers in any prose genre and to poets. NSW LitLink Varuna Residencies provide writers across New South Wales with valuable time and space to develop the selected work, and equally importantly the opportunity to live and work within a unique community of writers. The residency will include accommodation and full board at Varuna, the Writers' House in Katoomba. The LitLink Varuna residency runs from Monday afternoon (from 1pm) and departure is by noon Sunday in the second week. During the residencies, there will be group conversation times and opportunities to discuss the development of projects with Varuna’s Creative Team.

Full board and accommodation are provided, and the writer’s contribution is $275.

Please note that there is no travel fund for participants in the NSW LitLink Varuna Residencies. Travel expenses to and from Varuna are borne by the participant.

NSW LITLINK FULL MANUSCRIPT READINGS AND CONSULTATIONS

8 projects will be selected for full manuscript readings followed by an hour’s phone consultation with a member of Varuna’s Creative Team. The Creative Team will discuss the projects among themselves before the consultations. Varuna has many pathways available for the further development of promising manuscripts, and the writer will be fully advised of these.

The cost to the writer is $110 (includes GST).

Readings and consultations will take place June-July by arrangement between the writer and the Creative Team.

BYRON BAY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL/VARUNA LITLINK UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT AWARDS

In its first year, this exciting competition drew 72 manuscripts from all parts of regional NSW and produced four exciting winners – Dael Allison, Graeme Pulley, Amanda Skelton and Anke Seib. The Varuna Creative Team is working with these writers – and who knows what news we may have of them by Byron Bay Writers’ Festival time in August?

For the second year, the Varuna Creative Team will create a shortlist of up to ten manuscripts for the hardworking Byron Bay selectors to make a final choice.

There will be three prizes – a NSW LitLink Varuna Residency (August 23 – September 5) for the first prize winner, and NSW LitLink Full Manuscript Readings and Consultations for the second and third. Varuna has established partnerships with all Australian publishers and the Creative Team will recommend winning manuscripts to appropriate publishers when their development is complete. Winners will also receive a three-day pass to the Byron Bay Writers Festival, and there will be a Festival event announcing and celebrating the Awards.

We are looking for manuscripts of prose fiction or narrative non-fiction at an advanced stage of development though not necessarily complete. If your novel/memoir knows what it’s doing and is communicating its excitement clearly we’d like to look at it even though it’s only half there. If it’s half there but bewildered and uncertain – leave it till next year! If you’re a poet, we’re not leaving you out – we’ve got something else for you.

This is a most exciting development award for regional NSW writers. We’re impressed by what Unpublished Manuscript Awards have achieved in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia – and we think they’ll come to be impressed with what we’re doing!

BYRON BAY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL/VARUNA LITLINK PICARO POETRY PUBLICATION

In partnership with Picaro Press, we’re creating a 28-page publication of the work of a single author for the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival in August.

We ask you to make a selection of no more than 26 pages of poems –it can be three haiku to a page or a single long poem, or most likely a collection of 15-20 of what you think of as your best poems. Individual poems may have been published before, but poems should not previously have appeared in a published collection by a single author.

The winning collection will be published by Picaro Press in time for the 2010 Byron Bay Writers’ Festival poetry night.

This program has now been extended and the deadline is April 30 for this program only. For a full version of what the program offers please see Byron Bay Writers Festival Picaro Poetry Competition on What We Offer Writers (available soon).

APPLICATION GUIDELINES

To proceed with an application for the NSW LitLink Varuna Program, you must read the NSW LitLink Varuna Program Application Guidelines.