Cove Park International Fellowship
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This prestigious four-week international residency in Cove Park, Scotland is open to Varuna alumni only, with member of Cove Park’s alumni traveling to Varuna in 2025, and one Australian writer traveling to Cove Park in 2026.
Applications for 2026 will open mid-2025
Places: One Australian writer is selected to travel to Cove Park
Who should apply: Varuna alumni only
FAQ: Please read the FAQ before you apply.
Varuna alumni will be invited to apply for a four-week residency at Cove Park in Scotland in September 2026, with the opportunity for an appearance at Wigtown Book Festival.
The fellowship recipient will be one of up to 12 national and international artists taking part in Cove Park’s wider programme, which welcomes those working in all art forms and at every career stage. The programme supports research and development of new work.
Previous literature residents include Margaret Atwood, Jeanine Leane, Caroline Brothers, Anne Carson, Rachel Cusk, Alasdair Gray, Roanna Gonsalves, Christos Tsiolkas and Yang Lian.
Open to Varuna alumni only, the fellowship includes a $2,200 contribution towards airfares between Australia and Scotland, private accommodation on Cove Park’s 50-acre rural site on Scotland’s west coast, and a weekly allowance of £150 per week towards food (this residency is self-catering).
As part of the terms of their residency, successful applicants will also be required to submit a one-page report of their stay at Cove Park.
Selection criteria for this program include recency and critical reception of your published work to date, relevance of your work to the Wigtown Book Festival program, and how you may benefit from this residency.
ABOUT COVE PARK
Cove Park is an international residency based on an outstanding 50-acre rural site in Argyll on Scotland’s west coast. Their programme of residencies, commissions, and collaborative projects respond to and promote the diversity of contemporary artistic practice. They support artists, creative practitioners, and researchers to develop and produce ambitious, innovative, and ground-breaking new work for audiences and participants across Scotland and beyond.
It’s important that applicants realise that Cove Park is in a remote area of Western Scotland. The journey from Australia to Scotland is a minimum 25 hours flying time, and additional travel on public transport is required between Glasgow airport and Cove Park. The terrain of the grounds of Cove Park is steep, and internet and mobile signals may not be available.
Please read more important details about the residency in Scotland before applying.
TESTIMONIALS
“I got thoroughly stuck in to working on what will be my fourth novel, really making an effort now to step back and change direction as a novelist and try to apply techniques and approaches I used in my previous career as a playwright.
I sincerely hope this program is able to keep running. Alexia and the team at Cove Park are an absolute delight and it was a real pleasure to get to know them. I really appreciated the opportunity to meet with some local Scottish novelists at a lunch which Alexia at Cove Park kindly organised for me.
And I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Wigtown Book Festival which was extremely well-run and author friendly. ”
This project is a partnership between Varuna the National Writers’ House of Australia, and Cove Park in Scotland, and is supported by The Bridge Awards and Wigtown Book Festival.
