Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowships
First Nations writers are invited to apply for one of twelve week-long residencies at Varuna in 2025, sharing the residency with other First Nations writers, and benefiting from one-on-one mentorship and the sharing of skills and knowledge.
Residency dates: 24 November - 1 December 2025 or 1 - 8 December 2025
Applications open: 6 February 2025
Applications close: 5pm AEST 7 April 2025
Places: Twelve writers will be selected
Who should apply: First Nations writers working in any genre, at any career stage.
FAQs: Please read the FAQs before you apply.
Twelve fellowships will be awarded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers from anywhere in Australia, for a one-week residency at Varuna, either 24 November - 1 December 2025 or 1 - 8 December 2025. Writers will be allocated a fellowship week based on how their work might align for collaboration, or their availability.
This fellowship program is open to writers of all genres, including fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, children's books, graphic novels, dramatic/screenwriting, writing for radio, translation, young adult, essays or short fiction. This program has been expanded in 2025 to include an additional fellowship week and six additional fellowship places. These additional places allow us to broaden our focus to include more non-fiction work, such as language preservation projects, family histories, and culturally significant research. Submissions in language are welcomed.
The fellowship includes:
A one-week residency at Varuna, including all food and a prepared evening meal, with uninterrupted time to write in your own private studio, and the companionship of your fellow writers
Travel costs reimbursed between your home and Katoomba
A one-on-one conversation with a First Nations mentor, and group reading sessions, in a culturally safe space
A BBQ at the house for the local community
For more information about staying at Varuna, visit our Residencies page.
HOW TO APPLY
You will need to send us up to 10,000 words from the beginning of your manuscript, as well as answer questions about your experience and practice. For poetry, you need to send us a selection of up to 10 poems; for plays and screenplays you may send a sample of 10 pages, or more if it doesn’t exceed 10,000 words; for graphic novels a sample of 10 pages; for children’s picture books you may send us a full manuscript.
Fellowships will be awarded based primarily on the merit of your writing. Selectors will also consider the potential role of your work in maintaining culture, such as educating the community regarding Indigenous issues, providing an authentic voice in Australian writing, maintaining language, or recording community stories.
Fellowships are awarded by a First Nations selection panel each year.
TESTIMONIALS
“I wanted to mandaang guwu (thank you) for the amazing time I had a Varuna, having the privilege of connecting to such an amazing group of mob writers. I knew it would be something that would affect my heart and spirit. It did. It provided a beautiful safe space to connect to mob, to beautiful Dharug Land, to write, learn and stretch myself. ”
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
