Registrations open for 16 August - 20 September 2025 program

The Writer’s Space Writing Group is returning to Katoomba Library in 2025 with a free, six-week program open to writers with disability. Writers at all levels of experience and working in any genre are welcome. Spaces limited to 12.

Applications will open soon

Writers focused on climate change and the environment are invited to apply for a week-long residency, with the opportunity to network and connect with others working across literature, academia, journalism, grassroots organising and activism.

Applications open 2 May 2025

The WestWords Varuna Fellowship offers four emerging writers from diverse backgrounds from Western Sydney the opportunity of a week-long residency, supported throughout the week by mentors.

Applications open May 2025

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 open May 2025

Six two-week residential fellowships will be offered to writers with disability and/or who are D/deaf.

Applications open June 2025

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 open May 2025

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 open June 2025

Designed for writers of all levels, genres and narrative art forms, this 12-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 August 2025

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.

Save the Date

The Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival returns 31 October - 2 November 2025.

Self-paced online course

Bring the Varuna magic to you with this nine-part online, self-paced course on point of view with Jane Messer. Explore this important element of writing craft, analysing sample readings from well-known authors and being prompted with a series of exercises.

Online self-paced course

Bring the Varuna magic to you with this eight-part online, self-paced course on writing for wellbeing. This revitalising program enables you to explore writing as a practice for your own wellbeing, including techniques for getting started (or re-started!).

Applications now closed

Varuna is delighted to offer this four-week international residency to Varuna alumni, held in collaboration with the Michael King Writers Centre in New Zealand.

Applications are now closed

First Nations writers are invited to apply for one of twelve week-long fellowships 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.

Applications now closed

This six-session intensive masterclass – held across three months for writers at all stages of their careers – 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 now closed

This program is presented in partnership with the Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing (RCALC) and is open to emerging or established writers, living in regional and remote parts of Australia.

Registrations now closed

The Writer’s Space Writing Group is being held in Lithgow at the Lithgow Transformation Hub for the first time in 2025, offering a free, six-week writing program to writers with disability. Writers at all levels of experience and working in any genre are welcome. Spaces limited to 12.

Applications are now closed

Varuna alumni are eligible to apply for a four-week residency at Cove Park, Scotland, with the opportunity to present at Wigtown Book Festival.

Applications now closed

Held in collaboration with the Irish Writers Centre, this online fellowship connects writers from Ireland and Australia, with mentorship, networking and peer feedback, plus Q&As with Pip Williams and Penguin Random House publisher Meredith Curnow.

Applications are now closed

Commit to your writing and make 2025 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.