International Lamplight Residency with Tara June Winch, Graeme Macrae Burnet and Carol Major

Co-presented by Varuna and Cove Park, Scotland

Join us for a very special online residency and enjoy the warmth and support of Varuna and Cove Park – the camaraderie of fellow writers, unique professional development opportunities, and the chance to use this unexpected time to build connection with other writers and sustain your creative project in 2020.

Eligibility

This program is only open to writers who have a publication record. If you’re not sure if you are eligible, please contact amy@varuna.com.au.

Program

This week-long online residency includes:

• Two one-hour online sessions (one-on-one) with Varuna Writing Consultant Dr Carol Major to talk about your current project

• An online Q&A session with Tara June Winch

• An online Q&A session with Graeme Macrae Burnet

• Daily facilitated professional networking opportunities with your peers throughout the week, including the opportunity to share work, talk about process, and receive feedback.

• And finally, a social catch up with your peers with a recipe from our beloved Varuna chef Sheila Atkinson to cook at home if you choose.

Places limited to six only. Three participants will be in Australia, and three participants will be in the UK.

Participants need to allow at least 1 hour at specific times every day for programmed sessions, with the expectation that you will spend at least three hours dedicated writing time each day (although this is flexible according to your own personal circumstances). 

The program for the week is available here.

Participants will need a reliable internet connection, and a computer or mobile phone with a webcam and microphone.

The cost of the program is $395. (Approx. £215)

Program dates: Monday 6 July – Saturday 11 July 2020. Please note that UK writers will have their consultations prior to this. See program for more info.

To book your place, please visit TryBooking. For program enquiries please contact amy@varuna.com.au.

ABOUT COVE PARK, SCOTLAND

Founded in 1999 by Peter and Eileen Jacobs, Cove Park offers Funded and Independently Funded residencies across all art forms for national and international artists, collaborative groups and organisations. Cove Park is located on an outstanding 50-acre site overlooking Loch Long on Scotland's west coast (just 60 minutes from Glasgow by road or rail).

Varuna and Cove Park have co-presented an annual fellowship exchange since 2019, with the support of The Bridge Awards. More information about this program is available here: https://www.varuna.com.au/fellowships/cove%20park and https://covepark.org/residencies/varuna-residency-2019/.  

TARA JUNE WINCH

Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri author, born in Australia and based in France. Her first novel, Swallow the Air was critically acclaimed. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist, and has won numerous literary awards for Swallow the Air.

In 2008, Tara was mentored by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Her second book, the story collection After the Carnage was published in 2016. After the Carnage was longlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for fiction, shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Christina Stead prize for Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for a collection.

She wrote the Indigenous dance documentary, Carriberrie, which screened at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and toured internationally.

Her latest book The Yield won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the People's Choice Award and Book of the Year at the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

GRAEME MACRAE BURNET

Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of three novels, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau (Saraband, 2014), the Man Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project (Saraband, 2015), and The Accident on the A35 (Saraband, 2017).

His Bloody Project has been published in over 20 languages including German, Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, Farsi and Estonian. He is currently working on his fourth novel. Graeme was named Author of the Year in the Sunday Herald Culture Awards 2017 and has appeared at festivals and events in Edinburgh, Seoul, Los Angeles, New York, Adelaide, Macau, Estonia, Moscow, Cheltenham, Berlin, Lyon, Paris, Glasgow, London, Ullapool and many other places.

He has also written the occasional piece for The Guardian, The Observer and Le Monde.

He was born in Kilmarnock in Scotland and now lives in Glasgow.

DR CAROL MAJOR

Dr Carol Major has been a professional writer for over thirty years and works with writers across all narrative forms. Her skill is in drawing out the writer’s vision and matching it with crafting tools. She is originally from Scotland, later educated in Canada and now lives in the Blue Mountains of Australia, a location she feels holds the ingredients of all three landscapes in one place.

Narrative voice is also a passion: who is telling this story to whom about what, and most importantly, why? What is the motive to tell? She believes it is a key ingredient in creating an authentic narrative voice.

“Carol is the oracle. She has an intuitive understanding of what a writer is doing and needs. She sees the bigger picture, sheds light on characters hiding in the dark and rekindles the imagination.” Dr Leah Kaminsky, winner of the 2019 International Book Awards Literary Fiction & Historical Fiction

“Carol instinctively grasps the vision behind the work and reflects it back to the writer, generating confidence and resolve. Her knowledge of writing craft, her mastery of form, and her insights into creative endeavour are invaluable.” Vicki Laveau-Harvie, Winner of the Stella Prize 2019

Amy Sambrooke, Creative Director, Varuna the National Writers’ House & Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival

Amy has worked in the cultural sector throughout her career. Prior to joining Varuna, Amy spent 8 years at the Whitlam Institute developing community and school programs and managing communications, marketing and outreach for the Institute's public policy work and high-profile events program.

 Amy has worked as a producer and reporter for 702 ABC Sydney as well as in commercial radio. She has also worked as an arts publicist and media trainer.

Veechi Stuart, Executive Director, Varuna the National Writers’ House & Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival

Veechi's career has taken her on many adventures, including working as a journalist, writer, editor, publisher and business consultant. Before working at Varuna, Veechi worked as a columnist at the Sydney Morning Herald and as Publishing Manager for Woodslane Press. She is the author of over a dozen non-fiction titles, including bushwalking guides for both the Blue Mountains and Sydney.

Rebecca DeWald, Literature Programme Producer at Cove Park, Scotland’s international artist residency centre

Rebecca is a bilingual translator, editor and project coordinator with a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Glasgow. Her work plays with words in English, German, French and Spanish, often in translation. She co-edits the Glasgow Review of Books, and coordinates the monthly translators’ labs, Translators’ Stammtisch and Translation Theory Lab, at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow, and is passionate about supporting and creating opportunities for writers and translators alike.

Sheila Atkinson

Sheila is Varuna’s chef extraordinaire and has become legendary in Australia’s writing community for her wonderful meals for Varuna guests. While running her restaurant in Katoomba many years ago, she was asked to cater for meals for Varuna guests. For two years she did both jobs, eventually selling her restaurant because she loved the Varuna job more. Sheila's many professional lives have included being a makeup artist for television, an organiser of arts festivals and a restaurateur.

Varuna is grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and to the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund for their support of this project.