Varuna Residential Fellowships
Varuna Residential Fellowships offer two to three weeks of full board and accommodation at Varuna including a prepared evening meal, uninterrupted time to write in your own private studio, the companionship of your fellow writers and a one-hour Varuna Conversation with a Varuna consultant.
In 2025, Varuna will offer 29 Varuna Residential Fellowships, including our prestigious Flagship Fellowships.
Key dates
Applications open: 17 June 2024
Closing date: 30 July 2024
Date of residency: Between January and August 2025
What you need to send us
You will need to send us between 7,000 and 10,000 words from the beginning of your manuscript. For poetry, you need to send us a selection of 10 poems; for graphic novels a sample of 10 pages; for children’s picture books you may send us a full manuscript.
What we are looking for
Varuna welcomes manuscripts from writers working in all creative forms, including fiction, short stories, screenplay/drama, poetry, children’s books, and narrative non-fiction. Artistic merit is the most important criterion for our assessors, who are looking for strongly written characters, sound structure, compelling themes, a distinctive and engaging voice, and social and cultural relevance. Our assessors also consider the potential of your manuscript, based on the experience of the writer and their work plan.
Fees
Application fees are $67.50 per application, unless you are a financially current alumni member using your annual fee waiver. Application fees are used to pay professional assessors to read your work. If you have a Healthcare card, the application fee is $37.50. If you are experiencing financial hardship, the Varuna Equity Fund has a small amount of funds available. If you select the fee exemption option in the application form, you will need to provide a sentence or two about your situation.
If you are successful, you will be asked to make a contribution of $350 per week towards your residency (note that this fee is waived for the Jerra Studio, First Nations, and Ray Koppe/ASA Young Writer’s fellowships). If you are experiencing financial hardship, the Varuna Equity Fund may be able to cover this contribution.
Writers awarded a Flagship Fellowship will receive a travel subsidy of $350 if they live more than 300 km away, and writers receiving the Ray Koppe Fellowship or Henry Handel Richardson Fellowship will receive full reimbursement of travel expenses. Healthcare card owners can apply to the Varuna Travel Assistance Fund for a travel subsidy of up to $300. All other fellowship recipients will need to meet their own travel expenses to and from Varuna.
Each year, a fully funded Fellowship and $350 travel subsidy is awarded to a writer who is a parent or carer who faces barriers to finding time and space to write due to financial pressures. This Fellowship is generously supported by one of our Varuna alumni.
The fine print
If you have further queries, please email us here or call 02 4782 5674
Varuna the Writer’s House