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Varuna, The National Writers' House

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Varuna, The National Writers' House

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Varuna, The National Writers' House, Nonprofit Organization, 141 Cascade Street, Katoomba.

Varuna offers writers residencies and professional development programs year-round, onsite in the Blue Mountains and online, and coordinates the annual Blue Mountains Writers' Festival.

19/06/2026

KICKSTART YOUR WRITING PROJECT WITH ASHLEY HAY
This six-session intensive course is for writers at all career stages. Delivered by one of our most experienced facilitators across two months, this masterclass will help you get started on a new writing project or breathe life into a project you are struggling with.

Dates: 6:00-8:00pm (AEDT), 19 August - 21 October
Delivery: Online
Places: 8 participants will be selected (small group)
Applications close: 5pm (AEDT) 13 July 2026

Head to our website for more info: https://www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/kickstart-your-writing-course

17/06/2026

APPLICATIONS CLOSE NEXT WEEK - WRITING WITH HEART AND HUMOUR
This eight-session intensive is for writers at all career stages. Delivered by one of Australia’s leading journalists and non-fiction writers, Rick Morton, this online course will help you develop new skills in bringing carefully observed levity to balance the darker matters in your writing projects.

Dates: 6:00-8:00pm (AEST), Tuesdays 4 August - 22 September 2026
Delivery: Online
Applications close: 5:00pm (AEST) Thursday 25 June 2025
Places: 8 participants will be selected

Head to our website for more info: https://www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/heartandhumour

15/06/2026

NEW ONLINE COURSE JUST ANNOUNCED
Energise your writing and deepen your critical reading with Emily Maguire, award-winning author of seven novels and three non-fiction books. This 10 week course will develop your writing craft through close reading and applied writing practice.

Dates: 6:00-8:00pm (AEST) Tuesdays, 6 October - 8 December 2026
Delivery: Online
Places: 8 participants will be selected for this class (small group)
Applications close: 5pm (AEST) Monday 7 September 2026

Head to our website for more info: https://www.varuna.com.au/courses/emily-maguire-course

13/06/2026

Congratulations to Chloe Wilson on the release of her debut novel The Thornbacks, out now from Hamish Hamilton.

It's Friday night, date night, and Luka — lawyer, thirty-three — is heading out to meet Poppy, an angelic blonde who has been dead for more than a year. Behind her profile are two morticians, Gertie and Tabitha, who by day pump blood from bodies and paint on shades of Light Natural Tan and Warm Rose Bisque, and by night apply the same scrupulous care to their targets on the dating apps. Deliciously unsettling and chillingly funny, The Thornbacks is an exhilarating debut about appearances, justice, and how humanity's most overlooked specimens find a means to rebel.

Chloe was awarded The Longlines Fellowship in 2009 and The Val Vallis Fellowship in 2013 and 2015.

More info: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-thornbacks-9781761357244

12/06/2026

The Copyright Agency Frank Moorhouse Fellowship is open for emerging fiction writers aged 18–35!
Named in honour of the late Frank Moorhouse, this fellowship supports unpublished (full-length) writers with a living allowance to develop a new work of fiction.

Applications close 22 June 2026 - https://www.copyright.com.au/culturalfund/fellowship/copyright-agency-frank-moorhouse-fellowship-for-young-writers/

11/06/2026

Congratulations to Varuna alumna Brooke Maddison who has won the Penguin Literary Prize 2026 with her manuscript, Driftwood!

Set against the wildness of the Australian landscape, Driftwood explores how traumatic events reverberate through families and examines how society expects people to respond to childhood abuse. The judges praised the manuscript for its atmospheric writing, emotional depth and strong sense of place.

Brooke will receive $20,000 and the opportunity to publish with Penguin Random House Australia.

10/06/2026

Congratulations to Maureen Alsop on the release of her new poetry collection Mercury Hour, out now from Academy of Intentional Magic.

A book-length poem in beautifully distilled four-line stanzas, Mercury Hour intertwines passion and grief for the worlds within our world that are disappearing. Accompanied by Alsop's own drawings — moon phases, concentric circles, astronomical diagrams — the collection moves through dream, trance, and mystical vision, asking whether loss itself might become a guiding light across time, space, and the fractured landscape of the heart.

Maureen was awarded a Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing JCU Fellowship in 2025.

More info: maureenalsop.com/books/mercury-hour

09/06/2026

We are excited to announce the fellowship recipients for this year’s Varuna International Exchange - New Zealand, in partnership with Michael King Writers' Centre and WORD Christchurch Festival.

In this exchange, an Australian writer will visit Michael King Writers Centre for three weeks and appear at WORD Christchurch Festival, and a writer from New Zealand travels to Varuna for their residency and appearance at the Blue Mountains Writers' Festival. The exchange was open to Varuna alumni who had published new work between 2022 - 2026.

The Australian recipient of this year’s international exchange in New Zealand is Nam Le and the New Zealand fellowship recipient is Hazel Phillips.

We would also like to highlight the Highly Commended Australian writers who were shortlisted: Kris Kneen, Hayley Scrivenor, and Nadia Mahjouri.

Congratulations to both writers! We look forward to welcoming Hazel to the house and Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival later in October this year and hearing about Nam Le’s experience in New Zealand when he heads there in September.

This program is made possible with funding from Creative Australia.

Find out more on our website: http://varuna.com.au/news/nz-exchange-2026

08/06/2026

WRITING WITH HEART AND HUMOUR with RICK MORTON

This exceptional chance to learn from Rick Morton, one of Australia’s leading journalists and non-fiction writers, will help you write with carefully observed levity to balance the darker parts of your writing projects. Learn from the best in this 8-week Varuna online course.

Dates: Tuesdays, 4 August - 22 September 2026
Delivery: Online
Applications close: 5:00pm (AEST) Thursday 25 June 202
Places: 8 participants will be selected

Head to our website for more info: https://www.varuna.com.au/for-writers/heartandhumour

07/06/2026

Congratulations to Fiona Wright on the release of her debut novel Kill Your Boomers, out now from Ultimo Press.

Keira is thirty-ahem, still in a mould-filled share house, and watching the great Australian dream slip further out of reach with every passing year. Her gig as a nanny to a pair of atrocious twins barely covers the G&Ts she needs to survive her other job as a freelance copywriter, let alone a deposit. When her best friend buys an apartment on the strength of an inheritance, Keira looks to the bank of Mum and Dad — and hatches a plan to speed up the process of wealth transfer. Sharp, dark and wickedly funny, Kill Your Boomers is the housing crisis novel we deserve.

Fiona was awarded a Western Sydney University Fellowship in 2015 and a Varuna Residential Fellowship in 2023, and works as a mentor and facilitator for our Writer's Space programs.

More info: https://publishing.hardiegrant.com/en-au/books/kill-your-boomers-by-fiona-wright/9781761154256

Address

141 Cascade Street
Katoomba, NSW
2780

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61247825674

Website

http://varuna.com.au/

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