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: January 2025
Applications close: March 2025
Places: Twelve writers will be selected
Who should apply: First Nations writers working in any genre, at any career stage. Six places will be reserved for writers working on non-fiction manuscripts, such as language preservation projects, family histories, and culturally significant research.
Fees: There are no application fees this program, and all travel costs are covered.
Twelve fellowships will be awarded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers from anywhere in Australia.
This fellowship program is open to writers of all genres of fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, children's books, graphic novels, dramatic/screen writing, writing for radio, translation, young adult, essays or short fiction. Submissions in language are welcomed.
The fellowship week includes an optional one-on-one mentoring session, and group reading sessions, in a culturally safe space.
The Fellowship includes accommodation and meals at Varuna, as well as travel between your home and Katoomba, including 50 cents per km reimbursement for distance travelled in a personal vehicle, economy airfares and bus or train tickets.
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 10 poems; for plays and screen plays 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. ”
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
