From Poem to Manuscript: an extended program with Felicity Plunkett
Expand and nurture your practice as a poet in this 4-month program. We’ll create an encouraging and inspiring community, and support the development of original work, from single poems to sequences, and explore how to build a collection for publication.
Dates: 6pm - 8pm, Thursdays 20 March* - 17 July 2025. Please look at details below for a list of all class dates.
Fees: $2295 or $2200 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront.
Applications close: 5pm (AEDT) Tuesday 11 February 2025
Places: 8 participants will be selected
*Please note that we may be able to offer two cohorts, and if so, the second program will run on Wednesday evenings in the same weeks as the classes below. You will be asked your availability in the application form.
This online masterclass includes five three-week modules, each starting with a week focused on prompts, resources, poems and micro-exercises organised around themes, followed by two weeks dedicated to workshopping the poems you develop or rework in the light of these ideas.
Each module will explore a theme and aspect of poetry from a range of angles. Online materials and discussion will complement a two-hour weekly masterclass. The course is designed to introduce a unique range of materials informed by Felicity’s expertise as a writer, editor and educator, and will include sustenance for your creative practice, a vast array of forms and prompts, and spaciousness for each poet’s work to receive close and careful feedback.
While the structure of the course, moving from the line to the book, has been retained from the 2024 program, the 2025 masterclass will include new prompts, poems and exercises in the workshops, making it suitable both for poets new to the course, and returning poets.
Led by award-winning poet and critic Dr Felicity Plunkett, who was Poetry Editor with University of Queensland Press for a decade, our community of reading writers will explore a range of poems and ideas.
Each writer will be encouraged to draft new work in response to these readings and short set writing exercises or practices, and to use these ideas as a lens to explore poems already in draft. There will be prompts relating to developing and sustaining a creative practice. Workshopping weeks will allow close discussion of each poet’s work, and develop critical and editorial skills under Felicity’s guidance.
PROGRAM OUTLINE
20 March: Module 1: First, the line
27 March and 3 April: Module 1 workshops and discussion
10 April: Module 2: The poem’s room
17 April and 24 April: Module 2 workshops
1 May: Module 3: Breaks
8 May and 15 May: Module 3 workshops
Break
5 June: Module 4: Repairs
12 June and 19 June: Module 4 workshops
26 June: Module 5: Sequencing
3 July and 10 July: Module 5 workshops
17 July: Celebration, discussion, Q&A
ABOUT FELICITY PLUNKETT
Dr Felicity Plunkett is a poet and critic. She is the author of A Kinder Sea (UQP), Vanishing Point (UQP) and the chapbook Seastrands (Vagabond) and editor of Thirty Australian Poets (UQP). She is a widely-published writer of reviews, essays and the occasional short story. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney, and was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award during her years teaching full-time in universities, including the Universities of Sydney, Queensland and New England. She was Poetry Editor with University of Queensland Press and has extensive experience as a mentor and creative editor. She was Chief Examiner of NSW’s HSC English Extension course for five years and also mentors students and teachers.
HOW TO APPLY
Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with peers and the balance in the group.
Course fees are $2295 or $2200 for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront.
Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 or email amy@varuna.com.au to discuss your application.
TESTIMONIALS
“The masterclass was my weekly poetry oasis, all abundance. It was so much more than an ‘abstract-forms-and-how-to-do-them’ kind of discourse with discussions expanding into questions of how the line, the stanza, the poem, the manuscript shapes and is shaped the world around us. I also wrote some banger poems!”
“Felicity brings a unique set of gifts to facilitating this masterclass. Each module provides a rich selection of readings, writing prompts and materials for discussion. These reflect Felicity’s extensive experience as a poet and academic. As a teacher she creates an inspiring, safe forum for rigorous workshopping of poems.
The feedback I obtained during the masterclass from Felicity and the other participants was invaluable.”
“Felicity has incredible skill in understanding where a poem is trying to go and helping it get there. The feedback from other participants was incredible but I also feel much more confident I know how to work independently now.”
“A brilliant masterclass that has deepened my understanding of poetry as both a writer and reader. What a gift. Thank you Felicity and Varuna!”
UPCOMING COURSES, FELLOWSHIPS AND EVENTS
