Varuna Residency Fellowships 2015
Congratulations to the writers who have been awarded a Varuna Residency Fellowship for 2015.
This year we received 150 applications for Varuna Residency Fellowships.
Submissions included applications from both published and yet to be published writers, and came from writers of all states and from diverse cultural backgrounds. Forms and genres of writing submitted included poetry, flash fiction, short story, novel (literary, crime, popular, historical, children’s and YA), memoir, biography, screen-play, play-script, graphic novel, illustrated work and non-fiction.
Four peer assessors read each applicant's proposal and the 30 fellowships were decided upon through criteria tht included calibre of work, uniqueness of voice and clear communication of the proposed work plan.
The quality of applications was exceptionally high and the peer assessors unanimously agreed that many high calibre applications were not able to be supported this year. They also agreed that all applications were of value and merit.
Thank you to all of the applicants who submitted their work for consideration this year. On behalf of all at Varuna and the peer assessment panel we wish you well with your future writing.
The writers awarded a 2015 Varuna Residential Fellowship are:
The Dorothy Hewitt Flagship Fellowship
Established in memory of Blue Mountains resident and poet Dorothy Hewitt, this writing fellowship is awarded for a poetry application of outstanding quality and offers a three-week residency at Varuna to continue the development of the writer’s collection.
Rachael Mead, A Field Guide to Fire - A poetry collection exploring the way human relationships with nature transform when we are in transit or when we perceive threat.
The Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship
Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer Eleanor Dark, this writing fellowship is awarded for a fiction application of outstanding quality and offers a three-week residency at Varuna to continue the development of the writer’s manuscript.
Steven Amsterdam, Permission - A novel about the education of a suicide assistant
The Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship
Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer and social activist Eric Dark, this writing fellowship is awarded for a non-fiction application of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing and offers a three-week residency at Varuna, to continue the development of the writer’s manuscript.
Harriet Gaffney, Place: New Myths for a Colonial Frontier - ‘Place’ takes the neat, verdant pastures of Victoria, its gold-lined streets, and unpicks the seams of British settlement, invokes its very affects.
The Mick Dark Flagship Fellowship
The Mick Dark Residential Fellowship is awarded to a writer who is working on a manuscript of outstanding quality in the area of environmental writing and offers a three-week residency at Varuna to continue the development of the writer’s manuscript.
Jane Rawson Were All In This Together: A personal handbook for surviving climate change - We’re heading for a hotter, less predictable and more dangerous world. This book gives you practical advice on how to handle it.
Varuna Second Book Fellowships
Second Book fellowships are awarded to writers who have had at least one book published and offer the writer a two week residency at Varuna to continue the development of their manuscript.
Catherine Padmore, After Levina
Jessie Cole, Blood Mandala: A Biography of a Family
Tracy Farr, The Hope Fault
Romy Ash, The Weir
Varuna Residential Fellowships
Residential Fellowships are awarded to writers currently developing a new work of high potential and offer the writer a two week residency at Varuna to continue the development of their manuscript.
Mary-Ellen Mullane Rot Crime Fiction
Melissa Beit The Headland YA Fiction
Charlotte Clutterbuck Shift Control Poetry Collection
Demet Divaroren The Lost Boys Novella
Leni Shilton Journey to Piltardi Verse Novel
Amanda Webster Small Discriminations Literary non- fiction
Eliza-Jane Henry-Jones Ache Literary fiction
Karina Quinn all the beginnings A queer autobiography of the body
Elizabeth Kasmer Aurora YA Fiction
Katherine Collette Grass Roots Humorous Fiction
Rebecca Poulson Killing Love Memoir
Maureen Collins Land of a Thousand Hills Historical Fiction
Bronwyn Lovell Migration SF Verse novel
Susi Fox Mine Fiction
Brooke Maggs Six Bodies of Truth Adult Speculative Fiction
Trish Bolton Stuck Crime Fiction
Margaret Morgan The Pharmacon of Charlie Zinn Science Fiction
Jo Dutton Women of Batavia Psychological thriller
Melissa Manning Written on Bark YA novel
Kyra Giorgi The Circle and the Equator and Other Stories Short Story Collection
Jonathan Hadwen All That Wasted Heat Prose poetry collection
Sandra Todorov Violent Encounters with Unclean Women Literary Fiction