2023 Varuna Fellowships announced
Varuna at Night
Congratulations to the writers who have been awarded a Varuna Residential Fellowship for 2023.
This year, we received our largest ever number of applications: 446 submissions, from writers at all stages of their writing lives. Varuna is delighted to announce the 31 Fellowship winners, including eight Flagship Fellowship recipients.
Assessment was a highly competitive process. Each applicant’s submission and proposal was read by peer assessors, on the basis of criteria that included both the artistic merit of the work and its potential for further development. All applications were read by at least two assessors, and assessors did not review manuscripts where any potential conflict of interest was identified.
Our Varuna alumni peer assessors were: Alice Robinson, Lee Kofman, Leni Shilton, Mary Anne Butler, Melanie Saward, Omar Sakr and Tobias McCorkell.
Thank you to all the writers who submitted their work for consideration this year.
2023 FLAGSHIP FELLOWSHIPS
The Eleanor Dark Fellowship is awarded to Angela O'Keeffe for their literary fiction work The Tender Space.
The Eric Dark Fellowship is awarded to Fiona Wright for their essay collection Our Constellations.
The First Nations Fellowship is awarded to Ali Eckermann for their historical fiction work Kali.
The Mick Dark Fellowship is awarded to Nicole Hasham for their narrative non-fiction work What the Mountains Remember.
The Poetry Fellowship is awarded to David Stavanger for their poetry collection The Drop Off.
The Ray Koppe Fellowship is awarded to Aaliyah Sugitha for their memoir Somatic.
The Jerra Fellowship is awarded to Shannon Anima for their memoir The Furnaces.
The Henry Handel Richardson Award is awarded to Catherine Deery for their short story collection Haphazard.
2023 VARUNA RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIPS
Nicole Baird for their speculative fiction work The Sea Under the Stars.
Carrie Cox for their women's fiction work Retreat.
Katya Dibb for their young adult fiction Afterimage.
Christine Evans for their speculative fiction work River & Maude.
Lisa Fuller for their children's work Washpool.
Geoffrey Gates for their literary fiction work The Phantom Surrealist.
Alison Gorman for their poetry collection Say Something.
Brendan Gullifer for their historical fiction work The Killing Logic.
Maya Hodge for their poetry collection Time Melts and Meets in the Middle.
Sandra Hogan for their memoir Escape Artist.
Eleanor Limprecht for their memoir Eye Teeth.
Amanda Maxwell for their literary fiction work Island of Joy.
Kienan McKay for their young adult fiction Cocoon.
Rachael Morgan for their women's fiction work Disgraceful.
Anne Myers for their memoir The Little Ones.
Arty Owens for their children's work The Junking.
Luke Patterson for their poetry collection TEK.
Brenda Saunders for their poetry collection My Boomerang Never Came Back.
Christina Soong for their screenplay Tiger Mum for Hire.
Marion Taffe for their historical fiction work Freida.
Sarah Walker for their literary fiction work The Water Takes.
Hanne Watkins for their crime fiction work IKEA Story.
Julie Weatherburn for their memoir Mumbling Under Water.