Varuna the Writers' House in Katoomba, New South Wales | Community organisation

Varuna the Writers' House

Locality: Katoomba, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 4782 5674

Address: 141 Cascade St 2780 Katoomba, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.varuna.com.au

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• Community organisation
• Arts and entertainment

25.01.2022 Charmaine Ledden-Lewis is the winner of the Kestin Indigenous Illustrator Award, and Illustrator of the new book by Bruce Pascoe Found. This gloriously beautiful book tells the story of a calf who becomes separated from his family. Alone and missing his mother, sisters and brothers, he sets about seeking them out. Charmaine’s illustrations bring her own family’s experience of the stolen generations to the text, adding a layer of depth to this already touching story. For your chance to win a copy, tune into ABC Sydney’s Focus every day from 10am via ABC Listen or 702 AM, and listen out for the daily cryptic clue. Guess the Blue Mountains location and call in to win: https://buff.ly/3bzHR6D

24.01.2022 As part of our Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival broadcast giveaway, you could win a copy of Tegan Bennett Daylight’s new book The Details. This incredible book is about the connections that we form with literature, and with each other. Daylight describes how reading has nourished her life, and how life has informed her reading. She writes with invigorating candour and compassion about her mother’s last days; her own experiences of childbearing and its aftermath, and shows us ...that it is the small points of connection that really matter. Each chapter shows us that what books offer is not an escape from ‘real life’, but a richer engagement with the business of living. For your chance to win a copy, tune into ABC Sydney’s Focus every day from 10am via ABC Listen or 702 AM, and listen out for the daily cryptic clue. Guess the Blue Mountains locations and call in to win: https://buff.ly/3bzHR6D

24.01.2022 Just a shout out of thanks to the NSW Government and to the Foundation of Rural and Regional Renewal for their generous financial support for the construction of Varuna's new accessible studio. We're so grateful! And here's a sneak peek of the inside . . . almost there! #NSWgovernment #FRRR

24.01.2022 Congratulations to Kylie Boltin and Eleanor Kirk! We look forward to hosting you at Varuna.

24.01.2022 Congratulations to @katemildenhallwriter on the publication of her new book The Mother Fault which is released this month. Kate was awarded a Varuna fellowship in 2017 and worked on this novel during her residency at Varuna. #themotherfault #katemildenhallwriter

22.01.2022 Due to cancellations from Victorian writers (oh, how we hope we can see you again soon!), we have two free spots at Varuna for next week. If you're interested, please email [email protected].

21.01.2022 Do you need a week of time and space to write in the beautiful Blue Mountains of NSW? We're looking to welcome six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers from anywhere in Australia to Varuna, the National Writers' House in 2021. Fellowships include accommodation, meals, travel expenses, a one-on-one mentoring session and an optional publishing appraisal with Magabala Books. We'd love to read your submission - for more information and to apply visit: https://buff.ly/3k9p5Xm

21.01.2022 We are a proud partner of the Whitlam Institute’s What Matters? writing competition, which received over 4000 submissions from students right across Australia - wow! Join us online at 2pm tomorrow at https://bit.ly/38E0ZAT to find out who the 2020 winners are and celebrate the voices of our young people.

21.01.2022 We’re pleased to announce our second International Lamplight Residency in partnership with Write On, Door County in Wisconsin, USA. This time around you’ll have the opportunity to meet Maxine Beneba Clarke (AUS) and Kao Kalia Yang (USA) as well as have writing consultations with Varuna’s own Dr Carol Major and Chantz Erolin of Graywolf Press, USA. Only three places available! Bookings will open at 10am AEST on Friday 11 September. For full details including eligibility, visit https://www.varuna.com.au/lamplight-residency-kaokaliayang-

15.01.2022 2020 is a time like no other. Our Blue Mountains community has been tested by bushfires, floods and COVID-19. We’ve faced challenges of isolation, instability, fear for our safety and that of those we love, as well as the future of our beautiful part of the world. In these strange times, many in our community are also rethinking and reshaping the kind of world they want to live in. Varuna has been working with Blue Mountains City Council to bring you Blue Mountains Stories: A... Year Like No Other. This competition provides a wonderful opportunity to share your experiences, and there are a range of generous prizes on offer too. Entries close on 15 December 2020. Enter here: https://yoursay.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/blue-mountains-stories

14.01.2022 Welcome to Bindu Narula, Zohra Aly, Vanessa Yenson, Lesley-Anne Houghton and Supatra Gill who are participating in Patti Miller's residential memoir masterclass. As Varuna approaches its 30th birthday, we feel super grateful to writers such as Patti Miller who have been here since the very beginning. #memoir #pattimiller

13.01.2022 And just like that, the prizes given away this morning mark the end of our mini Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival for 2020. As disappointed as we are to not be able to bring you a second year of the festival, we are so grateful to ABC Sydney for their support in putting together this special broadcast. Our thanks also go to authors Tegan Bennett Daylight and Andrew Kwong, and illustrator Charmaine Ledden-Lewis for so candidly sharing their personal stories with us, and what mo...ves them to write and illustrate. Thanks to ABC Sydney presenter Cassie McCullagh, and to the Carrington Hotel for providing a spectacular recording venue, a wonderful prize - and excellent scones. Thanks to Scenic World Blue Mountains the Blue Mountains Library Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and MTNS MADE and to all the local individuals and organisations who support our creative Blue Mountains community. We can’t wait to return in 2021, and we look forward to welcoming lovers of literature like you, from the Blue Mountains and beyond.

13.01.2022 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are some of the most celebrated storytellers across the globe. If you’re a First Nations writer, we want to support your storytelling through a First Nations Fellowship. Fellowships provide you with the elusive time and space to write at Varuna, including accommodation, meals, travel expenses, a one-on-one mentoring session and an optional publishing appraisal with Magabala Books. Works of fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, childre...n's books, graphic novels, dramatic/screen writing, writing for radio, translation, essays or short fiction are all eligible, and submissions in language are warmly welcomed. More: https://buff.ly/3k9p5Xm

12.01.2022 Congratulations to Jim McIntyre on the publication of Nikolai the Perfect. The title was released in September with JTW Publishing. Jim was in residence at Varuna in 2008 and 2009 working on earlier incarnations of the novel. In 2015, the title was Runner-up in the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award.

11.01.2022 Varuna's new accessible studio is now officially open! The studio was officially opened yesterday by Shayne Mallard on behalf of the NSW Government's Arts Minister Don Harwin, with Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle and Cr Don McGregor also in attendance. We were thrilled and honoured to have local elders Chris Tobin (Darug) and David King (Gundungurra) welcome guests and hold a smoking ceremony to mark the occasion. ... Sarah-Jane Staszak, member of our Disability Inclusiveness Advisory Group gave a speech musing on what this new building means for writers around the country. We are so thankful to all those that contributed to making this vision a reality. Hearing the stories of all writers is vital, and we're thrilled that we can now accept applications from all writers, regardless of physical ability.

10.01.2022 Have you entered our Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival giveaway yet? Don’t miss out on your chance to win one of 5 Family Passes to Scenic World Blue Mountains! Scenic World continues to welcome visitors to the Blue Mountains to enjoy crisp air, epic landscapes a COVIDsafe experience. The Scenic Pass now includes all Scenic World's unique attractions: the Scenic Skyway, Scenic Railway (pictured here), the Scenic Walkway through the magical temperate rainforest of the Jamison V...alley and glide back past the Three Sisters and Orphan Rock on the Scenic Cableway. Enjoy them in a pre-approved circuit which takes roughly one hour - it's what they call the Scenic Route. Visit https://buff.ly/3bC0JBK To enter, tune into ABC Sydney’s Focus every day from 10am via ABC Listen or 702 AM, and listen out for the daily cryptic clue: https://buff.ly/3bzHR6D

10.01.2022 Congratulations to Heather Taylor-Johnson Author . Heather's novel Jean Harley was Here has just been optioned for a 7-part television series. Heather held a Longlines Mentorship back in 2007, was a the recipient of a HarperCollins Varuna Award for Manuscript Development in 2011 and received a Varuna Fellowship in 2016.

09.01.2022 Copies of Andrew Kwong’s novel One Bright Moon are up for grabs as part of our Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival giveaway. One Bright Moon tells the incredible story of Andrew’s life just seven when he witnessed his first execution in Chairman Mao’s China. From famine to freedom, the memoir describes the shift in Andrew’s life and his thinking as he lives through the Great Leap Forward before his brave journey to Australia at the age of 12 as well as what he found when he arrived. For your chance to win a copy, tune into ABC Sydney’s Focus every day from 10am via ABC Listen or 702 AM, and listen out for the daily cryptic clue. Guess the Blue Mountains location and call in to win: https://buff.ly/3bzHR6D

07.01.2022 Congratulations to Barry Lee Thompson on his new book Broken Rules and Other Stories, which will be released in September by Transit Lounge Publishing . Barry worked on this book at Varuna in 2016 as part of our Publisher Introduction Program. You can hear Barry chat about this new work in the Readings online event space on Monday 14 September at 6.30pm. For more info go here: https://buff.ly/321bqts

03.01.2022 Would you love to spend a weekend at Katoomba’s iconic Carrington Hotel? A two-night stay could be yours with our Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival giveaway, in partnership with ABC Sydney. Restored to its former grandeur, this heritage listed hotel offers all the elegance, character charm of yesteryear. The Carrington is the perfect destination for a getaway, a convenient base from which to explore the Blue Mountains or the perfect place to curl up and read the books of our... three Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival authors. Read more about the Carrington: https://buff.ly/3i5qgFX To enter, tune into ABC Sydney’s Focus every day from 10am via ABC Listen or 702 AM, and listen out for the daily cryptic clue. Guess the Blue Mountains location to go in the running: https://buff.ly/3bzHR6D

02.01.2022 Congratulations to Tim McGuire, the 2021 recipient of the Ray Koppe/ASA Young Writer’s Fellowship! Each year, the Australian Society of Authors awards a two-week residential fellowship to a writer under the age of 35 who is as yet unpublished. Tim has taken out our 2021 residency with his historical fiction, Game Farm. Game Farm is a creative re-imagining of one of Australia’s first emu farms, set in 1996. It’s a literary suspense novel, exploring how external pressures on the farm amplify the personal struggles of the characters who inhabit it, and vice versa. We're looking forward to welcoming Tim to Varuna in 2021.

01.01.2022 We’re so excited to be bringing you our special Blue Mountains Writer’s Festival broadcast tomorrow morning at 10am. Here is a sneak peek of the recording, fireside at the glorious Carrington Hotel. ABC Sydney’s Cassie McCullagh chatted with authors Tegan Bennett Daylight, Andrew Kwong and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis about their new books and their individual approaches to writing, and in Charmaine’s case, illustrating their stories. Tune in here on our Facebook page or at 702 ABC Sydney at to hear the full broadcast.

01.01.2022 We are pleased to announce that the 2021 Henry Handel Richardson Flagship Fellowship recipient is author Laurie Steed! You might recognise Laurie from his 2018 novel You Belong Here, but this Fellowship, offered in partnership with the Henry Handel Richardson Society, is awarded to encourage the craft of short story writing. Laurie will join us to work on his short story collection Nova Stories. In nineteen narratives, Nova moves gently amongst the lost, lonely and afraid a...s they slowly, and sometimes awkwardly, find faith and resilience. Congratulations!