The 2023 Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
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Inaugurated in 2019, the Fellowship is open to all writers, at any stage of their career, either currently living in the New England region or who have previously lived there for at least five years.
The Varuna-NEWC Fellowship offers a week's inspirational writing residency in the beautiful surroundings of Varuna, in the Blue Mountains, and includes full board and accommodation at Varuna, funds towards travel, a one-on-one consultation with a Varuna expert and more. |
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Read 2021 Fellowship winner, James O'Hanlon's report from his Residency
Read 2022 Fellowship winner, Anne Greenwood's report from her Residency
Read 2022 Fellowship winner, Anne Greenwood's report from her Residency
Congratulations to our 2023 winner
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Matt is a dad, husband, writer and environmental scientist. He grew up on a farm in northern NSW and now lives with his amazingly patient wife and children in a completely different part of northern NSW. He writes speculative fiction and his work has appeared in Nature Futures, The NoSleep Podcast, Daily Science Fiction, Cossmass Infinities, Cast of Wonders, Etherea Magazine, and other places. He is the recipient of the 2021 Australian Shadows Award for short fiction, and is a twice-over finalist for both the Ditmar and Aurealis Awards. He won the 2022 Conflux Short Story Competition and the 2022 Arcanist Magazine Halloween Flash Fiction Competition, and has received honourable mentions or commendations in other fiction competitions. He is an academic in his other life, and researches pollution, data science, and environmental sustainability.
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You can find his sporadic attempts at humour on twitter @MKTighewrites and other info at https://matttighe.weebly.com/ (including a cool picture his son drew of his father’s brain).
Download a copy of the press release.
| Varuna-NEWC Fellowship 2023 winners announcement press release |
Thank you to our 2023 shortlisted writer, Rachel
Congratulations on making the shortlist, and best wishes for your ongoing projects.
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Rachel Bowman is a narrative non-fiction writer who writes to make sense of the world—but ultimately wants to tell a great yarn. She was an award-winning rural journalist before moving into agricultural communications and public relations. She fell in love with newspapers on a school visit to the Inverell Times and while doing work experience on the Glen Innes Examiner. She now runs Seedbed Media, a specialist agricultural communications consultancy.
Her family has lived in the New England region for six generations. She grew up on a property on the traditional lands of the Ngoorabul people in the chilly but beautiful northern tablelands near Glen Innes. This gave her a deep love of the land and belief in nature’s intrinsic power to lift the spirits, ground the body and sooth the soul. |
She is a recent graduate of the acclaimed Faber Academy Writing a Novel course and has written two historical manuscripts set in Western Australia, Cornwall and Victoria. Rachel is completing a PhD on farmers and climate change. She continues to live with one foot in the country and the other in the city and is an advocate for strengthening ties and understanding between the two.
Key dates for 2023
Applications for the 2023 Varuna-New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship opened Monday 7 August and closed Friday 8 September, 2023.
A panel of New England Writers' Centre assessors established a shortlist, and Varuna made the final choice between the shortlisted entries.
The winner was announced on Monday 9 October 2023.
The Varuna-New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship can be taken from Monday to Monday between January and July 2024, exact date to be negotiated between the recipient and Varuna.
Applications for the 2023 Varuna-New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship opened Monday 7 August and closed Friday 8 September, 2023.
A panel of New England Writers' Centre assessors established a shortlist, and Varuna made the final choice between the shortlisted entries.
The winner was announced on Monday 9 October 2023.
The Varuna-New England Writers’ Centre Fellowship can be taken from Monday to Monday between January and July 2024, exact date to be negotiated between the recipient and Varuna.