Varuna announces 2026 residential fellowships

Varuna, the National Writers’ House has announced the recipients of its residential fellowships for 2026, including twelve flagship fellowship recipients.

The writers and their projects are:

Blue Mountains fellowship

• Fiona Murphy for her short story collection ‘On the Edge of Meaning’

Carer’s fellowship

• Peggy Frew for her poetry collection ‘Blood Orange’

Eleanor Dark fellowship

• Matthew Crowe for his short story collection ‘Small Confessions’

Eric Dark fellowship

• Patricia Pender for her work of narrative non-fiction ‘Turn It Up to Eleven’

Fowler Trust fellowships for genre fiction

• Rose Hartley for her novel ‘Casharama’
• Kate Leaver for her novel ‘ROMP’
• Helen Thurloe for her work of historical fiction ‘The Fourteenth Wife’
• Jan Twomey for her crime fiction novel ‘The Hand of Justice’

Jerra Studio fellowship for writers with disability

• Aimee Knight for her work of narrative non-fiction ‘Heart of Felt: How Jim Henson’s Muppets Taught Me to Be a Person’

Jill Dark fellowship

• Ju Bavyka for their narrative non-fiction work ‘Just a Hand’s Reach Away – Rukoi Podat’

Mick Dark fellowship

• Soph Fitzgerald for their novel ‘The Conceit’

Ray Koppe ASA young writers fellowship

• Casey Keogh for her fantasy novel ‘The Break of Light’

Roderick Centre fellowships for remote and regional writers

• Ben Langdon for his crime fiction novel ‘Harlow’
• Pekeri Ruska for her essay collection ‘Quandamooka Sovereignty Never Ceded’
• Joseph Schwarzkopf for his poetry collection ‘Almost Home’

Varuna First Nations fellowship

• Michelle Hyde for her novel ‘Grace’

Varuna poetry fellowship

• Debbie Lim for her poetry collection ‘The Precipitation Box’

Residential fellowships

• Jada Alberts for their play ‘Black Light’
• Sharlene Allsopp for her novel ‘Through a Glass, Darkly’
• Wen Yee Ang for her young adult fiction ‘Daughter of Time’
• Clare Atkins for her work of historical fiction ‘Red Yellow Green’
• Timmah Bell for her collection of essays ‘From the Inside Out’
• Benjamin Cook for his novel ‘Let Your Body Guide You’
• John Davies for his young adult fiction ‘The Outrageously Fabulous World of Terry Logan’
• Else Fitzgerarld for her work of fiction ‘A Year of Fridays’
• Angela Gardner for her poetry collection ‘The Snowy’
• Rose Hunter for her memoir ‘The Afterdream’
• Margrete Lamond for her novel ‘These Bones Are Made of Sticks and Stones’
• Astrid Lorange for her novel ‘Headache’
• Kathryn Millard for her screenplay ‘Cossington: A Film-To-Be’
• Kim Rackham for her children’s book ‘Class Captain’
• Rajith Savanadasa for his novel ‘In Person’
• Sophia Somerville for her memoir ‘Things People Say’
• Amanda Jayne Stewart for their novel ‘Through the Lantana’
• Eli Sutherland for their fantasy novel ‘No One Without the Other’
• Brigitte Trenear for her novel ‘My Name is a House’
• Jayne Tuttle for her novel ‘In the Toy House’
• Victor Guan Yi Zhou for his novel ‘Sofian’

Varuna received 541 submissions from writers at all stages of their writing careers and has released a list of 35 highly commended writers and their projects on its website.

The Varuna peer assessors were Luke Carman, Roanna Gonsalves, Toni Jordan, Cheryl Leavy, Siang Lu, Jasmin McGaughey, Mark O’Flynn, Shaun Prescott and Beejay Silcox.

Category: Awards Local news