New Zealand’s National Writer-residency Organisation Announces Its 2025 International Residency With Australia

The Michael King Writers Centre in association with Varuna, The National Writers’ House in Katoomba, NSW, Australia is pleased to announce for the fourth time, a residency in Australia for New Zealand writers.

The writer awarded the residency will receive return flights to Sydney, four weeks accommodation and meals at Varuna and the opportunity to appear at the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival. The residency is from 20 October – 17 November 2025.

Applications open Tuesday 11 March and close Monday 31 March 2025. For the application form and more details see: https://writerscentre.org.nz/application-varuna-australia-residency-2025/

WHO CAN APPLY?

* We actively seek and encourage all writers - diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective - to apply.

* The residency is open to mid-career or established writers who have had a book published in the last two years.

An Australian writer will be selected to hold the reciprocal residency for four weeks in October at the Michael King Writers Centre in Auckland.

This International Writers Residency Programme is a partnership between the Michael King Writers Centre, Varuna the National Writers’ House of Australia and the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival, Katoomba.

Chair of the Board of Trustees, Mel Winder says ‘The Michael King Writers Centre Trust is incredibly proud of the relationship we have with Varuna House. To enable a New Zealand writer to have the opportunity to focus completely on their writing and appear at the Blue Mountain Writer’s Festival is very special, as is the opportunity for us to host an Australian writer at the Signalman’s house in Devonport’.

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