2025 Climate Fellowship at Varuna, The National Writers' House
In 2025, we were delighted to once again support the innovative Climate Fellowship at Varuna the National Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains of Australia. As an organisation, Varuna has always had interest in and commitment to the environment, including a longstanding partnership with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, and is undertaking ongoing work to future-proof property, reduce waste and become carbon positive. The annual Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival always incorporates climate writing, culminating in the Mick Dark Talk for the Future, an environmentally focused keynote address. It is Varuna’s hope that this fellowship furthers their connection to the important work being done in this field.
Below is an extract from Varuna’s report on the fellowship:
” The 2025 Climate Change Fellowship saw an incredible 53 writers apply to stay at Varuna, many of whom had never applied before. The fellowship offered writers focused on projects related to climate change and the environment a week-long residency at Varuna, offering time and space to write, as well as the opportunity to network and connect with others working across literature, academia, journalism, grassroots organising and activism.
The program also included an online roundtable with co-founders and co-editors of Science Write Now, Dr Jessica White and Dr Amanda Niehaus, covering climate science, writing, and publishing nationally and internationally.
The program assessors – Bianca Nogrady and Jessica White – were impressed by the quality of writing and diversity of form, focus and writing style, selecting six recipients. The Fellowship week took place in September 2025, and the engaged, collegiate and collaborative environment was notable. Several writers also booked in for mentor conversations with Dr Carol Major, Mary Anne Butler or Tegan Bennett Daylight. On the Thursday evening, a dinner with writers, staff and donors allowed for further rich conversation and included the sharing by all six fellowship recipients of their work in progress.”
2025 Fellowship Recipients:
Cynthia Banham is a writer, lawyer and habitat gardener. She spent two decades in Canberra, working as a journalist in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery, later completing a PhD in Regulation, Justice & Diplomacy at the ANU. Returning to Sydney, she became immersed in restoring her garden into a wilder place of refuge for frogs, lizards, insects and small birds. For this, she completed a horticulture certificate and commenced a Bachelor of Biodiversity and Conservation. She is the author of three non-fiction books. A Certain Light: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Hope was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Her latest, Mother Shadow: A Meditation on Maternal Inheritance, will be published by Upswell in 2026.
Jo Chandler is an award-winning freelance journalist, author, editor and journalism educator. Her focus is on explanatory, boots-on-the-ground reporting exploring issues including the science and impacts of global heating. She has filed from Africa, Australia, Antarctica, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea. She has earned numerous distinctions including the 2023 Australia Museum Eureka Prize for Science journalism and two Walkley awards. Formerly a senior staffer at The Age, her work has featured in Nature, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Yale Environment 360,The Lancet, The Monthly, Griffith Review and ABC Radio National and among others. She is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Advancing Journalism and a member of the University of Melbourne Climate Futures network. She is the author of a book on climate science Feeling The Heat. Lauren Fuge is a writer who lives and works on Kaurna Country.
Lauren Fuge is a writer who lives and works on Kaurna Country. She’s currently undertaking a PhD exploring storytelling and the climate crisis, as well as organising with grassroots community and climate groups. She previously worked as a science journalist; her work has won the 2023 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards (magazine category) and the 2022 UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing. Her book, Voyagers: Our Journey into the Anthropocene, was published by Text in 2024.
Lesley Head is a geographer who researches the cultural dimensions of environmental issues including climate change. Her latest book is Beyond Green. The social life of Australian nature (MUP 2025), a draft extract from which was shortlisted for The Nature Conservancy’s 2023 Nature Writing Prize. Earlier books include Plants: Past, Present and Future (with Zena Cumpston and Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Thames and Hudson First Knowledges series 2022) and Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene (Routledge 2016). Lesley is Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne. Her service roles include the Board of Climate for Change (an NGO focused on helping people have effective conversations about climate change, and translate this to political action), the Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and the Australian Council of Learned Academies Steering Committee for the Australian Energy Transition Research Plan.
Patrick Lau is a journalist who writes on the intersection of business and environment, particularly climate change. He has written as a staff writer, stringer and freelancer, reporting on policy and politics, science and technology, law and regulation, economics and business operations, and specialises in translating complex, technical material into accessible, audience-appropriate narratives for consumer titles. Alongside journalism, Patrick maintains a sideline in arts and cultural criticism focused on climate, environment and energy (patricksclips.contently.com). His work is informed by a historical materialist understanding of climate change, and by a Master’s of Sustainability (University of Sydney, 2020–22), which he integrates reporting through lenses such as industrial ecology, political economy, and material systems.
Dani Netherclift is a poet and essayist living and writing on unceded Taungurung Country. Her first book, Vessel: The Shape of Absent Bodies was published in Australia by Upswell in 2024 and is forthcoming with Assembly Press in North America in 2026. Her shorter essays and poetry have been widely published and awarded, commended, long and shortlisted.
Feedback from the recipients included the following:
“I initially felt a little imposter syndrome, considering the experience, credentials, and capabilities of the other Fellows. But having exposure to a working environment with a group of writers working in my field, who have and are working at such a high level, has been enormously helpful professionally, and encouraged me to continue to improve my own work and to seek out further opportunities for professional and creative networking. This was my first experience working with a group like this, or in a setting like this, and it’s been beneficial beyond what I could have imagined.” Patrick Lau
“It is difficult to express just how deeply grateful I am for the inclusive environment of Varuna, it is unlike anywhere I have experienced in the writing world, a real exemplar. I thoroughly enjoyed the space this week gave me to work on my writing, and for the opportunities it gave me to get to know other writers working on a related theme. It was a lovely group of writers.” Cynthia Banham
“What to say about a magical place like Varuna? Except that it draws its magic into you as a person and a writer. The birdsong and mist, the spring flowers and the smell of the air, the spread of white cockatoo’s wings flying past, the king parrot tail feathers in a row of three above the bay window-these are ingredients that have embedded themselves into my writing as well as my memory. So there are these things, a room of one’s own beyond compare, but also the quality of companionship in the evenings, over dinner and after. The conversations and laughs will stay with me. My hour with Tegan was also wonderful — warm, insightful and I went away with tips I will be able to use in my work in progress. What an enormous privilege! Thank you forever to Mick Dark for this gift, Dionne for the repast, and the hardworking team and board who keep all the balls in the air. Thanks for the magic.” Dani Netherclift.
This was my second time at Varuna, a cherished opportunity to escape (most) of the daily or day job grind and think deeply, share ideas and challenges with fellow travellers, and hopefully find words or shapes for stories trying to fight their way to the surface. The kindness and care of the Varuna team – thank you Veechi and Jaala – was above and beyond.” Jo Chandler.
