Following a call for applications from writers and former residents of Cove Park, the 2025 residency at Varuna – The National Writers’ House of Australia has been awarded to the Glasgow-based poet and interdisciplinary artist Sean Wai Keung.

Sean will travel to Australia in the autumn of 2025 for a month-long residency and the opportunity to take part in the Blue Mountain’s Writers’ Festival. We are delighted to share this news, and know the residency will be a wonderful experience.

Cove Park will welcome the writer, and former Varuna resident, Brooke Robinson in the summer this year. Brooke will take part in the Wigtown Book Festival during her time in Scotland, and we are pleased to be working with this wonderful festival for the first time.

This exchange programme was launched in 2019 to create new international opportunities for writers connected to both organisations. To date, and with support from The Bridge Awards, we have organised three one-month residencies in Australia awarded to the writers and former Cove Park residents Jan Carson, Victoria Mackenzie, and Nicola White, and three one-month residencies in Scotland for former Varuna residents Roanna Gonsalves, Leah Kaminsky, and Jeanine Leane.

We are grateful to The Bridge Awards for their ongoing support of this residency.