Weekend Writer's Resident 2026 - Mark Mariano

Mark Mariano is an award-winning Filipino writer, model, comedian and content creator from Blacktown, in western Sydney, on Darug land. Proudly queer, Mark’s editorial work spans across BuzzFeed Australia, SBS FOOD, ABC, Queerstories and iHeartRadio. He is also part of the Sweatshop Western Sydney Literacy Movement, through which his debut poem collection ‘Down From Doonside Station’ was published in 2019, and where he contributed to their 'Racism' (2021) and 'Stories Out West' (2023) anthologies.

He was a highly commended shortlistee for the 2021 Deakin University Non-Fiction Prize with his short story collection 'walong paruparo (eight butterflies)', and was later commissioned by Blacktown Arts to co-develop ‘Hanap’ - a play written with Rizcel Gagawanan. In 2023, Mark appeared as a lead actor and model in ACON's With Love Sydney WorldPride campaign, and panelled on Channel 10’s The Project, where he discussed body image with The Biggest Loser’s Michelle Bridges.

In 2024, Mark placed second in iHeartRadio's national storytelling podcast competition ‘Find and Tell', which later won Best New Podcast at the Australian Podcast Awards. He also co-wrote the 'Westerners' TV pilot for ABC's Fresh Blood comedy program, and was named one of Out For Australia’s 30 Under 30 award winners. In 2025, he appeared on ‘Tell Me What You Really Think’ with Marc Fennell; his clip from the show went viral across SBS’ platform. He wrapped 2025 as the cover model of Sweatshop’s ‘LOVE’ (2025) anthology, where he is also a featured writer.

Weekend Writer's Resident 2026 - Elizabeth Mora

Elizabeth Mora (she/her) is an educator, self-taught creative, and emerging multilingual writer living on Bidjigal land and working across Western Sydney. A first-generation immigrant and descendant of Ecuadorian and Latin American diasporas across the Global North, her work traces indirect paths to community, belonging, and freedom.

Her current project, Arrarau – A Dictionary of Words Spoken by Mami, is a poetic catalogue of colloquial expressions spoken by the local Ecuadorian diaspora. Inspired by Yumna Kassab’s Parramatta Dictionary, the project reimagines everyday speech as a living archive shaped by identity, memory and place. By centring the voices of Ecuadorian mothers and matriarchs, Elizabeth explores language as a site of negotiation and defiance. Here, diasporic identities take shape, strength, and solidarity.

Elizabeth is a recipient of Our North is the South, a creative writing fellowship supported by Sweatshop Literacy Movement and Fairfield City Council and led by Uruguayan–Australian writer Natalia Figueroa Barroso. Her writing has been published in Chat Magazine (Cáceres, Spain), Sangre Migrante, the Australian Multilingual Writing Project and the University of Sydney student media.

She also writes Shungo, a personal newsletter on Substack

Weekend Writer's Resident 2026 - Neel Banerjee

Neel Banerjee is an intercultural theatre practitioner based in Sydney, Australia. An emerging creative leader in Western Sydney, Neel was born and raised in India and now resides on Dharug land as a proud first-generation settler. His work spans cultural development, audience engagement, community capacity building, education, and training, all rooted in the transformative power of live theatre. 

Working extensively with culturally and linguistically diverse actors, creatives, and audiences, Neel’s creative process merges the personal and political with ritualistic and physical theatre. His approach to theatre development emphasises collaboration and interrelation, fostering meaningful connections across cultures and communities. 

As the driving force behind Nautanki Theatre Co., Neel has, over the past decade, established a powerful platform validating the South Asian diasporic experience in Australia. His leadership has brought untold stories to the stage while championing South Asian theatre aesthetics and their role in addressing community issues. 

Weekend Writer's Resident 2026 - Mersija Ilic

Meet Weekend Writer's Resident 2026 - Mersija Ilic

Mersija Ilic is an emerging writer who lives and works in the South -Western Sydney suburb of Campbelltown, NSW.  

She is from a bilingual and bicultural background, and this weaves its way through her storytelling. In her writing, Mersija explores the issues faced by women when confronted with domestic violence, lack of education and fear. What fascinates her most is understanding this journey and uncovering the strength and resolve needed to survive such adversity.  Her short story The Shotgun was shortlisted for the EM Fletcher Award in 2021 and was published in the FHACT publication Every Family has a Story.  

In 2023 two of her short stories were longlisted – The Stroke of the Pencil in the Sydney Hammond Prize and A Redfern Tapestry in the Lane Cove Literary Prize. In 2024, Mersija was accepted into the Westwords Academy Program and in 2025, she was longlisted in the Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.  

Mersija is working on a memoir based on her mother’s life - a woman growing up in a village in the Bosnian hinterlands in the mid twentieth century. Her mother’s story is contrasted with her own experience of growing up as a migrant child in Redfern in the 1970’s and her return to Yugoslavia as a fourteen-year-old in the early 1980’s.  

Mersija believes that each one of us has a story worth telling and that our power to survive and to create a better world for future generations lies in the sharing of that story.