Weekend Writers’ Residency 2026

Weekend Writers’ Residency 2026

Introducing Our TDTF Writers’ Residency Lead Writer for 2026

Amani Haydar is an author, visual artist, and advocate for women’s health and safety based on Dharug land. Amani’s ground-breaking feminist memoir The Mother Wound (Pan Macmillan, 2021) explores the effects of domestic abuse and state-sanctioned violence on women and has received several awards including the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2022 Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. The Mother Wound has recently been translated into Arabic, allowing audiences worldwide to engage with the Arab-Australian experience. Amani’s writing has also been featured in anthologies including Admissions: Voices within Mental Health (Upswell), Another Australia (Affirm Press), Racism (Sweatshop) and Arab Australian Other (Pan Macmillan).  As an active visual artist and former Archibald Prize finalist, Amani collaborates with communities and community organisations to deliver multidisciplinary storytelling workshops for people from migrant backgrounds. Amani’s illustration work has been featured in publications like The Very Best Doughnut by Randa Abdel-Fattah and Safar by Sarah Malik.

Shape, Write, and Grow Together - Apply for the TDTF Writers’ Residency 2026

Are you a writer from Greater Western Sydney who wants to grow your craft and connect with others? We’re looking for writers to join the Think+DO Tank Foundation’s Weekend Writers’ Residency 2026, a six-month creative program led by our Literary Lead.

We envision this as a space for community, conversation, and making art. We want to make the writing road a little less lonely, and more accessible. There will be regular opportunities for our resident writers to perform, publish or engage in our other programs, and we’ll have special guest appearances from other authors to provide you with plenty of tips and inspiration to keep going.

Program summary:

• 4 writers offered a five-month residency held fortnightly on Saturday afternoons from late January to late June 2026 at Think+DO Tank Foundation’s Community House in Fairfield

• Creative guidance and mentorship from the Literary Program Lead

• Opportunities to share your work in a supportive environment — online, onsite, and at a public event

• The chance to connect with other writers and our wider community

Apply Today! The deadline for applications is 11:59pm on Monday 1 December 2025.

How to apply

Send us a writing sample of no more than five pages of the work you would like to develop during the residency. It can be in languages other than English.

Include a cover letter of no more than two pages explaining your project, why you would like to participate in the residency, and your writing experience. This document needs to be in English.

*During the residency, participants are encouraged to write in their language of choice, but they must have basic English skills to communicate with their peers. The TDTF will arrange for texts in other languages to be reviewed by bilingual peers.

If you’re just coming across this now, we still encourage you to submit an application so we can assess, on an ongoing basis, how much interest there is and whether we can offer more spots.

What We’re Exploring

We’re seeking bold, imaginative, and grounded approaches to topics such as:

• Multilingual and multicultural literary creation

• Translation as a creative practice

• Diasporic literatures and South–South dialogues

• Writing for social and environmental justice

• Blurring and expanding genre boundaries, especially in non-fiction

• And other emerging or yet-to-be-discovered themes

MEET OUR 2025 WRITERS IN RESIDENCE