We are pleased to announce the six writers who will come to Varuna for a week-long residency in 2027, Varuna Sweatshop Residency, presented in partnership with Sweatshop Literacy Movement and made possible with support from Create NSW via the Western Sydney Strategic Partnerships Fund.
Sweatshop Literacy Movement provides research, training, mentoring and employment opportunities for emerging and established writers and arts practitioners from Indigenous and non-English speaking backgrounds.
Congratulations to Sarah Ayoub, Sheree Joseph, Mirela Cufurovic, Adam Novaldy Anderson, Lieu Chi Nguyen and Yasir Elgamil, who were selected by Sweatshop to develop their works-in-progress at Varuna.
We look forward to welcoming the six recipients during their one-week residency with us from 12-19 April 2027. During the fellowship week, Sweatshop will offer a writing workshop for the local community, and the writers-in-residence will share their work in an evening salon in the Varuna Reading Room.
Dr Sarah Ayoub
Dr Sarah Ayoub is a freelance journalist, bestselling author and academic based in Sydney, Australia. Her bylines have appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Marie-Claire, ELLE, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin and more, and she regularly appears at many of Australia's major literary festivals.
She is the author of three teen novels, including the Inky-longlisted The Yearbook Committee, and four children's picture books, including The Love That Grew and How to Be a Friend. She holds a PhD in ethnic teen literature, is a sessional academic at the University of Sydney and sits on the board of the Australian Society of Authors.
Mirela Cufurovic
Mirela Cufurovic is a writer, editor and historian. She is the book reviews editor for History Australia and the founding editor for The Australian Muslim Review. She is part of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement and previously sat on the board for The Suburban Review. Her creative work has been published in Griffith Review, Sudo Journal, and Mona Magazine.
Her academic work has been published in Studies in Oral History, Public History Review, and The Australian Journal of Islamic Studies. Mirela also spends her time in conversation with Australian authors and historians about their writing lives on Instagram as part of Tea Time with Mirela.
Yasir Elgamil
Yasir Elgamil is an author, literary critic and researcher. Raised between Sudan and Dharug Country (Sydney), he currently resides and writes in the latter. He is an English graduate of the University of Sydney with First Class Honours, and a recipient of the Dame Leonie Kramer Prize in Australian Poetry (2025) for his graduate thesis. As an ongoing collaborator with Sweatshop Literacy Movement, Yasir's short stories have been published in Povo (2023) and Love (2025).
Sheree Joseph
Sheree Joseph is an award-winning Arab-Australian writer living on the unceded lands of the Darug People in Western Sydney. She was the managing editor of The Vocal, an award-nominated solutions journalism publication at Fairfax. Her work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC, SBS, Overland, RUSSH, Vogue, Junkee and The Everywoman. As a core member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement, Sheree has published her fiction in Sweatshop Women (2020) and Love (2025). Juicy is her debut book.
Lieu Chi Nguyen
Lieu Chi Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian doctor-writer, interdisciplinary doctoral candidate and since 2017, a member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement, having been mentored by Dr Micheal Mohammed Ahmad and Winnie Dunn. Her short fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in SBS Voices, Mascara Literary Review, Kill Your Darlings and various anthologies such as This Little Red Thing (Sweatshop 2019), Sweatshop Women (Sweatshop 2019 and 2020), Heroines: An Anthology of Short Fiction and Poetry: Volume 3 (Neo Perennial Press 2020) and Love (Sweatshop 2025). She has been shortlisted for the RUSSH Magazine Literary Showcase 2026 and the 2020 Heroines Women’s Writing Prize.
Adam Novaldy Anderson
Adam Novaldy Anderson is a mixed-race Australian-Indonesian writer and activist. He grew up on Gomeroi land in Tamworth, and is currently based out of Bankstown, Dharug land, in Sydney’s south-west. Adam’s short stories and essays have appeared in various anthologies and publications. He is the editor of Povo (Sweatshop, 2024).
