The Sweatshop Writers Group is an ensemble of emerging and established writers and artists who meet fortnightly to develop critical and creative writing for various artistic outcomes. The fortnightly workshops are held at I.C.E, Parramatta and are facilitated by award-winning author and Sweatshop founding director, Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Workshops are open to people from Indigenous and non-English speaking backgrounds. Contact us for more information.

The Sweatshop Women Collective is an ongoing initiative which provides exclusive mentoring, training and employment in creative writing for women from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The collective meets once a fortnight at I.C.E, Parramatta to participate in a workshop facilitated by editor and Sweatshop general manager, Winnie Dunn. Workshops are open to women from Indigenous and non-English speaking backgrounds. Contact us for more information.

Sweatshop’s diverse and skilled collective of writers facilitate creative writing and reading workshops and residencies in schools throughout Australia. These workshops are designed to support primary and secondary school students to critically engage in a diverse range of texts and develop their own creative and academic writing skills. Workshops result in a range of outcomes for participants, including publications, literary videos, performances and readings. Contact us if you would like Sweatshop to run a workshop or residency in your school.

Sweatshop proudly produces an exciting catalogue of publications each year which showcase new Australian stories by writers from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. You can check out a list of all our publications, read samples, and purchase copies here.

Sweatshop produces a showcase of performances and readings each year which support and celebrate the oral storytelling traditions of Australian writers from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. You can keep updated on all our upcoming Sweatshop performances by following us on Facebook and Twitter.

Sweatshop has joined forces with one of Australia’s fastest-growing publishers, Affirm Press, to run a mentorship which will enable Sweatshop writers to develop their debut novels. The two writers who have been selected for the first round of Affirm Press Mentorships are Vietnamese-Australian writer from Yagoona, Shirley Le, whose short stories and essays have appeared in The Lifted Brow, SBS Life and Meanjin; and Palestinian-Australian Muslim poet from Bankstown, Sara Saleh, editor of Arab, Australian Other. Affirm Press is an award-winning publisher based in Melbourne which is committed to publishing books that ‘influence by delight’. Discover more about Affirm Press. Contact us for more information.

SBS Voices is an online platform devoted to contributing a raft of diverse viewpoints on national and international conversations. As part of that commitment, they entered into a formal partnership with Sweatshop in 2018 to support our ever-growing ensemble of writers. Sweatshop provides editorial support and mentoring for each writer in the lead up to publication on the site. Contact us to pitch an article for SBS Voices.

StoryCasters is a training hub for future citizen journalists and digital producers. Training in film, music production, podcasting and writing gives the tools needed to cover all things arts, media, and diversity. Diversity Arts Australia has partnered with Sweatshop to deliver the writing component of this initiative. Sweatshop General Manager, Winnie Dunn and Creative Producer, Shirley Le are the co-facilitators of the StoryCasters writers program, which will see fifteen writers undergo paid training in article and essay writing over a 12-month period. Contact us for more information.