Sweatshop Hachette scholarship recipients announced

Katie Shammas and Mark Mariano have been named the inaugural recipients of the Sweatshop Hachette Australia Scholarship.

Announced earlier this year, the annual scholarship program is for two First Nations and/or culturally and linguistically diverse writers, providing support to the successful applicants “with the aim of possible publication”, alongside a $2000 prize.

Through the program, Shammas and Mariano are set to work with Hachette editors Claudia Fletcher and Annie Zhang and head of nonfiction and literary Vanessa Radnidge to develop their writing, alongside Sweatshop founding director Michael Mohammed Ahmad and general manager Winnie Dunn.

Shammas is from the Galilee, Palestine, living on Darug Country in north-west Sydney. A member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and Arab Theatre Studio, Shammas has had writing published in Love (Sweatshop, 2025), Overland, Meanjin, Povo (Sweatshop, 2024), kindling & sage, Red Room Poetry and Going Down Swinging.

Mariano is a Filipino writer, speaker and content creator from Doonside, on Darug Country. He is also a member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and has been published in A Sweatshop in a Red Room (Red Room Poetry, 2019), Racism (Sweatshop, 2021), Stories Out West (ACON/Sweatshop, 2023) and Love (Sweatshop, 2025). He was a highly commended shortlistee for the 2021 Deakin University Nonfiction Prize.

Shammas said, “Writing in community in a time of genocide is my strength and my resistance. While writers and libraries are obliterated across Palestine and Lebanon, the birthplaces of my grandmothers, it is my duty to use whatever skill I have to fight back. That Sweatshop and Hachette see something in my skill is humbling and overwhelming.

“I hope to write with equal measures of love and fury. I hope to make my ancestors and family proud, and with sweat and tears perhaps add to the growing body of glorious work by other Palestinian writers on this continent who refuse erasure.”

Mariano said, “Sweatshop has been a pillar in my writing journey since I joined in 2019, so to continue it with them through this program feels like the first day at uni with my high school bestie by my side. I’m keen to both strengthen my writing toolkit and flex what I’ve learned these last few years.

“Hachette Australia is a powerhouse of a publisher, particularly for marginalised voices, so I know the world of ‘Love Sized’ – my contribution to Sweatshop’s Love anthology – is safe and sound with my mentor.

“I’m so excited to keep building out this book concept and smash out some chapters and continue telling this story for my fellow fatties, Filos, Westies and queers alike.

“Writing can feel very lonely and isolating sometimes, so I’m grateful for the community I have in Sweatshop and the one I’ll tap into working with Hachette Australia.”

Hachette CEO Louise Stark said, “Developing this partnership with Sweatshop is about supporting the next generation of great Australian writing, and we can already see the talent that Katie and Mark share. They are such deserving recipients, and I have no doubt that at the end of this scholarship we will all be talking about their impressive work.”

Ahmad said, “Sweatshop is deeply honoured to be a partner on this significant undertaking, and we are delighted to introduce Australian readers to our inaugural recipients: Katie Shammas and Mark Mariano. Remember these two names – they’ll be on your bookshelves soon!”

Category: Local news