Sweatshop 2026 Showcase

A showcase of four ground-breaking new books from the past twelve months from the nationally celebrated and critically acclaimed writers of the renowned Sweatshop Literacy Movement: Bugger by Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Stolen Man on Stolen Land by Tyree Barnette, Hailstones Fell Without Rain by Natalia Figueroa Barroso and Juicy by Sheree Joseph.

In this urgent and timely dialogue, Mohammed, Tyree, Natalia and Sheree will unpack the complex intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality at the heart of each of their latest works.

Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the author of three award-winning novels: The Tribe, The Lebs and The Other Half of You. He is also the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including After Australia. Mohammed’s latest novel is Bugger.

Tyree is a writer and member of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement living on the unceded lands of the Darug People in Sydney. His debut novel is Stolen Man on Stolen Land: Being African American in Australia. In it he explores the intersections of race, privilege, American geopolitics, fatherhood and finding belonging and community whether on the seat of a barber’s chair in Raleigh, North Carolina or in Sydney’s Inner West. He’s also written for Sweatshop anthologies such as Love, Racism: Stories on Fear, Hate and Bigotry, This Little Red Thing, and New Voices on Food edited by Lee Tran Lam.

Natalia Figueroa Barroso is a writer of Uruguayan descent with Charrúa, Yoruba and Iberian heritage whose award-recognised work appears in Meanjin, Overland, Griffith Review, Red Room Poetry, Green Left and more. She has media and communications degrees from UTS, but alternates between hoist driving, traffic control, first aid and cleaning in the construction industry. Her debut semi-autobiographical novel, Hailstones Fell Without Rain, is published by UQP (2025).

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, 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.

Sunil Badami is a writer, broadcaster and academic, whose work has been published in Australia and overseas and featured in nearly every Australian media outlet, including ABC Radio and TV. His novel An Allergy, was shortlisted for the 2026 Penguin Literary Prize and he previously managed events at Gleebooks.