Artist Bio

Mark is an author, a writer, a researcher, a photographer and a community worker with a deep commitment to human rights. He uses his writing and photography to tell stories of displacement, conflict and migration, challenging abuses of power and shedding light on social justice issues all around the world. He is based in Northern NSW, Australia.

Mark has written three books, the first of which was The Undesirables: Inside Nauru (Hardie Grant, 2014), a whistle-blowing account of his work with asylum seekers in Nauru, one of Australia’s notorious offshore prisons. After publishing The Undesirables, Mark became a fierce advocate for the rights of displaced people in Australia and globally. He has built a career on challenging state power to expose social injustice and defend the human rights of individuals. His foundational creative practice is writing accessible and compelling nonfiction.

His second book, Nauru Burning: the story behind a riot (Editia, 2016), follows up The Undesirables with an investigative report into the 2013 fire that burned down the Nauru detention centre and the subsequent investigation by authorities on the island into who was responsible.  

Several years later, in 2016, Mark conducted an investigation into Australian government deportations to Afghanistan with the Edmund Rice Centre. The published report, titled ‘Responsibility to Protect’, paved the way for his third book, The Kabul Peace House (Hardie Grant, 2019), which tells the story of a community of peace activists in Afghanistan. The book was published by Hardie Grant in Australia in June 2019 and the United Kingdom in August 2019. The affiliated photography collection, Imagining Peace: A Portrait of Modern Afghanistan, has been exhibited in various galleries around Australia.

From 2013-2017, Mark worked with Settlement Services International as a case manager for people seeking asylum, assisting clients to settle into the community, access services and find employment and housing. He became a full-time writer in 2017.

Mark has published articles online and in print for various academic, literary and news publications, as well as researching and writing podcast and radio scripts. He works on topics and in places where most would fear to tread. He has risked his physical safety travelling to conflict zones to learn about ordinary people’s lives there. He has reported from post-war Sri Lanka and documented stories from Rohingya communities in South Asia. In 2018, while living in Mexico, he joined the migrant caravan, documenting the lives of the Central American people who walked north to the US border. He has twice contributed to the Berlin Literature Festival anthology, Refugees Worldwide, including a reportage from inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.

From 2016-2021, Mark was a committee member of PEN Sydney, an affiliate of PEN International, a worldwide association of writers which defends freedom of expression and campaigns on behalf of writers who have been silenced by persecution or imprisonment. He was president of the Sydney branch for 3 years from 2018 until 2021 and was involved in organising events with Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist, Maria Ressa; legal counsel to Julian Assange, Jennifer Robinson; as well as advocacy campaigns for imprisoned writers such as Yang Hengjun and Kylie Moore-Gilbert. He also established PEN Voices, the first PEN podcast channel globally.

Mark has participated in events at writers’ festivals in Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Byron Bay, both as a writer and as a moderator. He has engaged in national tours for each book and he is regularly asked to contribute to refugee advocacy campaigns which include newspaper, television, radio and academic interviews, as well as appearances at rallies and protests, and discussions in Parliament House. Notably, he appeared in the Eva Orner documentary, Chasing Asylum. In recognition of his work, Mark was awarded the 2017 Community Alumni Award at the University of Technology Sydney

In 2024, Mark was awarded a doctor of philosophy by the University of Technology Sydney for his work examining the human rights implications of Australia’s war on people smugglers. His thesis was nominated for a faculty award. Mark and his family moved to northern NSW in 2021, where he writes and works as a sessional academic for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney.

He is currently writing a book with Alison Battisson and the Human Rights For All team titled The Fight: to end indefinite detention, which documents stories of long-term immigration detention. He also has a comedy TV series about about asylum seekers living in Australian communities which is in production with Tilt Media.