Mark is an author, a writer, a mentor, a teacher, 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 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 has become 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 (Editia, 2016), follows up The Undesirables with an investigative report into human rights abuses in Nauru. Several years later, Mark wrote The Kabul Peace House (Hardie Grant, 2019), the story of a community of peace activists in Afghanistan. His affiliated photography collection, Imagining Peace: A Portrait of Modern Afghanistan, has been exhibited in various galleries around Australia.
Mark 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 the migrant caravan in Central America and Rohingya communities in South Asia. 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.
Mark was president of PEN Sydney 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. 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. He is currently working on a book about immigration detention in Australia and a comedy television series about asylum seekers living in Australian communities which is in production with Tilt Media.