Study

Saraid Taylor lives and creates on the sacred lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. In 2020, she completed a Bachelor Degree of Fine Arts (Screenwriting) and was awarded an Australian Writers’ Guild mentorship prize with Elise McCredie (Stateless), and further mentorship with Film Art Media’s Sue Maslin (The Dressmaker).

Writing

Saraid writes across forms: interview, biography, essay, memoir, fiction, poetry and hybrid pieces. Her work has been published in places such as Overland, Meanjin, Island and Griffith Review, and won or been shortlisted for prizes including the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing and the Alan Marshall Short Story Award.

Sport

Saraid was five when she first started playing basketball. By the age of twelve, she was actively working towards a career in the Women’s National Basketball League. She first tried out for a WNBL squad at fifteen. She was selected at eighteen. She would spend the next six years signed as a Development Player on a volunteer contract to the Jayco franchise — the Dandenong Rangers then the Southside Flyers.

In late 2022, Saraid crossed codes to accept a professional contract in the AFLW with the Richmond Tigers. She was delisted at the end of the season. After five games in the VFLW, she was recruited back to the AFLW by the Melbourne Demons.

Saraid currently solely plays football. She is represented by Stella Athletes.

Creative Work

Saraid has modelled for brands such as Spalding, Libra, the Australian Laser & Skin Clinic, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, NGV and Westfield Doncaster. She has appeared at literary festivals and schools, and on radio, television, podcasts and panels, most recently a collaboration between Our Watch and Vice Australia (Pedestrian TV), talking violence against women and its manifestations in Australian sport. 

Family

Saraid is the daughter of two teachers who, in 1991, established Heartwell Fitness — a small community-based, volunteer organisation providing specialist physical education and rehabilitation services to vulnerable children and young people, specifically those living with disability or illness. They were ratified as a registered children’s charity, known as Heartwell Foundation, in 2006.

The foundation ceased its operations after seventeen years of services in May of 2023 due to lack of funding. Heartwell Fitness, as a registered NDIS Service Provider, continues to embody both legacies:

Creating a Level Playing Field

that allows the actualisation of

Physical Education for All.

The sole impetus of Saraid’s career — as either an artist or athlete — is to centre community and justice in conversations around performance, fame and power. 

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