Voiceworks #138, 'Jock' Wants You On the Team!

Theme: Jock

You enter the locker room after poetry practice. The air is misty as a sauna’s, pungent with sweat, cut grass and deodorant. You don’t mind; it’s like that TV show everyone’s raving about at the moment, and you try not to let your eyes wander too far. Someone’s brought a radio, and from its perspiring speakers comes a commentator’s rhythmic, crackly voice: Tamarisk Row’s jockey tries frantically to find a clear passage for the horse that is only now beginning to stretch his powerful legs…

Someone’s jocks fly from the mist and land on your face. They’re damp. Wrenching them off, gasping and spluttering, you spot a bunch of guys sitting, standing and lounging by the showers. They’re laughing and pointing. At you. There's nowhere to hide and your LRB tote bag has gone missing. A record scratch sounds, and some shock jock announces DJ Moir playing ‘Quit It!’ by the Voiceworkers. Suddenly they all start chucking their briefs, which build and build into a mountainous pile on top of you, muffling their laughter and the booming radio. 

You gasp, and sit up in bed. That was a terrible nightmare, you think to yourself. So why are you smiling?

Blurb by Seb Petroni and Joel Keith. Dedicated to our favourite jock, Silas.

Print Guidelines

Voiceworks accepts fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art and comics, but before you send your work our way, here are some rules:

We are only able to publish writers and artists who are under the age of 25 (that is, 24 and under) at the time of submission.

We only accept work by people living in Australia (including international students) or by Australians living overseas.

We only consider previously unpublished work. (That means, alas, nothing published on Substack, Instagram, blogs and so on).

We do not accept work written with generative AI, in whole or in part.

Each category has its own submission page with specific guidelines, but here are the basics:

Fiction: send no more than two stories, each no more than 3,000 words.

Poetry: send no more than three poems, each no more than 100 lines. We recommend reading our poetry guide here before sending us your work.

Nonfiction: we recommend that you pitch your nonfiction work before sending it to us. Head here for advice on how to construct your pitch and write good nonfiction. For completed work, send no more than two pieces, each no more than 3,000 words.

Art and comics: please keep in mind, we print in duotone (only two colours of ink) and our page dimensions are 170 x 245 mm. We recommend you pitch your comics before sending them to us. For advice on how to pitch your comics, check out our handy guide here. Please send no more than three artworks or comics.

We encourage you to submit across genres, but please send us no more than four submissions in total (excluding comics and art).

Deadlines

Written work—Sunday 26 April, 11:59 pm AEST

Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 3 May, 11:59 pm AEST

Rates of pay

$120 for written work and art.

$180 for multi-page comics or suites of art.

Please read the information carefully and contact Voiceworks Editor Joel Keith if you have any questions or concerns.

Remember, you don’t have to stick to the theme! Our themes are a prompt more than a selection criteria—a springboard to get the creative ideas flowing. Most of all, we just want good work!