Submit to Voiceworks!

Submissions are currently closed. Stay up to date on submission periods on our social media and website.

About

Voiceworks is a national literary journal, featuring new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art and comics by Australians under the age of 25. Voiceworks is produced entirely by people yet to hit the quarter-century mark and relies on contributions from readers to make up its content. Each selected piece goes through a collaborative editing process, and individualised feedback is provided for all unsuccessful written submissions. All published contributors are paid for their work.

What we’re looking for

The best way to get a sense of the kinds of work we publish is to read Voiceworks! You can get yourself a copy by ordering it online, subscribing or by looking for it at your local or school library or one of these stockists.

Voiceworks publishes a varied selection of short stories, poems, nonfiction, art and comics. We’re keen to read more experimental writing—think stylistically playful stuff, and work that blurs the boundaries between nonfiction, fiction and poetry.

We’re always on the lookout for writing in all of these forms, but we’re especially keen for more nonfiction submissions. We get far more people sending us fiction and poetry than nonfiction. This means we want to read more of it, and frankly your odds of publication are better if you send us some. This doesn’t mean we compromise on the standard of nonfiction we publish—it needs to have a specific angle and offer some sort of insight, whether that’s a keen interest in researching something, expert knowledge on a topic, a unique experience or perspective, or a combination of these things. We recommend you pitch your nonfiction before sending it to us, especially if you’re not sure if your piece appropriate, or what you want to do with it. Pitching is our chance to help you out before you submit. So before you send us your work, we (strongly) urge you to read our handy nonfiction guide on how to construct your pitch and write good nonfiction in general.

The same goes for art and comics—we receive fewer art submissions than in written categories, and want to publish more of it inside Voiceworks. But before you send it our way, be sure to flip through a copy of the mag to make sure your work is suited to the page dimensions, colour limitations and design specifications of Voiceworks.


Issue #131 Theme: Strike

 

You fantasise about swift action; an arm slicing through water, utter refusal. A sharp, unmistakable call. Brood in the non-place between thinking and doing. The run before the leap. The leap before the landing. Prepare yourself for the thwack wallop of realisation. Check your periphery. Wear your shin pads. 

It’s a hushed judgement, a snarky email, a roll of the eyes in the staff kitchen. “No big deal.” Push it away, brush it off, back to business as usual. But each microaggression is a strike on the scoreboard, building to action. Will it be a warning or a final blow? How many strikes until you’re they’re out?

Outside, you hear rumbling. Voices from the underbrush, smoke in the distance, strength in numbers. A match has been struck. They can try and blow it out, diminishing the flame, but a burnt scorched match doesn’t go back in the box. Throw it away, try to erase it,  but a charred tip won’t go back to its original red. A tit for tat. 

When all action is reaction, how do you strike a balance? Caught between blunt force and desire, can you strike a deal?

Thanks to EdCommers Tiia Kelly and Helen Karakulak for the blurb.

 

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

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.

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

Nonfiction pitches—Sunday 15 October 2023, 11:59PM AEST

Fiction, completed nonfiction and poetry—Sunday 22 October 2023, 11:59PM AEST

Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 5 November 2023, 11:59PM AEST

Rates of pay

$100 for written work and art

$150 for multi-page comics or suites of art

Please read the information carefully and contact Voiceworks Editor Selina Moir-Wilson if you have any questions or concerns.



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