The Romans defeated us but we were reborn: in cathedrals and Romantic poetry, in Bauhaus and Lestat, in teenagers heavy with black lipstick and eyeliner. If you made potions in the sandpit, grated acorns against concrete, pried itchybombs for their fluff, you may be one of us. Emos are welcome, Emotions are welcome, Emojis are welcome. Pack your Emily the Strange bag with your Vantablack dress: visual absence grown on silvery light. Fly with fruit bats. Run with Health Goths. An exercise in aesthetics, or an aesthetics in exercise? Sweating up patches where the black gets blacker. Let’s have a Goth wedding in a graveyard, pour witches’ salt around us for protection. Let’s honeymoon by the Black Sea, or the Black Forest if you don’t like sand. Let’s make eye contact in the gloaming. Let’s open the circle. Let’s survive the hungry sea of white noise. The beauty of darkness outlasts all; when the sun explodes into splinters there will be eternal night. Until then, let’s practice.

~Thanks to EdCommers Adalya Nash Hussein and Vince Ruston for the blurb~

Remember, you don’t have to stick to it. 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. Our motto is…

Themed work: good

Good work: better

Good themed work: best

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• We only consider previously unpublished work.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 17th March, 11:59pm

Fiction, completed nonfiction and poetry—Sunday 31st March 11:59pm

Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 28th April, 11:59pm

Rates of pay

$100 for written work and art

$150 for multi-page comics or suites of art

You’ll find further details on each category by following the link below. Please read the information carefully and contact Voiceworks Editor Mira Schlosberg if you have any questions or concerns. Alrighty then, it’s time to submit!