Voiceworks is now open for submissions to issue 123 'Pickle'!
Theme: Pickle
Steps For Transmutation
Dip the body in brine.
Prepare the jar. Boil water at 100 °C and drop the jar in. Watch it gleam as it sterilises. Brand new again.
Pour the body and brine into the jar.
Screw the lid tight. Resist the urge to shake.
Soak. Taste salt, taste sour. Cockles and lime. Citrus and distilled white vinegar. Shreds of napa cabbage and rinsed gooseberries.
This process is turbulent and you will change at the chemical level. Parts of you will break down as you take in acids and produce new forms of energy. You are becoming a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Your skin is beginning to bubble and foam.
Lie back and ferment.
In your unsweetened bath—dream.
Under the glass—dream.
Dream of what you wish you could take with you. A cat named Pickles perched before a bowl of fruit. Peach emojis, delivered gently. The sound of a caterpillar unspindling on your windowsill. The smell of sun, clinging to your eyelashes. Don’t feel afraid as they ooze past you in your swirly dome.
Outrun all expiration dates. Evolve into a sea cucumber, pickled to oceanic perfection.
Let time roll right over you.
Discover all your hidden mysteries—stubborn webpages, the*refresh*, button, reverberating in dark wet depths. Unfurl your new textures. You are primed, you will endure.
Last. Last forever—
*sound of breaking glass*
~Thanks to EdCommers Jess Zanoni and Annie Zhang 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We only consider previously unpublished work.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 28 March, 11:59pm AEDT
Fiction, completed nonfiction and poetry—Sunday 11 April, 11:59pm AEDT
Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 25 April, 11:59pm AEDT
Rates of pay
$100 for written work and art
$150 for multi-page comics or suites of art
You’ll find further details and submission guidelines here. Please read the information carefully and contact Voiceworks Editor Adalya Nash Hussein if you have any questions or concerns.