Voiceworks is now open for submissions to Issue #132, 'Puzzle'!

Theme: Puzzle

Flinders Street Station emerges in your living room. You muse over its thousand-piece form. Fingers warmed by a welcome bewilderment glide aroundscoops, catch on nubs, sink into grooves. Track to track. Ticking on ticking. And always a crowd strutting in an orderly mess. A stubborn, squiggled fit. Your tactile logic traps all behind jigsawed bars. You are bisected. Your neighbours pass by, each lugging around a conundrum of their own. The man down the hall is crunching on the smashed remnants of his. The woman a floor above has gummy digits from peeling the stickers off hers. And you? An enigma still. Not to worry, there’s a world to crack in the meantime. Snick! goeslove awakened. Snap! goes truth told. You’ve juggled them, steered them into 3x3 pens. Warned them only one per row per square per whole. Copycats shooed off, Get! Go on! You’ll take unique and shape universal. The earth shifts, your head tilts. Tectonic plates—soulmates of a different breed to the pieces in your hand. They click, grumble, click again. Between your ears rattles 7-across: That which eludes you and teases you so (6 letters).

—Blurb by EdCommers Aries Gacutan and Tharidi Walimunige

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We only consider previously unpublished work.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 25 February, 11:59PM AEST

Fiction, completed nonfiction and poetry—Sunday 3 March, 11:59pm AEST

Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 31 March, 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.

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.