Voiceworks is now open for submissions to issue 117, Hum!

You are humming beneath your breath on the walk home, hoping the streetlights hear you. The night is cold but crickets trill in trees, high a capella vibrations that the wind carries with it. At the end of the street, motel sheets scratch against hipbones and hushed conversations huddle like ghosts. Maybe you’ll even press your face against the vending machine just to hear that low, fluorescent buzz. Traffic lights flash. Car engines whir. A lawn mower waits for the world to wake up. Are you home yet? The air conditioner continues. So does the secondhand fridge. This cradlesong of comfort, like soft snoring in your bed. Would you rather listen to the humdrum soundtracks of 24-hour supermarkets? Where shift workers whistle beneath their breath. All those pop songs that stay in your head. What will you sing in the shower later? What remains unspoken, yet still reverberates in your throat? In the dark, everyone feels small, like a swarm of hummingbirds dotting the horizon. When flying loses its charm, you’ll settle for pecking at an abandoned kebab on a public bench. Hummus leaks onto the pavement. Nobody else notices.

~Thanks to Edcommers Maddie Godfrey and Claire Cao 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. 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• We only consider previously unpublished work.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 1st September, 11:59pm AEDT

Fiction, completed nonfiction and poetry—Sunday 15th September 11:59pm AEDT

Art, comics and comic pitches—Sunday 13th October, 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 Mira Schlosberg if you have any questions or concerns.

Photo by Bud Hensley, reproduced under the Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.