Express Media is proud to present Little Stories, Big Ideas, a flash writing competition open to Australian secondary school-aged students across the nation.

This competition's theme is: Friction.

Submissions open on 21st April and close at 11:59PM AEST Monday 30th June.

Entrants must write to the theme in 100 words or less, in any literary style they like. Anything is welcome – prose, poetry, comics, song lyrics, or whatever else you love writing. Entries can include writing for readers of any age. . 

The prize aims to ignite passion for creative writing and poetry in the minds of Australia’s secondary school students, and to encourage them to pursue writing and publishing opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

How to Enter

1. All entries must be received by 11.59PM AEST, Monday 30th June.
2. A maximum of 2 entries may be submitted.
3. Each entry must be submitted via the submissions portal, with one entry per submission form. DO NOT put multiple submissions in one word or PDF document.
4. Submissions may be in any literary style of your choosing.
5. Entries can include pieces written for readers of any age group.
6. All entries must be typed and double-spaced.
7. Submittable accounts must be created in the entrant’s own name and list the entrant's contact details.

Conditions of Entry

1. Entries must be original works, written entirely by the entrant, and must not infringe upon anyone else’s copyright or intellectual property rights.
2. AI and LLM-based machine learning services must not be used. If AI is used in any form the entries will be automatically disqualified.
3. Entries must not, either wholly or partly, have previously been published in print or online (with the exception of an entrant’s personal blog or website).
4. The name of the entrant should not be included anywhere on the submission; it should only be entered in the submission form.
5. All members currently serving on the Express Media board; and/or all paid, permanent staff of Express Media, are ineligible to enter.
6. Entries are only accepted from secondary school aged students (between the ages of 12 and 18 inclusive).
7. Entrants under 18 years of age must have permission from a parent/guardian/teacher to enter the prize.
8. Two winners will be selected: one from Year 7-9, one from Year 10-12.
9. The judges’ decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into about the judgements or the judging process

Express Media reserves the right not to consider a submission if the conditions of entry above are not complied with.  Note: Entrants must acknowledge and agree to these terms upon submission. Parent/guardian/teacher of the entrant must confirm permission for entry upon submission.

PRIZE DETAILS

The prize winner in each category will receive:

• A writing masterclass with author Rebecca Fraser
• A free STARTER+ web hosting package and domain name from Nexigen
• A one year Express Media membership and Voiceworks subscription
• Publication of their work on the Express Media website
• Their names and an acknowledgement printed in Voiceworks, Australia’s premier youth literary journal.

For more information please email Mia Nie, Express Media Creative Producer, creativeproducer@expressmedia.org.au

Submission Guidelines 

Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Joel Keith at editor@expressmedia.org.au.    

We are only able to publish work by writers and artists who are under twenty-five at the time of submission. Please also keep in mind that because of our funding arrangements, we are only able to publish writers living in Australia or Australian writers living overseas.

Voiceworks only considers previously unpublished work (which includes personal websites and blogs). We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.    

If your submission is unsuccessful, we will notify you as soon as we can and then provide you with detailed feedback a little later. Feedback is written by a small group of volunteers and we receive a lot of submissions, so we appreciate your patience. If you think something’s gone wrong, or you haven’t heard from us three months after the submission deadline, please get in touch.   

Visual Art and Comics Guidelines 

Visual art submissions include comics, illustrations, drawings, graphics, etc. We recommend that you pitch your comics before sending them to us. For advice on how to construct your pitch, check out our handy guide here.  We print in duotone (two colours) and our page dimensions are 170 x 245 mm. Please supply your images in greyscale, at actual size and 300dpi. Please name your files—strings of numbers and letters are easily confused with other submissions.

Deadline: Sunday 22 June 11:59PM AEST   

Theme: Bend

Do you bend the way grass does in the autumn breeze, or the way the pages of a book are curved by a reader’s curious hand? Like the arc of the waning moon or the soft line of a lover’s cheek? Do you bend to imitate the shapes of boys and girls you see on screens, or do you bend between them? You watch the way a sleeve gathers in the bend of an elbow, the way a well-cut piece of fabric curves around a waist. 

Or do you bend like a neck over a desk? Fingers into a cane? The warp of something that should be straight? Into line, into place, into rules. Yet even the straight shot of raindrops gives rise to the rainbow’s curve. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon sits warping on the shelf, the wrinkle on your shirt refuses to be ironed out. Hell bent, they say, but who says heaven’s straight?

 — Blurb by EdCommers Sharyn Sale and Scout Manuel 

Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!   

Rates of Pay 

$100 for single-page art and comics 

$150 for multi-page comics or suites of art  

Terms of Publication 

Express Media publishes work in Voiceworks on a non-exclusive, irrevocable and royalty-free basis. We require writers who will be published in Voiceworks to sign a licence deed granting us permission to publish work in the printed Voiceworks magazine, on the Express Media and Voiceworks websites, and for use in promoting our magazine. Writers retain copyright of their work and are free to use in whatever way they’d like in the future. Please only submit your work if you are satisfied with these terms. For more information about this, please contact us.   

Subscribe 

To get a better idea of what kind of work we publish in the magazine, and to help us continue to support young writers, you can subscribe* to Voiceworks here.      

*Choosing not to subscribe will not impact your submission.