Express Media and the Muscat family are excited to announce the 2025 Kat Muscat Fellowship, offering support and development for a young writer or editor, now in its 10th year. Kat Muscat was a brilliant young mind of the Australian writing community, whose formidable talent was demonstrated extensively through her incisive writing and perceptive editing. Kat was an integral part of the Express Media community for many years, before stepping up to become Editor of Voiceworks from 2012 – 2014. Throughout her 10 years with Express Media, Kat helped to shape the careers of young writers and editors from all around Australia. Kat’s writing embodied her personal mantra of defiance, feminism and empathy, and the recipient of the Fellowship will take up her notion of challenge: exploring bold subjects, thinking deeply and critically about the world and the culture we consume, and reflecting and building on the craft of writing or editing.
The Kat Muscat Fellowship offers professional development up to the value of $5,000 for an editorial project or work of writing by a young person of an underrepresented gender. The work must respond to the above values and provocation, continuing Kat’s legacy and further developing the future of defiant and empathetic young Australian writers and editors. The 10th iteration of the Kat Muscat Fellowship marks a decade without the much loved and deeply influential young writer and editor, and a decade of brilliant literary projects realised through the Fellowship. The 2025 Fellowship is a timely opportunity for an emerging writer or editor to make their mark.
You can donate to the Kat Muscat Fellow and honour ten years of supporting young writers and editors. This is also the final year the Fellowship will be awarded in this structure, before it evolves into its next chapter.
The Kat Muscat Fellow is selected by the Custodial Committee of The Kat Muscat Fellowship, which includes members of Express Media’s board and staff, the Muscat family and appointed community members. Past recipients include Bri Lee (2016), Fury (2017), Ana Maria Gomides (2018), Liana Skrzypczak (2019), Maddie Godfrey (2020), Dženana Vucic (2021), Munira Tabassum Ahmed (2022), Taylor Mitchell (2023) and Xiaole Zhan (2024).
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be a person of an underrepresented gender or sex. This includes cis women, trans women, trans men, agender people, non-binary people, intersex people, genderqueer people, genderfluid people, gender diverse people and those who are otherwise marginalised due to their gender or sex.
- Be aged 16 to 30 at the commencement of the fellowship on March 11, 2025.
- Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia.
- Propose a suitable project that aligns with the theme of ‘Challenge’, and the values of Express Media and The Kat Muscat Fellowship.
What Can I Apply For?
The Kat Muscat Fellowship offers professional development up to the value of $5,000 in 2025. These funds may be used towards professional development opportunities, including, but not limited to: mentoring, residencies, interstate travel, or project fees. A proposed budget must be submitted as part of the application process, and the final budget will be developed in consultation with Express Media.
Selection Criteria
These must be directly addressed in your application:
- Vision: What is your idea and proposed project?
- Impact: What impact will the Kat Muscat Fellowship have on your artistic practice and career, and what is the potential impact of your project on the wider community?
- Capacity: What relevant experience or track record have you demonstrated, or how can you outline your personal and creative potential to make this project happen?
- Feasibility: How will you realise or execute your proposed project, and is it achievable within the budget and timeframe of the Fellowship? Please include a brief budget to indicate how the funds will be used and if you have secured other funding for this project. If you would like to use our budget template you can download it in Word format here. The Custodial Committee of The Kat Muscat Legacy Projects, which includes members of Express Media’s board and staff, the Muscat family and appointed community members, will select successful applications.
- Reporting: The successful applicant will be required to submit a brief update in October 2025. At the completion of the fellowship, the successful applicant will be required to provide a report on the activity undertaken throughout the year. This report will be retained for Express Media and the Muscat family for their records and may be used to promote the Fellowship in future years. Guidelines for reporting will be provided to the fellow by Express Media.
Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Selina Moir-Wilson 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.
Poetry Guidelines
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.
We encourage you to submit across genres, but please send us no more than four submissions in total (excluding visual art).
Deadline: Sunday 5 January, 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Vice
Splashes of wine mingling with blood on the floor. Raised voices in a hot, cramped room. Temptation curls around you like a snake, hissing in your ear to take the forbidden fruit. Indulge. The desires hidden deep in your heart prowl like a beast, waiting to be let loose, to wreak havoc, to stray from the virtues you hold close to you. To take over. It calls for sins and immorality. The threat of eternal damnation for your vices in this waking world hangs over you but the line between blood and wine blurs in a gilded chalice. It is all held so tightly, squirrelled away from the Vice-Chancellor's stern gaze. ‘Fault’ as in seismic activity; ‘weakness’ as in self-indulgence.
The bounds of immorality flex and heave like sweaty backs. We are talking about sex and drugs and, yes, even rock and roll! Are you peddling vice in the street like a hot meal? Or are you carving it quietly, a private hedonist? The smoke hangs heavy in the air and in it you may be able to divine the shapes of the new world. Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other—for what is propriety without debauchery?
—Blurb by EdCommers Sam Himawan and Aries M. Gacutan
Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!
Rates of Pay
$100 per published piece.
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.
Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Selina Moir-Wilson 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.
Fiction Guidelines
Send no more than two fiction pieces, each no more than 3000 words. If you are submitting two stories, please upload them both in this submission (as two separate documents), rather than creating a second fiction submission.
We encourage you to submit across genres, but please send us no more than four submissions in total (excluding visual art).
Those seeking to submit nonfiction, poetry or visual art, please see the separate submission categories.
Deadline: Sunday 5 January, 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Vice
Splashes of wine mingling with blood on the floor. Raised voices in a hot, cramped room. Temptation curls around you like a snake, hissing in your ear to take the forbidden fruit. Indulge. The desires hidden deep in your heart prowl like a beast, waiting to be let loose, to wreak havoc, to stray from the virtues you hold close to you. To take over. It calls for sins and immorality. The threat of eternal damnation for your vices in this waking world hangs over you but the line between blood and wine blurs in a gilded chalice. It is all held so tightly, squirrelled away from the Vice-Chancellor's stern gaze. ‘Fault’ as in seismic activity; ‘weakness’ as in self-indulgence.
The bounds of immorality flex and heave like sweaty backs. We are talking about sex and drugs and, yes, even rock and roll! Are you peddling vice in the street like a hot meal? Or are you carving it quietly, a private hedonist? The smoke hangs heavy in the air and in it you may be able to divine the shapes of the new world. Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other—for what is propriety without debauchery?
—Blurb by EdCommers Sam Himawan and Aries M. Gacutan
Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!
Rates of Pay
$100 per published piece.
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.
Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Selina Moir-Wilson 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.
Pitching Guidelines
How to pitch to Voiceworks
The best pitches include detail! Clearly lay out your angle and argument, and provide specific examples of the research and anecdotes you’ll draw upon. Submit a document addressing the questions below, along with a 300-word sample from the start of the piece if you have one.
Things to ask yourself either way:
- What is your key point or argument?
- What is your particular angle to take?
- What is the logical and structural progression of your piece?
- Why are you the person to write this piece? Personal experience, willingness to research, etc.
- If you need evidence, where did you get it from? What research have you conducted?
- Why Voiceworks?
- How long is the piece going to be?
You don’t have to know all these answers, but it should get you thinking about your piece thoroughly. None of this is a totally prescriptive guide—we want to give you direction and encouragement, not to close off the possibility of writing nonfiction for us.
What happens if your pitch is selected
If we think the work you pitched would be a good fit for Voiceworks, we will (ideally) get in touch around two weeks after the pitch deadline. We’ll provide advice and direction on how to approach the piece, and request a full draft to be submitted around three weeks later. This isn’t very much time! Because of the tight turnaround, we prefer pitches that demonstrate some prior research, preparation and thought, so that you’re not scrambling to research and write an entire piece from scratch in a matter of weeks. Just to be clear, the full drafts we request are not guaranteed publication, but responding to our suggestions early on gives your piece the best possible chance.
Deadline: Sunday 29 December, 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Vice
Splashes of wine mingling with blood on the floor. Raised voices in a hot, cramped room. Temptation curls around you like a snake, hissing in your ear to take the forbidden fruit. Indulge. The desires hidden deep in your heart prowl like a beast, waiting to be let loose, to wreak havoc, to stray from the virtues you hold close to you. To take over. It calls for sins and immorality. The threat of eternal damnation for your vices in this waking world hangs over you but the line between blood and wine blurs in a gilded chalice. It is all held so tightly, squirrelled away from the Vice-Chancellor's stern gaze. ‘Fault’ as in seismic activity; ‘weakness’ as in self-indulgence.
The bounds of immorality flex and heave like sweaty backs. We are talking about sex and drugs and, yes, even rock and roll! Are you peddling vice in the street like a hot meal? Or are you carving it quietly, a private hedonist? The smoke hangs heavy in the air and in it you may be able to divine the shapes of the new world. Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other—for what is propriety without debauchery?
—Blurb by EdCommers Sam Himawan and Aries M. Gacutan
Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!
Rates of Pay
$100 per published piece.
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.
Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Selina Moir-Wilson 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.
Nonfiction Guidelines
For completed work, send no more than two pieces, each no more than 3,000 words.
We encourage you to submit across genres, but please send us no more than four submissions in total (excluding visual art).
Deadline: Sunday 5 January, 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Vice
Splashes of wine mingling with blood on the floor. Raised voices in a hot, cramped room. Temptation curls around you like a snake, hissing in your ear to take the forbidden fruit. Indulge. The desires hidden deep in your heart prowl like a beast, waiting to be let loose, to wreak havoc, to stray from the virtues you hold close to you. To take over. It calls for sins and immorality. The threat of eternal damnation for your vices in this waking world hangs over you but the line between blood and wine blurs in a gilded chalice. It is all held so tightly, squirrelled away from the Vice-Chancellor's stern gaze. ‘Fault’ as in seismic activity; ‘weakness’ as in self-indulgence.
The bounds of immorality flex and heave like sweaty backs. We are talking about sex and drugs and, yes, even rock and roll! Are you peddling vice in the street like a hot meal? Or are you carving it quietly, a private hedonist? The smoke hangs heavy in the air and in it you may be able to divine the shapes of the new world. Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other—for what is propriety without debauchery?
—Blurb by EdCommers Sam Himawan and Aries M. Gacutan
Remember, you don't have to stick to the theme. Most of all, we want good writing!
Rates of Pay
$100 per published piece.
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.
Submission Guidelines
Please make sure you read the following guidelines closely. If you’re unsure about any of the guidelines, please contact Voiceworks editor Selina Moir-Wilson 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 19 January, 11:59PM AEST
Theme: Vice
Splashes of wine mingling with blood on the floor. Raised voices in a hot, cramped room. Temptation curls around you like a snake, hissing in your ear to take the forbidden fruit. Indulge. The desires hidden deep in your heart prowl like a beast, waiting to be let loose, to wreak havoc, to stray from the virtues you hold close to you. To take over. It calls for sins and immorality. The threat of eternal damnation for your vices in this waking world hangs over you but the line between blood and wine blurs in a gilded chalice. It is all held so tightly, squirrelled away from the Vice-Chancellor's stern gaze. ‘Fault’ as in seismic activity; ‘weakness’ as in self-indulgence.
The bounds of immorality flex and heave like sweaty backs. We are talking about sex and drugs and, yes, even rock and roll! Are you peddling vice in the street like a hot meal? Or are you carving it quietly, a private hedonist? The smoke hangs heavy in the air and in it you may be able to divine the shapes of the new world. Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other—for what is propriety without debauchery?
—Blurb by EdCommers Sam Himawan and Aries M. Gacutan
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.