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 and artists living in Australia or Australian writers and artists 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Voiceworks only considers previously unpublished work (which includes personal websites and blogs).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 (176 x 251 mm, including 3mm bleed). 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 28 September 11:59PM AEST   

Theme: Quits!

VOICEWORKS QUITS! But from what? From who? From where? Why are there parts of ourselves we must leave behind? Will we ever be the same after calling it quits? In the aftermath of abandonment, are we new beings, spawned—stumbling, saved—simply from that five-letter, one-syllable word? 

What is it that you are quitting? Which of the never-ending pathways are you choosing to break away from? How will you find catharsis in the fallout? How will you dismantle the myth of perseverance at all costs? How will your ego bleed and break out into the post-quit beyond? How will you defy the arc you’re destined to follow? 

Quits! wants you to snap the pencil in half, close the book, leave the job, shed the identity—to finally say: enough. It's about the power—and the risk—of choosing your own ending. Explore the weight and wonder of abandonment as an art form, surrender as survival, refusal as clarity. Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is ruin the ending that has been written for you.

Blurb by EdCommers Adela Teubner and Chay Newman.

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.

The Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers is a developmental award open to Australian secondary school-aged students across the nation.

The prize recognises writing excellence in three categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Poetry. Entries can include writing for readers of any age.

The Prize is sponsored by Hachette Australia and administered by Express Media, Australia’s peak youth literary organisation. Shortlisted writers get the opportunity to receive mentorship from an established author. In 2024, the Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers Mentor is Ashleigh Barton!

The Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers gives young writers the opportunity to hone their skills under the guidance of some of Australia’s favourite authors. 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.  The prize is judged by representatives from Hachette Australia and Express Media.

The Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers will close at 11:59PM AEST Sunday 12th October.

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

How to Enter

1. All entries must be received by 11.59PM AEST, Sunday 12th October 2025.
2. One entry may be submitted, per category, with a maximum of 2 entries across the 3 categories
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 of fiction or nonfiction may be up to 3,000 words in length
5. Submissions of poetry may be up to 100 lines in length
6. Entries can include pieces written for readers of any age group
7. All entries must be typed and double-spaced
8. 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. 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)
3. The name of the entrant should not be included anywhere on the submission; it should only be entered in the submission form
4. All members currently serving on the Express Media board; and/or all paid, permanent staff of Express Media, are ineligible to enter
5. Entries are only accepted from secondary school aged students (between the ages of 12 and 18 inclusive)
6. Entrants under 18 years of age must have permission from a parent/guardian/teacher to enter the prize

Express Media and Hachette Australia each reserve 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.

Consideration of Submissions

1. The judges’ decision is final; no correspondence will be entered into about the judgements or the judging process
2. Only shortlisted entrants will receive feedback on entries.

PRIZE DETAILS

The prize winner in each category will receive:

• $500 courtesy of Hachette Australia
• publication of their work on the Express Media website
• their names and an acknowledgement printed in Voiceworks, Australia’s premier youth literary journal.

All fifteen shortlisted writers will:

• Be invited to participate in a writing masterclass
• Attend an exclusive Q&A with Jane Godwin
• Receive a book pack of YA Titles courtesy of Hachette Australia

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