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Voiceworks only considers previously unpublished work (which includes personal websites and blogs).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 31 March, 11:59pm AEST
Theme: Puzzle
Flinders Street Station emerges in your living room. You muse over its
thousand-piece form. Fingers warmed by a welcome bewilderment glide around
scoops, 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! goes
love 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
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.
What constitutes nonfiction? How is memoir different to autobiography? What makes non-fiction different from other forms of art and writing? How do we write, research, and investigate stories that matter? What does the truth mean when writing nonfiction?
Express Media is proud to present the 2024 return of Toolkits: Non-fiction - an online course in the forms, skills, and ethics of writing non-fiction. This program will combine theoretical approaches, practical exercises and group workshopping to guide young writers to experiment and develop their work.
Toolkits is first and foremost a practical initiative. Young writers will be encouraged to write, workshop and edit their writing throughout the course. They will hone their skills in textual analysis, create their own original work (which can be experimental, autobiographical, biographical or journalistic), explore the possibilities of collaborative work, and learn how to pitch work to publishers when they’re done.
If you are a young writer or artist interested in non-fiction, we want to hear from you!
Toolkits: Non-fiction will take place on Wednesday evenings 6-8pm between April 24 and July 10. The total expected time commitment of this program is 20 hours.
Become an Express Media Member!
Applications to Toolkits are free for Express Media members along with a number of other perks, events, and opportunities. If you’re not already a member, you can easily sign up here.
Note: Express Media is committed to access, so if you would like to sign up and are experiencing financial hardship, please contact us via info@expressmedia.org.au to be awarded one of our sponsored memberships.
Applications have been extended to 11:59pm AEDT Tuesday 2nd April 2024.
Have a question? Need help with your application? Send an email to Express Media’s Creative Producer Mia Nie at creativeproducer@expressmedia.org.au.
Toolkits: Nonfiction is generously supported by The Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Learn about story structure, character, setting and everything in between.
Express Media is proud to present the 2024 return of Toolkits: Fiction - an online course in the forms, skills, and ethics of writing fiction. This program will combine theoretical approaches, practical exercises and group workshopping to guide young writers to explore storytelling and ethics, learn how to craft characters, plots and plans and how to polish work for publication.
Toolkits is first and foremost a practical initiative. Young writers will be encouraged to write, workshop and edit their writing throughout the course. They will hone their skills in textual analysis, create their own original work, explore the possibilities of collaborative work, and learn how to pitch work to publishers when they’re done.
If you are a young writer or artist interested in writing fiction, we want to hear from you!
Toolkits: Fiction will take place on Wednesday evenings 6-8pm between April 24 and July 10. The total expected time commitment of this program is 20 hours.
Become an Express Media Member!
Applications to Toolkits are free for Express Media members along with a number of other perks, events, and opportunities. If you’re not already a member, you can easily sign up here.
Note: Express Media is committed to access, so if you would like to sign up and are experiencing financial hardship, please contact us via info@expressmedia.org.au to be awarded one of our sponsored memberships.
Applications have been extended to 11:59pm AEDT Tuesday 2nd April 2024.
Have a question? Need help with your application? Send an email to Express Media’s Creative Producer Mia Nie at creativeproducer@expressmedia.org.au.
Toolkits: Fiction is generously supported by The Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Join us for a program that takes you behind the scenes at the Parliament of Victoria!
Parliament exists to make and change laws and to represent the interests of all Victorians. Parliament is committed to ensuring that young Victorians engage in democracy; this program gives you a front row seat to the action.
Launched in 2022, Parliament Express provides young writers with the opportunity to gain practical skills, receive professional mentoring and have an article published on the Parliament website. You can read articles from previous years' programs here.
Parliament Express is a series of intensive seminars delivered weekly over four weeks. Participants will meet in person at the Parliament of Victoria, getting a look behind the scenes of parliament and receiving masterclasses on research, interviewing and writing for clients – as well as an opportunity to do a Q&A with sitting MPs.
Each seminar goes for 3 hours and focuses on developing your knowledge and skills and building on your understanding of how parliament functions. You will have the chance to engage in unique experiences and meet many of the people who play a role in the work of parliament.
After the four-week intensive, you will be given a four-week writing period to apply what you’ve learned and produce a first draft of an article for Parliament of Victoria’s website, receiving editorial guidance from Parliament of Victoria’s Community Engagement Manager.
To be eligible for the program, you must be between 18 and 25, be eligible to vote in a Victorian election and be available to attend in person sessions at Parliament House on May 21, May 28, June 4 and June 11 between 2pm and 5pm.
Parliament Express is a joint project between Express Media and the Parliament of Victoria.
Applications are now open and close 11:59PM AEDT 1st May 2024. Apply now!
Have a question? Need help with our application? Send an email to Express Media’s Creative Producer Mia Nie at creativeproducer@expressmedia.org.au