WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR                                                                                                                                              

We are looking for new poems in any form. 

ELIGIBILITY

Submissions will be considered from Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents only.

You do not need to be a subscriber to submit. However, we believe that writers ought to be readers of the literary magazines in which their work is published, so for this reason, if your work is published in Island and you are not already a subscriber, your total payment will be less the cost of a 4-issue subscription. For a small not-for-profit literary magazine, this is a necessary step in a long-term strategy. For background information on our fee policy, see here.

TIMELINES & GUIDELINES 

Submissions close at 5pm AEDT, Friday 19 June.

Works in this round will be reviewed for Island 179 (out September 2026).

You may submit a maximum of three poems in text, video or audio formats. 

You can submit a combination of the three formats, but please submit all poems in one submission.

If you are submitting more than one poem in text, please submit as one single document.  If you are submitting some or all of your poems in video or audio, please submit as separate files. 

Please consider line length when submitting your poems. While there is space to publish longer poems online, we do not typically publish poems of more than 50 lines in-print.

Submissions are via Submittable only 

Acceptable file types for text: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf.

Acceptable files types for audio: flac, m4a, mp3, ogg, wma.

Acceptable files types for video: avi, flv, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mpg, wmv.

We do not accept work previously published in print or online, including on blogs 

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please withdraw your poem if it is accepted elsewhere.

 PROCESS

You will receive an automated acknowledgement of receipt of your submission. After that, you will generally not hear from the editorial team until after submissions have closed. 

After the closing date, we endeavour to provide a response to all submissions asap.

Once decisions are made, you will be contacted (either via Submittable or direct email) regarding the outcome. We are unable to provide individual feedback for submissions not selected. The expectation is that the selected works will require little editing. However, any editing involved will be undertaken by Island’s Poetry Editor, in discussion with the author. The author will have final approval of the work.      

CONTRIBUTOR FEES

Island pays $175 per poem*

*Fees are less the cost of a print 4-issue subscription if you are not a current subscriber. For background information on this policy see here.

In addition to core funding from Arts Tasmania, contributor fees are supplemented by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

We continually strive to increase author payment rates through grants and fundraising.         

TERMS & CONDITIONS

A licensing agreement outlining the contributor fee and full terms and conditions will be sent to the author prior to publication; however, please be aware of the following:

Copyright remains with the authors, but writers must give Island exclusive publication rights for the work for three months from publication. Any further reproduction must publicly acknowledge Island as the original publisher.

Writers must guarantee that their work is original, does not plagiarise or infringe the copyright of any other party, and does not breach any other law or ethical principle of publication (e.g. defamation, libel, obscenity).

A draft of the full agreement is available on request from admin@islandmag.com.

Thank you for your interest in publishing with Island!

We are currently seeking fiction submissions for Island 179 and 180.

ELIGIBILITY  Island will only consider submissions from residents of Australia, New Zealand and Australians living abroad.    

There is no fee to submit, and you do not need to be a subscriber. However, if your work is selected and you are not already a subscriber, your total payment will be less the cost of a 4-issue print subscription. For background information on our fee policy see here.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 

While we will certainly consider more traditional forms, we have a strong interest in experimental and literary approaches to form and content. There is no limit on theme.

Although we are not strict about the length of works, we tend not to publish flash fiction or microfiction in print very often. This doesn’t mean you can’t submit very short works - just be aware that this is not our staple. In terms of upper limits, we are less likely to publish works longer than 4000 words. Again, this is a general guideline, we do not have a formal cut-off. 

GUIDELINES

We do not accept work previously published in print or online, including on blogs.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please withdraw your work if it is accepted elsewhere.

Please submit only one story per round. If you submit more than one, only your first submission will be considered.

Submissions are via Submittable only. Your work must be attached as a text document (acceptable file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf). Please format using a minimum of 1.5 line spacing to make reading easier for our editors. 

TIMELINES      Submissions are open. 

Closing at 5pm AEDT on Friday 19 June 2026.

Island 179 is scheduled to be published September 2026. Island 180 is scheduled to be published in December 2026.

CONTRIBUTOR FEES Island currently pays 40 cents per word for print fiction, with a minimum of $600 and a maximum of $1500.

If you are not already a subscriber, your total payment will be less the cost of a 4-issue print subscription. For background information on our fee policy see here.

*In addition to core funding from Arts Tasmania, fees have been supplemented by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

We continually strive to increase author payment rates through grants and fundraising. 

PROCESS    You will receive an automated acknowledgement of receipt of your submission.

All submissions (expected when multiple submissions have been made) will be read by at least one member of the editorial team. The final decision will rest with the Fiction Editor and the Editorial Manager. 

Once decisions are made, you will be contacted (either via Submittable or direct email) regarding the outcome. Because we are accepting submissions for two issues, we may not respond until September 2026. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide individualised feedback on submissions that are not selected.

The expectation is that the selected works will require little editing. However, any editing involved will be undertaken by Island’s Editorial Team, in discussion with the author. The author will have final approval of the work.

A licensing agreement with be sent to the author prior to publication (see t&c below for further details) .     

TERMS & CONDITIONS    

A licensing agreement outlining the contributor fee and full terms and conditions will be sent to the author prior to publication; however, please be aware of the following:

• Writers must guarantee that their work is original, does not plagiarise or infringe the copyright of any other party, and does not breach any other law or ethical principle of publication (e.g. defamation, libel, obscenity).
• Copyright remains with the authors, but writers must give Island exclusive publication rights for the work for three months from publication. Any further reproduction must publicly acknowledge Island as the original publisher.

A draft of the full agreement is available on request from admin@islandmag.com.

Thank you for your interest in publishing with Island!

We are delighted to present the 2026 ISLAND NONFICTION PRIZE.

What are we looking for?                                                                                                                                                          We want to read about what fascinates, excites or enrages you. Your entry doesn’t have to be zeitgeisty – there are so many ways to be curious and about so many things. We encourage you to investigate, experiment, wax lyrical and manifest. Introduce us to new ideas, new worlds and new forms of expression. 

The judging panel will be chaired by Island's Nonfiction Editor, Keely Jobe, with Hayley Singer and Sam Elkin guest judging (bios below). Judges will read essays without any identifying information attached. 

The prize  The winning writer will receive $3000 and their work will be published in Island issue 179, due out September 2026.The winner will also receive a four-issue subscription to Island*.

All other entries will be considered for publication in 2026/27 under Island's usual terms and conditions. For more info, see https://island.submittable.com/submit

Eligibility  Entry is open to Australian citizens and residents only.  No age limit applies.  Current Island magazine staff, interns and board members are not eligible.

Timelines & Terms and Conditions 

Entries are now open and close at 5pm AEST on Monday 8 June  Entries must be under 4000 words, or up to eight pages for graphic narratives. 

We are looking for works suitable for a general audience, rather than scholarly/academic works. If you have previously submitted your work to Island, you may resubmit it for the prize.

The expectation is that the winning work will require little editing. However, any editing involved will be undertaken by Island’s Nonfiction Editor, Keely Jobe, and Editorial Manager, Jane Rawson, in discussion with the author. The author will have final approval of the work.

A fee of $20 per entry applies. You can enter as many times as you wish but each entry must be entered separately.

All entries are via Submittable only and your work must be attached as a text document (acceptable file types: doc, docx, txt, rtf). 

Entries will be judged ‘blind’, so please do not include your name on or in your work.

The judges’ decision is final, and no individual feedback will be provided.

Works previously published are not eligible.

Writers must guarantee that their work is original, does not plagiarise or infringe the copyright of any other party, and does not breach any other law or ethical principle of publication (e.g. defamation, libel, obscenity).

Copyright remains with the authors; however, writers must give Island exclusive publication rights for the work for three months from publication. Any further reproduction must publicly acknowledge Island as the original publisher.

The winner must agree to participate in any reasonable media events relating to their work, including radio and television interviews and online discussions.

*Subscription can start with either issue 179 (due out September) or 180 (due to be published in December). If you are a current subscriber this can either be added to your existing subscription, or you may gift the subscription. 

MEET THE JUDGES

Keely Jobe                                                                                                                                                                                Keely is a writer of fiction and non-fiction living on the east coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work has been published in The Monthly, Island, Australian Geographic, Cosmos and Signals Magazine. Her debut novel, The Endling, was published by Scribe in 2026.     

Hayley Singer                                                                                                                                                                            Hayley Singer's first book, Abandon Every Hope: Essays for the dead, was published by Upswell in 2023 and shortlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize. Her essays and reviews have been published in The Sydney Review of Books, The Monthly, The Lifted Brow, Lit Hub, Cordite Poetry Review and Art + Australia. Right now, she is writing about two women who came to live in a timber shack at the top of a cliff in coastal isolation. Not quite biography and not exactly history, this is a slippery work of outsider truths, small-town fictions and everyday omissions. Hayley is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Melbourne.     

Sam Elkin                                                                                                                                                                                 Sam Elkin is a writer, radio-maker and community lawyer. His debut book is Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga, which was published in 2024 and shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Humour Writing and the National Biography Prize in 2025. He is also the co-editor of the anthology Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia. His essays have been published in Griffith Review, Australian Book Review and Sydney Review of Books and he co-hosts the 3RRR radio show Queer View Mirror.

Thank you to Michael Livingston for supporting this year's prize. 

Further information  For more information about Island please visit islandmag.com.