Guidelines
Unless otherwise stated, Island welcomes submissions from Australia, New Zealand and Australians living abroad.
All submissions are via Submittable.
We do not accept work previously published in print or online, including on blogs.
We accept simultaneous submissions; however, if your work is selected for publication elsewhere, please withdraw it from Island Submittable.
Contributor Policy
You do not need to be an Island subscriber to submit or enter any of our prizes. 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 either in print or online, and you 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 to build circulation. This, in turn, will allow us to increase the amount we can afford to pay our writers. For background information on our contributor fee policy, see here.
Payments
Contributor fees are currently:
Fiction and nonfiction for print - 40 cents per word, with a minimum of $600 and a maximum of $1500.
Poetry for print and Island Online - $175 per poem.
Island Online - $600 for short-form fiction, nonfiction and graphic narratives.
All fees are less the cost of a 4-issue subscription if you are not a current subscriber. For background information on this policy see here.
In additional to core funding from Arts Tasmania, 2025 contributor fees have been supplemented by the Australian Government through the Creative Australia its arts funding 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 will be read by at least one member of the editorial team.
Once decisions are made, you will be contacted (either via Submittable or direct email) regarding the outcome. 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 will be sent to the author prior to publication (see T&Cs below for further details).
TERMS & CONDITIONS
A licencing agreement outlining the contributor fee and full terms and conditions will be sent to authors prior to publication. Please be aware of the following:
- Copyright remains with the author; but Island requires an exclusive licence for three months from publication. Following the exclusivity period, authors must continue to license the work to Island on a non-exclusive basis. Any further reproduction should publicly acknowledge Island as the original publisher.
- Authors must warrant that their work is an original work, that their work does not infringe any copyright and that they are the sole owner of the copyright in the work. They must also warrant that the work contains nothing obscene, indecent or libellous.
A draft of the full licencing agreement is available on request from admin@islandmag.com.
We are delighted to once again to present the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, proudly supported by The Hobart Bookshop.
First awarded in 1996, the 2026 Prize celebrates 30 years of recognising distinctive voices in Australian poetry and continues to honour the spirit of Gwen Harwood.
This year's Prize will be judged by Island's poetry editor Kate Middleton, along with incoming poetry editor, Tim Loveday and Graeme Miles (see bios below).
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
New poems up to 100 lines, in any form.
THE PRIZE
The winning poet will receive $2000 + four-issue subscription to Island*
Two runners-up will each receive $500 + four-issue subscription to Island*
All three poems will be published in Island issue 177, due for publication in March 2026.
All other poems will be considered for publication at our normal contributor rates
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
Entries are now open. Closing 5pm AEDT, Thursday 27 November 2025.
Winning poems will be published in Island 177, due for publication in March 2025.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
Entry fee of $18.00 per poem applies. You can enter as many times as you wish but each poem must be entered separately.
All entries are via Submittable only and your poem must be attached as a text document (acceptable file types: doc, docx, txt, rtf).
Entries will be judged ‘blind’, therefore please do not include your name on your poem.
Poems previously published are not eligible.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please withdraw your work if it is accepted elsewhere.
Judges’ decision is final, and no individual feedback will be provided.
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 three winners 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 176 (due to be published in Dec 2025), or 177 (due to be published in Mar 2026). If you are a current subscriber this can either be added to your existing subscription, or you may gift the subscription.
MEET THE JUDGES
Kate Middleton
Kate is Island's Poetry Editor. She is also author of the poetry collections Fire Season (Giramondo, 2009), awarded the Western Australian Premier's Award for Poetry in 2009; Ephemeral Waters (Giramondo, 2013), shortlisted for the NSW Premier's award in 2014; Passage (Giramondo, 2017) and Television (2024). She was the inaugural Sydney City Poet from September 2011 to September 2012.
Tim Loveday
Tim is a poet, writer and baby academic living on Wurundjeri country. He won the 2022 & 2024 Dorothy Porter Poetry Awards, the 2025 Calanthe Poetry Prize and the 2023 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Award, and was a finalist in the 2025 DHA, 2024 Montreal Poetry Prize, 2024 Big Australian Yarn, and 2023 David Harold Tribe Prize.
Graeme Miles
Graeme has published three collections of poems: Infernal Topographies (University of Western Australia Press, 2020), Recurrence (John Leonard Press, 2012) and Phosphorescence (Fremantle Press, 2006), as well as many pieces in journals and anthologies. His most recent book was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards and his first for the West Australian Premier’s Prize. He has lived in Hobart since 2008 and teaches Latin and ancient Greek literatures at the University of Tasmania.
Further information
For more information about Island please visit islandmag.com or follow us for news updates on social media @islandmagtas.