Island Online fiction - Feb 26
Ends on
What are we looking for?
New stories of up to approximately 1500 words. Please send only one submission, and make it your very best piece.
Eligibility
Submissions will be considered from Australian and New Zealand citizens and residents only.
Timelines
Submissions are now open and close at 5pm AEDT, Monday 2 March 2026.
Submissions selected in this round will be published from March - August 2026.
Guidelines
Please only submit one story – your best! Submissions will open again later in the year so if your story still needs work, you can always send it later.
Please don’t submit work previously published in print or online, including on blogs.
All submissions are via Submittable and your work must be attached as a text document (acceptable file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf).
We do not have specific formatting requirements; however, it makes reading easier for our editors if your submission uses generous line spacing and margins. (We prefer Australian spelling and punctuation conventions; single quotation marks; spaced en rules for dashes – however, all of this can be resolved during editing.)
We accept simultaneous submissions; however, if your work is selected for publication elsewhere, please withdraw it from Island Submittable.
Contributor fees
If your work is selected for publication, Island will pay a fee of $600*.
If you are not already a subscriber, your total payment will be less the cost of a 4-issue subscription. For background information on our fee policy see here.
*Increased contributor fees for this round have been made possible with the support of the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
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.
Once decisions are made, you will be contacted (either via Submittable or direct email) regarding the outcome, whether or not your work is accepted. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide individual feedback on submissions that are not accepted.
Although our expectation is that selected works are likely to require minimal editing, the Fiction Editor will edit/proofread the pieces for publication. You will be consulted on all changes and will have final approval of your work.
Terms and conditions
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.
A draft of the full licencing agreement is available on request from admin@islandmag.com.
Further information
For more information about Island please visit islandmag.com
Thank you for your interest in submitting your writing to Island Online. We are looking forward to reading it.