Island magazine

12/02/2025

Send us your comics! We're taking pitches for graphic narratives for Island magazine for the rest of 2025, but submissions close Monday. Find out more at islandmag.com/submit.

10/02/2025

Luoyang Chen reminds us that ‘The literary will eventually turn your stomach’ and writes, ‘I feel embarrassed to introduce myself / as a poet. It is all memory now’. Read ‘Love Poem’ now on Island Online...
islandmag.com/read
Image by Amritanshu Sikdar

09/02/2025

Have you sent us your fiction and nonfiction for Island Online yet? Come inside and hit send on that story or essay you've been writing! Submissions close tomorrow (Monday 10th) at 5pm. Find out more at islandmag.com/submit
Image by Cyrus Crossan

07/02/2025

We are delighted to announce the shortlisted poems for the 2025 Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. From almost 500 poems entered, the shortlist was selected by our three judges: Island's poetry editor, Kate Middleton, winner of the 2021 prize for 'The Memory of Water', Amy Crutchfield, and renowned award-winning author, John Kinsella. All poems were read blind.
The shortlisted poets/poems (in alphabetical order by surname) are:
Chris Andrews for ‘Whistling Space’
Jonathan Cant for ‘Finding Pan’
Lisa Collyer for ‘The Grape Picker(s)’
Alex Creece for ‘gunk’
Ori Diskett for ‘deadbody’
Julie Janson for ‘My Kaathi Sister’
Jill Jones for ‘How To Draw Tonight’s Water’
Susanne Kennedy for ‘Waiting for Tortillas’
Jeanine Leane for ‘Galing-gu giilang’
Audrey Molloy for ‘Cold Water Swimming in Lyme Regis’
Pip Smith for ‘Neck lines'
Georgina Woods for ‘Augury: sea surface temperature charts'
The winner and runners-up will be announced in a few weeks. All twelve poems will be published in Island 173, out next month. Congratulations to all shortlisted poets, and thank you to Hobart Bookshop, who support the prize.
Find out more at islandmag.com/literary-arts-news/2025-gwen-harwood-poetry-prize-shortlist

03/02/2025

Author Elizabeth Gilbert is currently touring Australia. Island spoke with Liz (the author of ten books, including 'Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear') about the place of creativity in an increasingly complicated world, why it’s worth spending time reading, and what we might learn from moss: read 'Called to beauty' at islandmag.com/read
We also have two tickets for Liz's Hobart show, on Tuesday 11 Feb, to give away to the next Tasmanian-based reader who subscribes to the magazine. If you’d like to take out a subscription, find out more at islandmag.com/subscribe
Image: Elio Santos

24/01/2025

Are you a young Tasmanian artist or arts worker? Arts Tasmania has a new program to support you - the Young and Emerging Artist Professional Development Program aims to support young Tasmanian artists and arts workers to undertake professional and skills development activities.
Five grants of $16,000 are available to support activities commencing after 1 August 2025. This could include Tasmanian, national, or international residencies, mentorships, masterclasses or attachments with arts organisations on existing projects or productions.
Applicants must be 25 years of age or under at the time of application or in the first five years of their professional creative practice.
Applications are now open, and close at 11.59pm on Monday, 17 March 2025. All enquiries about the program can be directed to Arts Tasmania via 03 6165 6666 or [email protected]
More info at https://arts.tas.gov.au/grants_and_funding/young_and_emerging_artist_professional_development_program

22/01/2025

No one but Ben Walter could write this essay that asks of his beloved cricket, 'even if the game were played with pademelon leather and king billy pine bats on a wide stretch of native, ochre-tinged kangaroo grasses, would this be any different? Wouldn’t it still be an utterly human activity, with so little regard for nature that it might as well be played in a conference centre?' Wit, gentleness and a strange, wild eye applied to the oddest of all games: islandmag.com/read
Image: Matthew McLennan

19/01/2025

Don't blink! EL Weber's dystopian story of a biological enhancement gone wrong and an unendurable workplace, 'Generation optimisation' is free to read now at islandmag.com/read
Image: v20sk - Unsplash

18/01/2025

Comics are back! We'll be publishing a graphic narrative in every issue of Island this year. Send us your pitches before 17 February - all the details are at islandmag.com/submit

13/01/2025

Justin Russell tells the story of his long and dedicated relationship with the bunya pine, on Island Online:
'Bunya cones scream prehistoric. They’re roughly the size of an adult head, green in colour, scaly, and weigh up to 10kg. If there’s one place you don’t want to be in late summer, it’s standing beneath the crown of a large bunya pine because a cone falling from the top of a tree will reach a velocity just over 100km per hour. If that thing lands on your head, it’s lights out. '
Read more at islandmag.com/read
Image: Naoto Sato

11/01/2025

Island is thrilled to introduce our new Arts Editor, Tamzen Brewster.

Tamzen is a multidisciplinary artist living in the southern beaches region of Lutruwita/Tasmania. She has a background in varied fields within the arts including project management and arts facilitation. Her arts practice incorporates painting, collage, pattern design, sculpture, photography, digital design, public art and installations.

Through creativity and awareness she believes there is scope for deeper connections and that through art there are possibilities for shifts in how we interpret and approach the way we live, forming stronger avenues for understanding and positive progression.

Photo: Kristy Dowsing

10/01/2025

Submissions are open for Island Online! Send us your best short fiction and essays (preferably under 1500 words) before 10 February. Find out more at islandmag.com/submit
Image: Thomas Smillie - Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

08/01/2025

Island is thrilled to see the longlists for the Tasmanian Literary Awards. Tasmania is home to so many brilliant writers, and these longlists highlight the depth of craft and talent this island hosts. What's more, the longlists feature - along with a host of former Island contributors, board members and editorial staff - books from Island's recent editor Matthew Lamb ('Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths' - nonfiction) and current fiction editor Kate Kruimink ('Heartsease' - fiction). Congratulations to all the listed authors!

We are thrilled to announce the longlists for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards 📚🌟

The judges had the difficult task of assessing 170 entries and determining longlists for the four book prize categories: Minister for the Arts’ Prize for Books for Young Readers and Children, Premier’s Prize for Non-fiction, Premier’s Prize for Fiction and Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry.

The shortlists for all prizes will be announced in February 2025. Learn more about the longlisted books at www.arts.tas.gov.au/tasliteraryawards

The Tasmanian Literary Awards are supported by University of Tasmania Libraries Tasmania Island magazine Arts Tasmania



[Image text: Tasmanian Literary Awards 2025 Longlists announced]

28/12/2024

Time to send us your fiction and nonfiction! Submissions for the first two print issues of 2025 close on Monday - find out more at islandmag.com/submit

Image: Unseen Studio

27/12/2024

New to poetry at Island Online, read Helen Jarvis' touching 'Washing my mother's hair', her skull 'frail as a scrap of bird's egg': islandmag.com/read

Image: Philippe Murray Pietsch

18/12/2024

We are thrilled to announce the longlists for the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards 📚🌟

The judges had the difficult task of assessing 170 entries and determining longlists for the four book prize categories: Minister for the Arts’ Prize for Books for Young Readers and Children, Premier’s Prize for Non-fiction, Premier’s Prize for Fiction and Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry.

The shortlists for all prizes will be announced in February 2025. Learn more about the longlisted books at www.arts.tas.gov.au/tasliteraryawards

The Tasmanian Literary Awards are supported by University of Tasmania Libraries Tasmania Island magazine Arts Tasmania



[Image text: Tasmanian Literary Awards 2025 Longlists announced]

17/12/2024

Running short on present ideas? How about a gift of 48 poems, 20 short stories and 20 brilliant creative essays? As well as page after page of beautiful art? Order a year's gift subscription now and you can start with the current issue, 172, featuring a glorious cover by Rex Greeno, or kick off in March with the winners of the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize in issue 173. Who wouldn't like a year's worth of original Australian literature in their stocking? Find out more at

Looking for a gift for the reader in your life? An Island subscription makes the perfect present! Starting from $38 including postage, gift subscriptions are available for either 2, 3 or 4 issues. A gift certificate can be emailed to you, or directly to the recipient with a personal message from

13/12/2024

As we dive into summer and the water beckons, Craig White explores Tasmania’s complex relationship with wild waterways and the potent risks they provide: 'On the second-last day, we arrived bedraggled at the crossing of South Cape Rivulet, normally a safe wade to the campsite beyond. With the intermittent rain and king tides of past days, the rivulet was swollen and fully alive, frothing at the edges...'
islandmag.com/read
Image: Patrick McGregor - Unsplash