Splinter is published by Writers SA with support from Arts SA, Flinders University, UniSA and the University of Adelaide.
We are really enthusiastic about publishing diverse and intersectional voices and welcome submissions from writers based anywhere in the world. At this early stage, we can only accept submissions in English.
What we are looking for
Splinter does not publish themed issues. We are always looking for writing that picks apart all the ways reality has been shattered, illuminates the shining threads of it that remain unbroken, and hints at the ways we’ll start putting it all back together.
Our long-term goal is to mill around in the endless circles of these questions:
- How did we get here, into the middle of this chaos?
- Where are we? What does this place and time mean?
- And where do we go from here?
While we don't want writers to feel limited by the below list, there are some topics and formats we are particularly interested in for issue two:
- High-quality genre fiction
- Nuanced and sensitive explorations of intimate partner and/or domestic violence
- Profile pitches (see description of this format below)
- De-colonisation narratives
- Literary criticism pitches
For style and tone, the best way to understand what we're after is to read the first issue. But in short, please don't give us the directive, the didactic, or the overly earnest - give us the feeling of things breaking and the weight of the destructive forces. Give us the absurdity of existing. Every now and again, maybe some pieces should give us reason to resuscitate our hope.
Tell us what you actually think. Tell us with the confidence of the dominant narrator (even if you’ve never been allowed to be one before). Give us big, complex ideas and the intimate and funny things in between.
Ground us in the urgent and the immediate, and then connect us to the bigger story. And do it with both a sense of humour and a respect for our readers.
We do not put a word count limit on our submissions, but please don't send us your whole book. As a guide, the longest piece we published in issue one was 8,000 words, but we are willing to consider longer works.
Formats and pay rates
Please pitch ideas for these formats:
Profiles - $900/piece
Writing that examines our communal and one-sided relationship with complex public figures.
Essays - $900/piece
Creative non-fiction and reportage that explores ideas about the world beyond the self (although the ideas might intersect with the self). We are particularly interested in pieces that bend form in interesting ways, and also those that are simultaneously informative and emotionally-affecting.
Writing about writing - $500/piece
Essays on writing as the weird and idiosyncratic pursuit that it is.
Each edition, we will also publish one column from a writer analysing the worst piece of writing they’ve ever published. Send us an idea for an essay deconstructing your lowest writing moment.
Criticism - $700/piece
That deconstructs a relatively new-ish work of any medium within a bigger context - whether that be of your own life, within history, or within a larger conversation. We only publish twice a year, so our criticism needs to feel new because of the lens it puts on the work it is critiquing, not because the work being critiqued has just come out.
Please submit completed work for these formats:
Poetry - $250/poem or $450/collection of up to four poems
The absolute best medium for exploring the cracks in reality we all fall into.
Fiction - $900/piece
Don’t worry about length or genre (although we’re not going to publish a book). Long or short, we want hugely compelling pieces of fiction that make us feel and think about the stuff pointed at in the meandering paragraph above.
Memoir - $600/piece
Let us peer into your life so we can understand something more about ourselves.
Nuts and bolts
For profiles, reportage, writing about writing, and criticism, we are looking for pitches of ideas (not full length works).
For memoir, poetry and fiction we are looking for submission of completed works.
We only accept a total of one submission per writer, with the exception of poetry. We will accept three poems per writer, or one poetry collection of up to four poems.
Unfortunately, because of the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to accept re-submission of works we have previously declined.
We are looking for work that has not been previously published.
Due to demands on our time, we aren’t able to provide feedback on every submission.
Copyright of each work will remain with the author, although we may negotiate a period of exclusivity (of three months maximum) where appropriate. Each writer will be sent a contributor’s agreement outlining all terms and conditions prior to commissioning.
We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please contact us on hello@splinterjournal.com to withdraw your work if it is picked up elsewhere.
Submissions close at 11:59pm (Australian Central Daylight Time) on January 25, 2025. The best place to track the progress of your submission is here on Submittable.