2024 Slinkies anthology, on sale now.
Grab your copy here.
Since 2014, Spineless Wonders’ Slinkies has been showcasing the work of emerging writers under 30 from across Australia. For its ten year anniversary, Slinkies has taken on a whole new look!
We received so many great submissions for our 2024 issue, and after much deliberation we were able to choose five talented authors whose work we know you will love. Like previous years, our authors are located all across Australia with varying levels of experience in having their work published – some have been featured in published works before, and others are sending their work into the world for the very first time.
So, why is Slinkies 2024 so special? For the first time ever, Slinkies will be printed in colour with not one, but two visual stories that blend together illustrated and written storytelling. There is something for everyone in this anthology – coffee dates with historical figures, territorial witches, mental health and AI, connections to family and culture, and a reflection on the cost of living.
Slinkies 2024 would not have been possible without the dedication of our creative teams. We would like to thank our Senior Judges, Emma Wortley and Sofiana Bahrum for their role in selecting this year’s Slinkies. A special thanks also goes to the hard-working culling judges: Urvi Agrawal, Madison Woods, Claire Browett and Kerrin White, our illustrator Lauryn Evans, and our editorial and promotional assistants Erin O’Connor, Zara Kernan, Nilushi Jayawardena, Miah Foster, and Vanessa Perera.
Happy reading!
Call outs for Slinkies are currently closed
Do you battle with Gen Z or Millennial Fatigue? Symptoms include a generalised sense of impending doom about our planet whilst at the same time tuning it out entirely to focus on what really matters… why does this person’s Instagram feed horrify me to my very core, yet I keep going back to see what the hell they’ve done now? It’s okay, you might just be Under 30!
And congratulations, that qualifies you to use your creative energy to enter our writing competition.
Submit here.
Slinkies is looking for your writing:
- under 10,000 words
- of absolutely any genre or style
to publish and promote in our annual anthology of carefully hand-selected submissions. Check them out. See our FAQs below!
Get published! Make sure your ID says you’re under 30 years old. And that you are either currently residing in Australia or are an Australian living overseas. So simple! Submit and be in the running to feel that unadulterated rush of creating something that other people will read. We particularly welcome writers from diverse/disadvantaged backgrounds and if you want to send us something in a language other than English, with translation, do it. Got illustrations? Made a zine? We love text and we love graphics. Check out some of our Slinkies alumni, here. Or download some of our past Slinkies digital singles, collections and anthology, here.
What: Prose in any form under 10,000 words
Who: Writers younger than 30*
When: Submissions are due May 31, 2024
*Please note we are looking for new voices, so all previous Slinkies winners please sit this one out, tx.
About The 2024 Slinkies Team:
Sofiana Bahrum
Sofiana, an Indonesian-Australian Muslim, is a dynamic writer, reviewer and editor passionate about the intersection of diverse cultures in creative art forms. With a strong academic background in creative writing, editing, and publishing, she has fostered creativity in young minds as a children’s art teacher and has collaborated on innovative storytelling projects like Travel 2022 with Spineless Wonders. She is deeply committed to championing underrepresented voices in art and culture, working to foster a more inclusive and vibrant literary future.
Neysha Santos
Neysha is an emerging writer and editor with a Bachelor of Communications in Creative Writing. She was part of the editorial committee for the 2021 UTS Writers’ Anthology Bloom and has had her work published in Bloom, kindling & sage and Left Turn on Red Permitted After Stopping. Neysha also worked with Spineless Wonders’ author, Rashida Murphy on The Bonesetter’s Fee and other stories print and audiobook formats.
Emma Wortley- Senior Slinkies Judge
Emma has a background in academia and has published papers on children’s and young adult literature (the subject of her PhD thesis) in various journals. Her reviews, stories and poetry have appeared in Voiceworks, Southerly, Going Down Swinging, Paper Crown Magazine, textLitmag, Scintilla Magazine, Scum Mag and an episode of the Story Club podcast.
Previous Slinkies Judges:
Slinkies eStories are curated by senior editor, Emma Wortley and edited by a team of emerging editors. Deniz Agraz and Elizabeth Mora were editors for the 2021 Slinkies and Kalhari Jayaweera and Hannah Janssen were editors for the 2020 Slinkies.
Deniz Agraz is a bilingual writer, a former ESL teacher and an ailurophile based in Sydney. Having arrived in Australia from Turkey as a teenager in the late 90s, Deniz’s writing regularly draws on the experiences of migrants. In 2019, her short story ‘Rosewater’ was shortlisted for the Deborah Cass Writing Prize. The same year, she was selected to participate in the Citizen Writes Project led by Roanna Gonsalves. Deniz finds that writing fiction is a way for her to reach reconciliation between her first and second languages and negotiate her place in Australian society. She is currently studying Master of Arts in Creative Writing at UTS. Her work has appeared in ABC Life and SBS Voices.
KALHARI JAYAWEERA is a former doctor who is settling into her new life as an editor and writer. She writes short fiction and memoir, and her work has appeared in Kill Your Darlings and Scum Mag.
HANNAH JANSSEN is an editor and typesetter based in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. She loves any opportunity to combine her creative instincts with analytical thinking. Off the page, she has a passion for all things crafty and spending time with her cat Mo.
FAQs
- What’s the deal? If we like your piece we will send you a Publication Agreement outlining how we will publish and promote your work.
- Is entry free? YES.
- I’m an Australian living overseas. Can I still enter? YES. The competition is open to people under 30 who currently reside in Australia or Australians living oversea
- Can I make more than one submission? YES, PLEASE. WE LIKE TO READ.
- I’m not exactly sure if what I have written is a short story, novella, a set of linked short stories or some weird hybrid thing – do you still want to see it? YES. We want any kind of prose you’ve got, and we love experimental works. Whether it’s one short story or several, a novella, creative non-fiction, hypertext or graphic novellas, send it our way!
- Where will the Slinkies anthology be available? In bookshops and libraries. Spineless Wonders books are distributed in Australia and New Zealand by New South and globally by Ingram Spark.
- How can I get my hands on previous published Slinkies eStories, anthologies and audiobooks? Browse our online shop.
- Got another question? Email to info[at]shortaustralianstories[dot]com[dot]au