DEADLINE FEB 1 2021
Do you battle with 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.
Slinkies is looking for your writing:
- under 10,000 words
- of absolutely any genre or style
to publish and promote in our annual run of carefully hand-selected Slinkies digital publications. Check them out. See our FAQs below!
Get published! Get paid! Make sure your ID says you’re under 30 years old. So simple! Submit and be in the running to feel that unadulterated rush of doing something that other people will read and, thanks to our new Slinkies audio, listen to as well! 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 now due February 1, 2021
About The 2021 Slinkies Team:
Elizabeth Mora
Born in Queens, raised in Ecuador, and now living on unceded Dharawal land, Elizabeth – known to her Mamá as Verito – is a writer and cultural worker entangled in the ambivalence of time, place and identity. She is an editor of Drylight, the University of Sydney Education and Social Work Society Journal. In 2019, she was a participant of Citizen Writes, a creative writing program developed by Carnival of the Bold and Diversity Arts Australia. In 2018, she collaborated with the Australian Ecuadorian Cultural Association and Georges River Council Festival of Community Arts to produce Las Doñas, an anthology of poetry and prose by emerging Latina|x writers and creatives. She is the creator of Get Familiar, an online space for aspiring and experienced educators and social workers to exchange ideas and reflect on their practice. Her work has been performed and published by the Australian Multilingual Writing Project, Sangre Migrante, Honi Soit and University of Sydney Press.
Deniz Agraz
Deniz 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.
Emma Wortley
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.
About The 2020 Slinkies Team:
Slinkies eStories are curated by senior editor, Emma Wortley and edited by a team of emerging editors. Meet our two new editors, Kalhari Jayaweera and Hannah Janssen who will co-curate the 2020 Slinkies.
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.
EMMA WORTLEY, the Slinkies curator, has a background in English academia, and as she currently works in a 9-to-5 job in dispute resolution, being involved in projects like Slinkies is an enjoyable way to support literature and writing in Australia. Emma has published academic papers on children’s and young adult literature (the subject of her PhD thesis) in various journals, and volunteers as a tutor at Sydney Story Factory. Her reviews, fiction and poetry have appeared in Voiceworks, Southerly, Going Down Swinging, Paper Crown Magazine and textLitmag.
FAQs
- Will I be paid? YES. We keep enough to cover editorial and admin costs. The more your story sells, the more you earn.
- 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 overseas.
- Will I be able to publish my story elsewhere in print or as part of a collection? YES. Your agreement with Spineless Wonders will be for the digital-only publication of your story. Copyright remains with you and you are free to offer your story elsewhere – just let us know so we can pop some champers for you and make sure you acknowledge your original publication with us.
- 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 eStories be available? Spineless Wonders eStories can be read on any device with an ereader app. Readers can purchase your story from our website and all ebook retailers.
- How can I get my hands on previous published Slinkies eStories? Browse our online shop.