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The joanne burns Microlit Award 2022 is open now!

joanne burns Microlit award

We’re seeking exciting submissions of up to 200 words on the theme of ‘travel’. Let your mind wander


We welcome submissions that will amuse, amaze and unsettle us. Take us on a journey that will make us see the world anew.

Now in its 11th year, The joanne burns Microlit Award is co-hosted by Spineless Wonders and the Newcastle Writers Festival.

Cash prizes of $300 will be awarded to winners of the National and Hunter categories.

The award will be judged this year by the celebrated and award-winning author, joanne burns and a microlit anthology featuring invited authors as well as finalists from the award will be edited by internationally renowned microlit expert, Professor Cassandra Atherton and released in 2022.

What is Microlit?

Our guest judge, joanne burns describes this unique form as, ‘poetry, fiction, essay, contemplation, perhaps flirtation – condensed, sudden, gnomic, implosive – a kind of petit pointillism – where enough may be more than enough…. ‘

Deadline: August 31

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Don't forget: submit your short film to win!

We’ve selected short fiction ‘microlit’ from some of the best writers from around Australia—do you have the vision to turn them into short films?

All you have to do:
1. Visit http://www.microflixfestival.com.au
2. Select your favourite short story
3. Adapt your chosen story into a film of up to 3 minutes by August 1st

Our panel of jurists will select finalists and winners in the following categories, to be presented at our film festival in October:

  • Best Adaptation ($500)

  • Best Direction ($200 as well as a full script assessment by Screenwriting Scriptease)

  • Best Sound ($200)

  • Best Writing ($500)

So put a filmmaking team together, or tackle this on your own with your smartphone, and together we can showcase our incredible homegrown talent!


The deadline is August 1st, 2021.

PLUS, our guest blogger Ellyse Moir gives us all the tips and tricks in her latest blog posts. Read them here.

Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award winners announced

Spineless Wonders is pleased to announce that Roanna Gonsalves, judge of the 2021 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award, has reduced this year’s 100 entries to a longlist of twelve entries!


Congratulations Emma Ashmere, Jarni Blakkarly, Odette Des Forges, Dominique Hecq, D.J. Huppatz, Jodie Kewley, Rashida Murphy, Andrew Nest, Stephen Orr, Cheryl Rogers, Su-May Tan, and David Thomas Henry Wright.

You can read excerpts of each exceptional story on our website!

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Dear Ibis has flown into stores

Spineless Wonders is proud to release Kate Liston-Mills’ second collection of short fiction. Dear Ibis is available now on our website, from all good bookstores and as an ebook from your favourite ebook retailer!

‘Dear Ibis is a letter. Like all letters, it is a time capsule. Written during a year of fire, flood and a global pandemic, Dear Ibis touches on some of the key challenges that have impacted our world.’

With cover design and illustrations by Bettina Kaiser, Dear Ibis is an innovative, moving and beautifully-written collection of stories for these times. In the words of Gabbie Stroud, ’it is a collection that reveals it is possible to water a ‘dead stump’ and somehow create life’.

GIVEAWAY: Score a free copy of Dear Ibis

I am not the same person as I was before. That cannonball came. I burnt up as I shot out. I floated through time as if it was nothing but air. Heavy, I plummeted. Connected to all sorts of feathery beasts, I studied myself through a fabricated other. Paint covered my wings at various points and I grieved … but then I rose, my feathers bright red, and I flew. Dear Ibis, I wish you could see me now.


Tell us a story from a bird's perspective, in 50 words or less. Send yours to bronwyn@shortaustralianstories.com.au to win!

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Expressions of interest: Spineless Wonders Audio

Spineless Wonders is entering a new era. You could say “the slug is coming out of its shell”…

With a decade of publishing experience and a vast network of creative and technical know-how to draw on, Spineless Wonders Audio offers a suite of audio services for indie authors, publishers and other organisations to create audiobooks, audio-dramas, podcasts and geo-locative storytelling.

Interested? Drop us a line on our website below.

PLUS: What most interests you about Spineless Wonders Audio? Help us make this venture the best it can be.

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