Truth. Weirdness. Rage. Love. The First Nations issue criss-crosses the artificial borders between time and place to tell stories of joy and empowerment while also chronicling the absurdity of life in the colony.
Read new poetry, short fiction, memoir, literary criticism, and essays by First Nations Elders, emerging voices, and award-winning authors.
Read new poetry, short fiction, memoir, literary criticism, and essays by First Nations Elders, emerging voices, and award-winning authors.
144 pages
233mm x 164mm
28 writers
28,347 words
164,908 characters
1 reference to a (successful) Tinder date
Andraya Stapp, Anne-Marie Te Whiu, Cana Nongkhlaw, Colleen E. Charlette, Dakota Feirer, Emma-Lee Maher, Ezzideen Shehab, Hana Pera Aoake, Irene Wardle & Amy Davidson & Aunty Professor Lynette Riley & Professor John Clegg, Jannali Jones, Jeanine Leane, Kyrah Honner, Lady Shania Janet-Shayne Richards Dimer, Lavinia Richards, Leesha Cole, Lulu Houdini, Mali Harkin-Noack, Marcie R. Rendon, Maria van Neerven, Maxi Sam-Morris, Nathan mudyi Sentance, Nina Sivertsen, Raymond Buzzacott, Susan Betts, Tabitha Lean
$60
Annual subscription includes:
- Issues 3 and 4 delivered to your letterbox.
-
Editions also delivered in accessible digital format (PDF/UA)
- Occasional digital newsletters from Splinter between issues, including reading recommendations
- Early access to Splinter events
Please note our office is closed from Dec 19 until Jan 5. Purchases made from Dec 19 onwards will be sent on Jan 5.
Australian subscriptions cost $60 AUD per year, with free shipping.
*International subscriptions cost $80 AUD per year, with free shipping.
$30
Purchase includes:
- One print edition delivered to your letterbox
-
Editions also delivered in accessible digital format (PDF/UA)
Please note our office is closed from Dec 19 until Jan 5. Purchases made from Dec 19 onwards will be sent on Jan 5.
Delivery added at checkout.
Absurd, extreme, fun, and frighteningly real. Splinter's first issue tours the world and the self and is mostly disappointed (horrified?) or confused about what it finds, although – sometimes, at least – it is funny. Read Sara M Saleh on how Gaza drew back the curtain on the self-serving mirror world of international law; Jane Rawson grappling with the inescapability of sonic environmental destruction; Susie Anderson asking why all the literary sad girls are having such uninspiring sex; and Anthony Nocera explaining how to make a foot pussy (while grieving). And lots of other, very interesting (sometimes even slightly optimistic) writing.
233mm x 164mm
25 writers
58,878 words
333,982 characters
2 references to Gra(e)y's Anatomy
Anthony Nocera, Brooke Dunnell, Dominic Symes, Finbar James, Frank Marrazza, George Titheridge, Hossein Asgari, Jane Rawson, Jayda Wilson, Jill Jones, Karen Wyld, KT Major, Lauren Poole, Magdalena Ball, Muiz Ọpẹ́yẹmí Àjàyí, Paris Rosemont, Patrick Marlborough, Ryan J Morrison, Sam Elkin, Sam Twyford-Moore, Sara M Saleh, Seamus Lonergan, Susie Anderson, Thom Sullivan, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes
Bats are falling from the sky. There's an inexplicable knocking on the front door at 2am. The Australian election took place in a parallel universe where climate change doesn't exist. A man you've never met before says he sees you in his dreams.
If the apocalypse isn't here yet (debatable), the writing in Splinter's second issue indicates it will be soon. Read new fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from emerging and established writers gesturing at the chaos, laughing despite it, and holding tightly to what they love.
If the apocalypse isn't here yet (debatable), the writing in Splinter's second issue indicates it will be soon. Read new fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from emerging and established writers gesturing at the chaos, laughing despite it, and holding tightly to what they love.
233mm x 164mm
25 writers
63,966 words
320,134 characters
1 reference to Survivor (the tv show, not the song)
Alex Cothren, Corey Theatre, Courtney Jaye, Ellena Savage, Erin Riley, Glenn Diaz, Hasib Hourani, Jessica White, Jo Case, JP Wilson, Katie Smith, Madeleine Nattrass, Mag Merrilees, Margot Albrecht, Naya Jehad Fathi Shalbak, Omar Musa, Oyewumi Fawaz Akorede, Rita Horanyi, Rowena Vnuk, Royce Kurmelovs, Sarah Sands Phillips, Smriti Daniel, Sofya Gollan, Stephanie Westwood, Wes Lee
About
Splinter is a new
literary journal that is
interested in the gaps between
perception and reality and what
happens when we get stuck in those
gaps. It is published twice a year from
Tarntanya (Adelaide, Australia).
Our third issue was released
in November 2025.
Contact
hello@splinterjournal.com
Editor
Farrin Foster
Advisory Committee
Alex Cothren
Ali Cobby Eckermann
Annie Waters
Benjamin Madden
Chris Best
Dominic Guerrera
Jane Howard
Jessica Alice
Jessica White
Katherine Tamiko
Kylie Maslen
Publisher
Splinter is published by Writers SA and supported by CreateSA, Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and UniSA.
Design
Tyrone Ormsby
Studio Work Office
Fonts
Article Text by Matter of Sorts
Walter Neue by Dinamo
Submissions call out
Submissions are open for issue five from December 17, 2025 until January 19, 2026.
We believe diverse and intersectional voices make for a better publication and warmly invite submissions in English (or in other languages with English translation) from writers across Australia and the world.
Splinter is always looking for writing that considers how reality is made and how it can be broken. We are particularly keen on writing that acknowledges that existence is silly and absurd and also, somehow, really serious.
While we don't want writers to feel limited by the below list, these are some themes and voices we are particularly interested in for issue five:
- Regional First Nations voices
- Housing and homelessness
- The climate crisis (and its more optimistic cousin climate justice)
- The fate of progressive politics (if it exists?) in so-called Australia
- Literary criticism that engages with the above themes
You don’t need to address these themes directly in your writing, but please prioritise submitting work that brushes up against these prompts.
Submission guidelines
We only accept one submission per writer, with the exception of poetry. We will accept three stand-alone poems per writer, or one collection comprising up to four poems. Please only submit new work that has not been published before.
Submissions will only be accepted via the Writers SA Submittable page. Before submitting, please read the full submission guidelines found there, which include additional information about what we’re looking for, terms for commissioning, and detail on the formats.
If you still have questions, please contact us on hello@splinterjournal.com
We pay writers
These are the formats we are looking for and their associated pay rates:
- Profiles - $900
- Essays - $900
- Memoir - $600
- Criticism - $700
- Fiction - $900
- Poetry - $250/poem
- Poetry collection - $450/collection
- Writing about writing - $500
- Experimental work - Paid (rates dependent on the nature of the work)
For profiles, essays, writing about writing, and criticism, we are looking for pitches of ideas (rather than completed works).
For memoir, poetry, and fiction we are looking for submission of completed works.