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
$60
Annual subscription includes:
- Issues 2 and 3 delivered to your letterbox
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Editions also delivered in accessible digital format (PDF/UA)
- Occasional digital newsletters from Splinter between issues, including reading recommendations
- Early access to Splinter events
Australian subscriptions cost $60 AUD per year, with free shipping.
*International subscriptions cost $80 AUD per year, with free shipping.
$165
Joint Meanjin-Splinter annual subscription includes:
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Four issues of Meanjin delivered to your letterbox
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Issues 2 and 3 of Splinter delivered to your letterbox
- Splinter also delivered in accessible digital format (PDF/UA)
- Occasional digital newsletters from Splinter between issues, including reading recommendations
- Early access to Splinter events
Australian subscribers only, please. Shipping is included in the cost of the subscription.
$30
Purchase includes:
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One print edition delivered to your letterbox
-
Editions also delivered in accessible digital format (PDF/UA)
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
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 second issue will be
released in May 2025.
Contact
hello@splinterjournal.com
Editor
Farrin Foster
Advisory Committee
Ali Cobby Eckermann
Amy T Matthews
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
Call out
Submissions are open for our First Nations issue from June 23 until August 3, 2025.
Whether you’re Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori, Sámi or belong to another first peoples community, we want to hear your voice.
For the First Nations issue, we are looking for writing that speaks to the weight and wonder of living as First Nations people — where past, present and future aren’t separate but walk together.
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Give us the stories that sit in your body.
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The ones passed down.
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The ones that keep you up at night.
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The ones you’re still trying to understand.
We’re interested in the fractures and the fight, the moments of stillness, the ridiculous. What does it mean to carry culture, to carry knowledge in a world that wants us to forget? What does survival feel like today — and what does joy look like in the cracks?
We’re not looking for permission, politeness or performance. We want truth. Weirdness. Rage. Love. The absurdity of life in the colony. Connect us to Country. To memory. To each other. Make us laugh, make us ache, make us pause.
The First Nations issue is being led by guest editor Jannali Jones and will be published in November, 2025.
We warmly invite writers to submit their work via the Writers SA submittable page.
Submissions
We accept two submissions per writer, with the exception of poetry. For poetry, we will accept three stand-alone poems per writer, or one poetry collection comprising up to four poems. Submissions are only 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.