Westerly Magazine

Westerly Magazine Literature and culture of Australia and neighbouring regions. Westerly is published twice a year in July and November.

Since 1956, Westerly has been publishing lively fiction and poetry as well as intelligent articles. The journal aims to generate interest in the literature and culture of Australia, particularly Western Australia, and its neighbouring regions in South-East Asia and the Indian Ocean. It is published at the Westerly Centre in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia.

New on the Editor's Desk: John Byron's review of 'The Players’ by Deborah Pike ()!Marking Pike's debut novel, Byron writ...
19/09/2025

New on the Editor's Desk: John Byron's review of 'The Players’ by Deborah Pike ()!

Marking Pike's debut novel, Byron writes that 'The Players' is 'a warm, clear-eyed, funny and tender exploration of the tumult of early adult life.'

Belonging to what Byron calls a 'venerable canon of respectful exploration of the travails of young adulthood', Pike's novel illustrates 'how we set our courses on lessons learned almost by accident' through lively and lyrical writing.

Read the full review on our Editor's Desk here: bit.ly/4prnq1n

⏰ Today is the day!Today is your FINAL day to submit your creative work for Westerly's 70th issues! We’re preparing a bl...
17/09/2025

⏰ Today is the day!

Today is your FINAL day to submit your creative work for Westerly's 70th issues! We’re preparing a blockbuster double-edition and we cannot wait to read your submissions.

Send us your short stories, microfiction, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, artwork, comics, essays and literary criticism by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT to be in consideration.

Read our Submission Guidelines on the 'Contribute' page on our website, then submit through our Submittable portal (Link in bio and below).

🔗bit.ly/3HVvMx9

✒️🦄💙📙

Best of luck! We're so excited to read your work.

We are so excited to announce and welcome our new Poetry Editor Michael Farrell! Michael’s book publications include Go...
12/09/2025

We are so excited to announce and welcome our new Poetry Editor Michael Farrell!

Michael’s book publications include Googlecholia, Family Trees, I Love Poetry (which won the Judith Wright Calanthe Queensland Literary Award) and Cocky’s Joy (poetry), as well as, most recently, The Victoria Principle (stories). This book extends the humour and narrative drive of Michael’s poetry to the short story form

Michael has also written Writing Australian Unsettlement: modes of poetic invention 1796-1945 (revised from a PhD thesis completed at the University of Melbourne).

Michael will be working alongside our current Poetry Editor, Lucy Dougan, in reading for Westerly's upcoming double-edition.

Pease join us in welcoming Michael to the Westerly family. His work will begin with our upcoming double-edition in print, 70.1 and 70.2, currently open for submissions.

We are so excited to announce and welcome our new Fiction Editor, Mirandi Riwoe! Mirandi Riwoe’s 'Stone Sky Gold Mountai...
12/09/2025

We are so excited to announce and welcome our new Fiction Editor, Mirandi Riwoe!

Mirandi Riwoe’s 'Stone Sky Gold Mountain' won the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her novella 'The Fish Girl' won Seizure’s Viva la Novella and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. 'Sunbirds' was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award, while 'The Burnished Sun' is a collection of her short stories and novellas. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT). Her novel 'A Short History of Longans' will be out in June, 2026.

Mirandi will be taking over the position of Fiction Editor from Julie Koh. We are incredibly grateful to Julie for her work with the Magazine and for the many wonderful stories that have made their way onto Westerly’s pages through her careful hands. Thank you, Julie!

Pease join us in welcoming Mirandi to the Westerly family. Her work will begin with our upcoming double-edition in print, 70.1 and 70.2, currently open for submissions.

"The closure of Meanjin is [...] an insult to Australian culture. It is a damaging and short-sighted assessment of value...
05/09/2025

"The closure of Meanjin is [...] an insult to Australian culture. It is a damaging and short-sighted assessment of value, placing greater significance on small-scale cost-saving than the inestimable richness of the space Meanjin holds for Australian literature. It disregards coldly the cultural wealth of the magazine, and the cultural infrastructure it represents on a national level. Make no mistake, our nation is poorer for this." - Catherine Noske, past Editor of Westerly, on the closure of Meanjin.

Read Catherine's full statement here: https://westerlymag.com.au/response-to-the-closure-of-meanjin/

Westerly encourages you to lend your voice to protesting in any way you are able. You might wish to sign, for example, this open letter authored by poet and novelist Alan Fyfe, calling for the decision to be reversed: https://openletter.earth/an-open-letter-to-the-vice-chancellor-of-the-university-of-melbourne-on-the-closure-of-meanjin-6617e6d9

Vale Charmaine Papertalk Green-Smith. Charmaine’s work crosses genre, forms and cultural spheres. She was a powerful lea...
29/08/2025

Vale Charmaine Papertalk Green-Smith.

Charmaine’s work crosses genre, forms and cultural spheres. She was a powerful leader and a wonderful thinker. She will be sorely missed.

In Westerly’s Online Special Issue djinda, edited by Elfie Shiosaki, Charmaine published three poems—one small part of the vast amount of writing she offered. These poems sit alongside works like Just Like That, Tiptoeing Tod the Tracker, False Claims of Colonial Thieves (with John Kinsella), Nganajungu Yagu, and Art (again with John Kinsella). She also won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal.

We share here Charmaine’s poem ‘Another Milky Way Journey’, from djinda, and remember her fondly. Love to her friends and family, and to the Yamaji Nation.

ICYMI: Creative submissions for Westerly 70.1 and 70.2 opened yesterday! 👀To celebrate 70 years of the Magazine, we want...
28/08/2025

ICYMI: Creative submissions for Westerly 70.1 and 70.2 opened yesterday! 👀

To celebrate 70 years of the Magazine, we want to make this year's issues as spectacular as we can. And we need your writing to do so. So please, send us your short stories, microfiction, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, artwork, comics, essays and literary criticism! You have until midnight 17th September to do so, and to be considered for publication.

You can find our Submission Guidelines on the 'Contribute' page on our website, then submit through our Submittable portal (Link in bio and below).

🔗bit.ly/3HVvMx9

🎂🍾✍📚

📣 Creative submissions for Westerly 70.1 and 70.2 are now OPEN!In celebration of Westerly's 70th issues, we are preparin...
27/08/2025

📣 Creative submissions for Westerly 70.1 and 70.2 are now OPEN!

In celebration of Westerly's 70th issues, we are preparing a blockbuster double-edition for our readers. And we want your writing for them!

You have three weeks to send us your best and most beautiful efforts. Submit your short stories, microfiction, poetry, memoir and creative nonfiction, artwork, comics, essays and literary criticism by midnight 17th September to be in consideration.

Read our Submission Guidelines on the 'Contribute' page on our website, then submit through our Submittable portal (Link in bio and below).

🔗bit.ly/3HVvMx9

✏️📚📕💟

We are so excited to get reading!

ICYMI: Check out Mark Prendergast's review of 'Holocaust Island', by Graeme Dixon (). Prendergast writes that as Univers...
05/08/2025

ICYMI: Check out Mark Prendergast's review of 'Holocaust Island', by Graeme Dixon ().

Prendergast writes that as University of Queensland Press takes a step "toward forming a canon of First Nations texts [...] Dixon's voice needs to be heard all over again.'

Read the full review of 'Holocaust Island' here on The Editor's Desk: bit.ly/4fl9JfF

It's time for another book review from The Editor's Desk!Mark Prendergast reviews the inaugural winner of the David Unai...
01/08/2025

It's time for another book review from The Editor's Desk!

Mark Prendergast reviews the inaugural winner of the David Unaipon Award, 'Holocaust Island' by Graeme Dixon ().

Prendergast writes that 'Dixon's report from the frontline cannot be reengineered into the reconciliation project. He demands that the reader face the facts.'

Read the full review of 'Holocaust Island' here: bit.ly/4fl9JfF

ICYMI: Read our review of ‘She’s Not Normal’ by Koraly Dimitriadis!'The poems themselves jump off the page, perhaps look...
28/07/2025

ICYMI: Read our review of ‘She’s Not Normal’ by Koraly Dimitriadis!

'The poems themselves jump off the page, perhaps looking for a nearby stage from which they can captivate an audience with their effervescence. [...] There is a strong sense of rhythm and dynamism in She’s Not Normal, as if the poems are pulsing with a lifeblood of their own'.

Read it on the Editor's Desk here: https://shorturl.at/hpMy

There's a new book review on the Editor's Desk! ‘She’s Not Normal’ by Koraly Dimitriadis published by Outside The Box P...
24/07/2025

There's a new book review on the Editor's Desk! ‘She’s Not Normal’ by Koraly Dimitriadis published by Outside The Box Press!

Reviewer Gemma White writes that 'the banshee scream of the repressed woman rises in this work, and it’s not taking no for an answer'.

Read it here: https://shorturl.at/hpMyi

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