Island magazine

Island magazine Literary, arts and culture magazine Island publishes new fiction, essays, artworks and poetry from around the world. Based in Hobart, Tasmania.

Island #176 is out now! Get your copy on the Island website, at your local stockist, or out of your letterbox if you ar...
18/12/2025

Island #176 is out now! Get your copy on the Island website, at your local stockist, or out of your letterbox if you are one of our hugely valued subscribers. Looking for a present for a literature-loving friend? Why not get an Island subscription! Find out more at islandmag.com

Island 176 is almost here - coming soon to your letterbox or a shop near you. If you haven't subscribed yet, there's sti...
07/12/2025

Island 176 is almost here - coming soon to your letterbox or a shop near you. If you haven't subscribed yet, there's still time: get one for yourself, and one for a friend for Christmas! islandmag.com/shop/

"I had broken out in hives the night before the wedding. At the reception I pounded antihistamines and sipped tiny sips ...
07/12/2025

"I had broken out in hives the night before the wedding. At the reception I pounded antihistamines and sipped tiny sips of champagne alternated with gulps of water, looking the part of a blushing bride. Under the tan I could have sworn I still had faint stencils where the hives had bloomed, on my temples, my chest, my back, my belly, all down my arms and legs. I hadn’t told my new husband. I wasn’t going to. That day we joined a snorkel tour..." What could possibly go wrong? Find out, at islandmag.com/read - "Irukandji death syndrome" by Tabitha Lafernis

Image: Yeiji Yoo - Unsplash

Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun’s ‘Menura novaehollandiae’ asks how we record the things we value, reflecting on the deep history ...
06/12/2025

Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun’s ‘Menura novaehollandiae’ asks how we record the things we value, reflecting on the deep history of lyrebird mimicry and the unwritten language of his grandparents. We were delighted to shortlist this clever, tender piece for the Nature Writing Prize: islandmag.com/read

Image: Geoffrey Moore - Unsplash

With the inaugural Nature Writing Prize, we at Island set out to discover what Australian writers are thinking about our...
05/12/2025

With the inaugural Nature Writing Prize, we at Island set out to discover what Australian writers are thinking about our changing relationship with the world around us. We were so excited to read Rosalee Kiely’s ‘Habitat’, which applies the naturalist’s keen eye to the landscape of the kitchen table and to the fauna of children. Read this shortlisted piece now at islandmag.com/read

Image: Behind The Tmuna - Unsplash

Huge congratulations to Nadia Mahjouri for her win in the Woollahra Digital Literary Award! The judges said of Nadia's s...
26/11/2025

Huge congratulations to Nadia Mahjouri for her win in the Woollahra Digital Literary Award! The judges said of Nadia's story, 'The miracle', which was published on Island Online: "a startlingly fresh, delicate yet unsparing slice-of-life set in Tasmania in the late 1950s. Narrated through the steady, observant perspective of ten-year-old Lori, we meet her war-torn father, a brother battling 'the Whispers' and (not quite) her absent mother, revealing the cracks forming in the family after two wars. The child's voice treads the line between innocence and noticing; the extraordinary is woven through with the ordinary in her eyes. Mahjouri's prose is beautifully controlled and tender, layering domestic reality with ominous tension. The miracle is survival itself. The ending is quiet, devastating, unforgettable."
Congratulations too to Nadia's editor, Kate Kruimink!
Read 'The miracle' here https://islandmag.com/read/the-miracle-by-nadia-mahjouri

CLOSING TOMORROW - SEND US YOUR POEMS! Island is delighted to once again present the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, proudly ...
26/11/2025

CLOSING TOMORROW - SEND US YOUR POEMS! Island is delighted to once again present the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, proudly supported by The Hobart Bookshop. The winning poet will receive $2000; two runners-up will each receive $500. All three poems will be published in Island issue 177. Find out more at islandmag.com/submit

Image: Karola G - Pexels

Island is delighted to once again present the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, proudly supported by The Hobart Bookshop and cl...
19/11/2025

Island is delighted to once again present the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, proudly supported by The Hobart Bookshop and closing soon! This year's Prize will be judged by Island's poetry editor Kate Middleton, along with Graeme Miles and incoming poetry editor Tim Loveday. The winning poet will receive $2000 + four-issue subscription to Island; two runners-up will each receive $500 + four-issue subscription to Island. All three poems will be published in Island issue 177, due for publication in March 2026. Entries are now open; closing 5pm AEDT, Thursday 27 November 2025. Find out more at islandmag.com/submit

Image: Michael Burrows - Pexels

Toby Fitch is trying to defend himself from an onslaught of Pusheens in 'Cute poem', but he has to admit 'it was cutenes...
18/11/2025

Toby Fitch is trying to defend himself from an onslaught of Pusheens in 'Cute poem', but he has to admit 'it was cuteness that triggered this essay-poem, however unconsciously, when I was looking for a way to write to you to say I can see the empathy in your greater glider eyes'. Will he submit? Find out at islandmag.com/read

Image: Jason Leung - Unsplash

Adam Ouston peels the skin back from David Szalay's Booker-winning 'Flesh' in 'A new literature of exhaustion': 'The pro...
15/11/2025

Adam Ouston peels the skin back from David Szalay's Booker-winning 'Flesh' in 'A new literature of exhaustion': 'The problem is there’s nothing there. The novel’s supreme act of violence – and I would argue, it is violence that, although it almost always happens off screen, holds everything together – is the depletion of its protagonist. Flesh is not so much pornographic in its depictions as in the paucity of detail and subjectivity, and as we know, depriving one of their subjectivity is the epitome of violence.'
Read more at islandmag.com/read

Image: Nyara Aquino - Pexels

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▼Ideas. Writing. Culture.

Island is a not-for-profit print-only magazine of essays, short stories, poetry and art.

Since 1979 we have been celebrating ideas, writing and culture from our base in Hobart, Tasmania. We value variety and excellence, publishing new, emerging and established writers from mainland Australia and overseas as well as from Tasmania. We advocate for excellent writing and for the joys and benefits of reading.