June’s review is here! A Court of Wings and Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas, A review by editor Jessica Rae Wilson-Smith “It’s a rare person to face who they are and not run from it- not be broken by it.” A Court of Wings and Ruin is the third and last installment of Sarah J….
Category: Announcements
Writing Challenge Day 7
Writing Challenge Day 7 *Here is a list of story genres: romance, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, children’s book, comedy, murder mystery, western. Feel free to add any others that you like to the list.* Look at a story you’ve written this week and re-write it in the above styles. How does changing the style change your…
Writing Challenge Day 6
Writing Challenge Day 6 *write a list of your favourite characters/historical figures/celebrities.* You invite them all to dinner. What is the dinner conversation like?
Writing Challenge Day 5
Writing Challenge Day 5 *Google “weird news”. Write a list of the kooky headlines that come up.”* Imagine you wake up one day in an alternative universe where those headlines are normal. What is this alternative world like? You discover that you know one of the people involved in one of the news stories. How…
Writing Challenge Day 4
Writing Challenge Day 4 *Following on from yesterday’s challenge, write a list of places you or your character want to go.* Why do you/your character want to go to each place? What do those places have in common? How would you get to each place? What do you think would happen at each place?
Writing Challenge Day 3
Writing Challenge Day 3 *Write a list of places you or your character have been. They can be as far ranging as countries or as close to home as the local shops.* Try to link these places. What does each place say about you/your character? What did you learn in each place? What happened in…
Writing Challenge Day 2
Writing Challenge Day 2 *Look at a person that you’ve never met before. Write a list of things you notice about them.* What do these things tell you about this person’s personality? What do they do for work? What is happening in their life write now? Use your list to write a story about this…
Writing Challenge: Day 1
Writing Challenge Day 1 *write a list of things that are around you right now (objects, people, weather, sounds, smells…)* Write a story that incorporates them all. How far out of your space can you make those objects reach? How different can you make the space around you become?
Writing Challenge June 2017
Underground is proud to present the 2017 mid year writing challenge! In honour of upcoming issue, The List, this challenge utilises lists to help us develop settings, characters, plots and style. The rules are simple. Each day this week (Monday 12th – Sunday 18th June) at 5am (AWST) we’ll post the day’s list challenge. You’ll…
Writing Opportunities for June
Writing Opportunities for June 2017 Grieve Writing Competition In honour of Grief Awareness month (August), the Hunter Writers Centre is seeking submissions of short stories, up to 500 words, or poetry, up to 36 lines. For writers over 18 years, theme is to express grief and loss. Closing 9th June. hunterwriterscentre.org/grieve-project.html Overland special winter issue…
3 Ways I Trick Myself Into Writing More
3 Ways I Trick Myself Into Writing More By Editor-in-Chief Jemimah Halbert If you haven’t already read last month’s blog post I suggest you read it now. It covers the basics of defining where and how you write, and without knowing those elements it will be difficult to make any of the following tricks work. All…
May’s Review: Rubik
May’s Review is here! Rubik, by Elizabeth Tan A review by editor Jessica Gately I was lucky enough to be introduced to this book at its launch at Beaufort Street Books in Mt Lawley. I joined a throng of other local literature lovers as store reps served wine and nibbles and Tan signed copies of…
Interview: Marianna Shek, author of The Stolen Button
This Month we talk to author Marianna Shek about her picture book for adults The Stolen Button, which Marianna is currently funding for self-publication through Kickstarter. You can donate to her fund here. Hearts are stolen every day, but a stolen belly button- well, that has consequences! When willful Mei Ling wheedles her mother Lady Lin…
Kate’s TBR list
In this series we will be sharing each of our TBR books, why we’re looking forward to reading them, and why we picked up those books in the first place. Read on to discover editor Kate’s next three books To Be Read! One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey I confess I started to…
Issue 18: Black Hole is here!
Issue 18: Black Hole is here! Featuring a review by our very own Jessica Gately, poems from Anthea Yang and Jan Price, and short stories from Carmenn Alexander King Kocznur, Nerissa Marcon, Mai Nguyen, and our feature piece from Fleur Brown-Beeby, as well as the usual monthly round-up of writing opportunities. Also revealing the theme for…
3 Simple Ways To Get Your Writing Started
3 Simple Ways To Get Your Writing Started By Editor-in-Chief Jemimah Halbert I’ve been an avid reader and regular writer for most of my life. I have kept diaries, journals, date books, notebooks, Word docs and blogs as ways to keep up regular writing, although there have been long stretches when I didn’t write much…
We are seeking an illustrator for issue 18!
Underground is searching for artists to illustrate issue 18 “Black Hole”. If you’d like to submit your idea for our cover, send a mock up to submissions@underground-writers.org by Sunday 16th April. We pay the same rates for artists as we do our writers. If we choose your idea we will need a final product by…
January Writing Opportunity Round-up
Every month we will be doing a round-up of opportunities for writers. Read on for motivation! Local Opportunities Opportunities in Australasia and New Zealand Kat Muscat Fellowship An annual fellowship that offers professional development up to the value of $3,000 for an editorial project or work of writing by a young female-identifying or non-binary conforming…
Again, the Pozible campaign
The campaign ends To all of our supporters, Our campaign ended last night, and unfortunately we did not reach our target amount. I would like to thank everyone who pledged to us, and say that although we have been unsuccessful in reaching our monetary goal, we have achieved our goal of reaching more writers and…
Our Big Plan
Underground is undergoing some big changes in 2017! The first change is that Jessica G., one of the original and founding members of Underground, has returned to us and, much like Gavin Kavanagh in The Boat That Rocked, is ready to rock and/or roll! With her help, and the hard work of all the volunteers that…
The Pozible Campaign
We have just launched our very first venture into crowdfunding with a Pozible campaign, which can be found here. You can read more about it on the campaign page, but basically Underground has always run on the generosity of passionate creatives, and now we are asking for a different kind of generosity: monetary generosity! We…
Submissions for issue 16 are now open!
Submissions for issue 16 of Underground are open! We accept poetry, short fiction, flash fiction and reviews, and as always the theme is open and submission is free! For an idea of what we publish, and to learn more about us, you can download our older issues for free on the Issues page. For specs on…
Issue 15 submissions are now closed
Submissions for issue 15 of Underground are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted; issue 15 will be released in the next few weeks!
The official Underground Goodreads page is here!
Underground now has its very own Goodreads page! Find us on Goodreads at Underground Writers and you’ll see our collection of monthly reviews. Subscribe to our feed and you’ll be notified every time a new review is released. Find our Goodreads page here
Submissions for issue 15 are open!
Submissions for issue 15 of Underground are open! We accept poetry, short fiction, flash fiction and reviews, and as usual the theme is open and submission is free! For an idea of what we publish, and to learn more about us, you can download our older issues for free on the Issues page. For specs…
Issue 14 submissions are now closed
Submissions for issue 14 of Underground closed on 20th March, thank you to everyone who submitted. Issue 14 will be released on Sunday the 10th of April; watch this space!
Submissions open for issue 14!
Submissions are open for issue 14 of Underground! Send us your best poetry, short fiction, flash fiction and reviews, and you could see your work in our next issue, due out in April. Consult our Submissions page for what we accept and how to get it to us!
Submissions for issue 13 closed
2nd January, 2016 The first news of 2016 is that submissions for issue 13 are now closed! A hearty thank you to everyone who sent us their surviving darlings! We’ve had a lot of submissions for this issue and it is partly due to you, our lovely readers and writers, spreading the word to your…
Submissions for issue 13 are open!
Submissions for issue 13 are open! 8th November, 2015 Issue 13 will be released in January 2016. As always it is an open theme and we are accepting poetry, short stories, flash fiction and reviews. Read through our submissions page, make sure your submission/s follow the guidelines, and send on over your best creative pieces! Submissions close end…
Issue 12 is here, and it’s Small and Potent
Issue 12 is finally here, and it’s small, potent and comforting, like a short black at the end of a long night. This issue features poems by Dean Meredith, short stories from Taia Jones and James Kay, October’s review by our very own DylanQuent, and introduces ShellShock, editor number 9, whose biography you can read…
Submissions for issue 12 closed
13th September, 2015 Submissions for issue 12 are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted, and keep an eye out here for the release of issue 12!
Submission extension for issue 12
30th August, 2015 Due to a lack of submissions, we are extending the deadline for issue 12 of Underground to Saturday 12th of September. We are very short on poetry, but still accepting short stories, reviews and flash fiction. We offer feedback on pieces that aren’t accepted, so even if you’re not sure it’ll end…
Submissions for issue 12 are open!
Submissions for issue 12 are open! 2nd July, 2015 Issue 12 will be released in September, so you’ve got heaps of time to polish up those poems, stories and reviews. Have a read through our submissions page, make sure your submission/s follow the guidelines, and send on over your best creative pieces! Submissions close 29th August.
Submissions and NaNoWriMo!
Hey Hey happy writers, As many of you may already know, NaNoWriMo is next month! National Novel Writing Month encourages you to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Intimidating? Maybe a little… Fun? DEFINITELY!! So our advice from here at Underground is to start preparing. Start getting a skeleton plot together and if you’ve…
Meet the new editors!
Hi guys, Chris here. So we’ve kept it fairly under wraps – or rather not at all – that we’ve been searching for a new editing team for Issue 6 and beyond for Underground, and I’m pleased as punch to reveal that we have finally settled on a wonderful new team of six editors. We…
Issue 6 submissions – closing March 31st!
Hi all, We’re now taking submissions for Issue 6, and we’re as excited as ever to read anything you want to send our way. Closing date is March 31st, which means you have two months left to write your masterpiece and send it our way. We’re really looking forward to anything you, our readers and…
Issue 5 Submissions
Hi all, We’re accepting submissions for Issue 5, and we’re keen to take anything you might want to send our way. Submissions close 30th of October, and we’ll let you know by then if you’ve made it in. Underground is only made possible by your submissions, so grab your pen or your keyboard and bust…
Issue 4 Submissions close July 31st
Issue 3 is out on the streets and with that said it’s that time to start getting ready for Issue 4. Submissions will close July 31st so get out those pens and paper (or keyboards/typewriters/inkpads/whatever you use) and remember to check out our submission guidelines to give yourself the best chance of acceptance! We also have a Challenge…
Taking Submissions for Issue 4
Issue 3 is almost with us so it’s that time to start getting ready for Issue 4. Submissions will close July 31st so get writing and we look forward to seeing what you come up with. Remember to check out our submission guidelines to give yourself the best chance of acceptance! Also we have a…
Still taking submissions for Issue 3
We’ve still got room for some work in Issue 3 so finish editing and get those submissions in by Feb 25th!