For Writers

Submissions

We run open calls for submissions throughout the year:

  • Non-fiction call-outs are open four times a year and invite full submissions in response to a loose edition theme.
  • Fiction call-outs are open two times a year and invite full submissions for short fiction on any subject (short fiction doesn’t need to align with edition themes).
  • Poetry call-outs are open four times a year and invite full submissions for poetry on any subject (poetry doesn’t need to align with edition themes).
  • We occasionally open call outs for specific projects such as the Griffith Review Emerging Voices competition.

Griffith Review in 2024

  • Griffith Review 83: Past Perfect (Feb): examining our love affair with recycling our history – CLOSED.
  • Griffith Review 84: Attachment Styles (May): going beyond the family tree to consider our myriad emotional bonds – CLOSED.
  • Griffith Review 85: Status Anxiety (August): exploring the fallout of our status anxiety. - OPEN
  • Griffith Review 86: Leaps of Faith (November): examining the many faces of faith and belief and how they shape us.

Open

Supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund

We are looking for original submissions of fiction and creative non-fiction from 3,500 words up to 5,000 words. You can write to any theme you like – but we want new ideas, fresh voices and bold perspectives. We're looking for work that commands our attention.

We have a distinguished track record of nurturing new voices, publishing creative thinkers and supporting our writers to establish enduring industry connections.

Up to four winning entries will be selected by our judges Jane Novak (Jane Novak Literary Agency), Harriet McInerney (NewSouth Publishing) and Maxine Beneba Clarke (author) as well as Griffith Review’s editorial staff. The winners will share a prize pool of $20,000 and have their work published in Griffith Review.

For the purposes of this competition, we’re defining ‘emerging’ as writers ranging from previously unpublished through to those with a maximum of one published book (fiction or non-fiction).

Entry fees are $25 for non-subscribers and $15 for current subscribers. The entry fee entitles you to a complimentary digital subscription to Griffith Review valid for six months.

Entries open: Monday 15 January 2024

Entries close: 11.59 pm AEST on Monday 8 April 2024.

Winners will be announced in July 2024.

Submit here

Status Anxiety

Like the answer to a riddle, status is all around us, but it can’t always be seen or heard. The silent switchboard behind our professional and personal interactions, status dictates our place on the guest list, in the room, at the table; through its connections to class, race and gender, it affords some of us power and wealth and others empty promises. But why does status so often go unnoticed? How does it influence everything from social inequality to personal relationships? And what changing forces have come to bear on the high or low status we’ve ascribed ourselves and others over the centuries?

This edition of Griffith Review grapples with the fallout of our status anxiety and explores what happens when we don’t measure up.

We're looking for non-fiction and fiction that responds to the theme. We want pieces that are no longer than 4,000 words (they can, of course, be much shorter than this).

Attention poets - We'll be opening a separate poetry call-out on 22 April – keep an eye on our social media and newsletter for more details soon.

Submissions open: Monday 4 March 2024

Submissions close: 11.59 AEST on Sunday 14 April 2024

Publication date: August 2024

We'll let you know the outcome of your submission within eight weeks of the closing date.

Submit here

Writers’ guidelines

Griffith Review is a literary and current affairs journal that’s aimed at a general readership – although we’re part of a university, we’re not an academic publication. We publish work by established and emerging writers – most from Australia, some from overseas – and we curate each edition loosely around a particular theme.

We like writing that’s erudite yet accessible, provocative yet persuasive – but what’s most important to us is that our writers have the space to express their own voice.

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