Month: May 2026

Poetry callout unpublished manuscripts, Australia

Walleah Press welcomes unpublished poetry manuscripts
from poets resident in Australia.

What is the preferred number of pages per submission?
From chapbook size through to full poetry collections.

What is the preferred method of submitting a manuscript?
Emailed to Ralph Wessman – ralph-walleahpress@proton.me – as a pdf document. A bio is required, along with a general content description for promotional purposes.

Is there a charge for submitting a manuscript?
No, it’s free.

Will authors successfully submitting a manuscript be entitled to complimentary copies on publication?
Yes, five copies.

Who is eligible to submit?
Residents of Australia supplying an Australian street (as opposed to a post office box) address.

Why the preference for delivery to an Australian residential address rather than to a post box number?
Walleah Press publications in Australia are printed by Melbourne-based IngramSpark, which despatches by courier. While courier service deliveries to post office boxes are possible, the price difference between the two is often substantial.

What is the general timeframe between submission and acceptance?
Ideally, acceptances will be offered within two and three months of manuscript submission.

Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Writing 2026

Lovely to note Kristyn J. Saunders is the winner of the Local Entry Category for the poetry section of this year’s prize.

Prize winners, along with highly commended writers and poets —

Short Story

Winner Open Category

Flight by Terry Donnelly (VIC)

Winner Local Category

Protective Measures by Carmel Macdonald Grahame (VIC)

Winner Youth Category

Burning Cedar by Matilda Mayson (NSW)

Winner Mayor’s Prize

Footfalls Echo in the Memory by Charlotte Elizabeth Chidell (VIC)

Highly Commended Open Category

Driving with Goats by Claire Aman (NSW)

Damages by Hannah Duffus (VIC)

Busting by Kristen Tytler (VIC)

Highly Commended Local Category

Milkmouth by Maggie Januloska (VIC)

Highly Commended Youth Category

The Fencer by Winter Kuhaupt (VIC)

Her by Kelsey Beck (QLD)

Gate 62 by Ayaan Mohiuddin (VIC)

The Bird and the Worm by Jenny Wright (WA)

Poetry

Winner Open Category

Visit to the Columbarium by Richenda Rudman (VIC)

Winner Local Category

Over There by Kristyn J. Saunders (VIC)

Winner Youth Category

Our Candid Colosseum by Raihan Ameur (VIC)

Highly Commended Open Category

Sorry Time by Brenda Saunders (NSW)

Contrapuntal Facing Houla, Southern Lebanon by Dženana Vucic (VIC)

Highly Commended Local Category

Ulupna Island (Non-)Elegy by Anders Villani (VIC)

Memory Like Dory by Fee Sievers (VIC)

Undoing by Zana Fraillon (VIC)

Highly Commended Youth Category

Riding by Bruce Ru (NSW)

Ceiseag by Eartha Davis (VIC)

Poetry reviews at Uplift Poetry: John Bartlett, Kristyn J. Saunders

A couple of recent reviews, though behind a paywall, appeared recently at Uplift Poetry, including some generous words from Jack Anthony for John Bartlett’s poetry chapbook  In the Spaces between Stars Lie Shadows

Thumbing through my initial notes, I discovered a scribble that read: “It is sad, there is some dread, but also unwavering hope”. I didn’t link this note to a particular poem; it nonetheless works as an overall reflection of this book’s tone, and perhaps its ethos. In the Spaces between Stars Lie Shadows is an incredibly impressive and valuable reading experience. Its emotional intelligence, artistry, and advocacy are as impactful as if it were a collection three times its actual length.

John Bartlett's poetry chapbook 'In the Spaces between Stars lie Shadows' (October 2024)
John Bartlett’s poetry chapbook ‘In the Spaces between Stars lie Shadows’ (October 2024)

– along with a review, by Tori Brown. of Kristyn J. Saunders’ September 2025 collection  Slipstream.

Kristyn J. Saunders, 'Slipstream'
Kristyn J. Saunders’ September 2025 poetry collection ‘Slipstream’

(If you’re interested in poet John Bartlett’s work, his memoir ‘love and its penalties‘ appeared in May 2026 — 240 pgs, $25 within Australia, including postage:

John Bartlett grew up in country South Australia on the Murray as a pious Catholic boy before attending boarding school in Adelaide. As a teenager he entered a Catholic seminary in Sydney where he spent seven years training to be a Catholic priest before going overseas to work in Mindanao in the Southern Philippines.

There he was exposed to the political turmoil of the Marcos’ Martial Law years and the ongoing wars against Islamic separatists. In 1980 he left the priesthood and returned to Australia and Melbourne where he came out as gay at the height of the HIV AIDS pandemic.

He took on a variety of jobs, including kitchen hand, masseur and film extra before turning to professional writing and subsequently published fiction, non-fiction and poetry – twelve books in all.

At its heart this is a story of falling in love too easily and too often.)

John Bartlett memoir ;love and its penalties'

How a kindergarten teacher became the accidental guardian of 200 king penguins

King penguins

(From ‘The Guardian’, 14th May 2026)

The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) makes its home almost exclusively on islands in the Southern Ocean. But it has been coming to this wind-battered bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region for hundreds of years, probably because its shallow shores offer protection from marine predators and humans.

Early explorers named it Useless Bay because those same shores made landing boats, including industrial fishing vessels, nearly impossible. Still, humans remained such a threat that no permanent colony of king penguins formed here until 2010. Then, as a colony started to develop, a local landowner and former kindergarten teacher Cecilia Durán Gafo, now 72, decided she would protect them.

Today, she runs a reserve that oversees the only continental king penguin colony in the world, one that has grown from a handful of penguins to nearly 200.

More from ‘The Guardian’….

 

 

Poems are …

‘Poems are not puzzles, of course. Poems are like horses. They have a life of their own, and challenge you to encounter them on terms about which you cannot be altogether clear. Having said that, once upon a time I was in a field with a horse and he looked at me and I looked at him and it was pretty clear whose field it was.’

Martin Stannard, 2005

Dublin Review of Books – Spring 2026 issue

Dublin Review of Books

About  –

The ‘Dublin Review of Books‘ was founded in Spring 2007 as an online journal offering a space for reflection on literature, history, arts, society, politics and culture. It publishes long-form essays and shorter pieces, in both cases usually tied to recently published books. It is free.

The Spring 2026 issue –

Includes John Alderdice on biographies of John Hume and David Trimble, a new poem from Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Stefan Collini on James Bryce’s once great reputation, Quassim Cassam on bullshit, Lynsey Black on Presbyterian piety and promiscuity, Lori Allen on the plight of Palestinians and other strangers, Eoin O’Malley on the enigma of Leo Varadkar, Ruby Eastwood on the young Virginia Woolf, Maurice Earls on the rise, fall and possible revival of Irish Catholicism, our new Rereadings series featuring Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind and more.

From the editors – 

This is the first of four issues coming out this year. Each season will bring a new drb issue offering original, engaging copy on a broad range of themes from the arts and imaginative literature to history, politics and ideas. Blogs will continue to be published between issues, as reflected in the most recent series of blogs published on April 29.

The next issue –

Due out in early June and will include Edna Longley on Seamus Heaney, Luke Gibbons on John McGahern, a new poem by James Harpur, and Ruth Harris looking back at her awarding-winning history of the Dreyfus affair, discovering new and fascinating parallels with our times.

Vica Bayley MP | Author Katherine Scholes

Vica Bayley MP’s adjournment speech – local author Katherine Scholes, 15 April 2026 in the Tasmanian House of Assembly
 

Vica Bayley

Thank you Honorable Speaker. I rise tonight to talk about the launch of Katherine Scholes’s tenth novel, One Night at Silver Lake, an event that has
literally just concluded in Nipaluna Hobart. Katherine is a friend, neighbor,
inspiration, and internationally bestselling author who’s sold over 2 million books. Her writing has been translated into over a dozen languages, and she’s won literary awards in Australia and overseas. Katherine has been awarded the Bicentennial Medal for her contribution to Australian
society and in 2025 she was inducted into the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women.

The soldout event tonight was mc’d by Katherine’s peer, acclaimed author Heather Rose and featured a conversation with journalist, academic and media leader Dr. Joce Nettlefold.

In 2023 Nipaluna became a UNESCO City of Literature, a recognition of our outstanding contribution to writing, long list of award-winning, best-selling authors, and depth of talent in grassroots literature. This month alone, at least half a dozen books by Tasmanian authors have been launched.

Katherine is part of that legacy.
 
Katherine has been writing books for over 40 years, often bringing Tasmanian stories and landscapes to readers from near and far. Her first book, The Boy and the Whale, a children’s story set on Flinders Island, was a bestseller in Germany, where it’s still popular decades after its release.
 
Katherine was born in 1959 in what was then Tanganyika, now Tanzania.
She’s written seven novels set there during the independence era of the early 1960s. Her work explores all the big themes of life set against a complex background of colonial and postcolonial societies. In this new book, she brings her main character from Tanzania to Tasmania. In doing so, Katherine links her two homelands. In the story, this connection is symbolised by kangaroo grass. Remarkably identical species of this plant grow in both countries. Their origins lying in the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
 
In honour of this, Katherine spent part of publication day last week having an illustration of the grass inked on her ankle, her first tattoo.
 
This new book also reaches into Katherine’s Welsh ancestry. Her grandfather was a coal miner and many people may not know of the role of Welsh people, particularly coal miners, in the colonisation of the east coast of Tasmania.
 
Last week, I heard Katherine interviewed on the ABC and expressed how important it was to her that in bringing a character from Tanzania to find a new home in Tasmania, a connection was made with the original owners and custodians of this island, the Palawa.
 

Katherine was married for over 40 years to much loved and admired Tasmanian filmmaker Roger Scholes. His death in 2022 evoked an outpouring of grief in the creative and conservation communities of Lutruwita. My colleague Cassy O’Connor spoke beautifully about Roger following his passing in this very chamber. Katherine was halfway through writing One Night at Silver Lake when Roger died. They had collaborated closely on everything,  books, film, including the iconic feature film The Tale of Ruby Rose. They spent time upriver during the Franklin blockade, and their doco about the protest is a classic of activist filmmaking and an important contribution to the historical record.

After Roger’s death, it was a difficult task for Katherine to continue writing, but she pushed through courageously finishing this book, which is already gathering praise.
 
Katherine and Roger both earned their living as full-time artists. This is very hard to do. Communities benefit greatly from what artists contribute, but their work is undervalued, usually underpaid or not paid at all. Governments must properly support the arts.
 
Creativity runs in the family, and both of Katherine’s and Roger’s sons are active in the arts scene. Johnny founded the successful street arts organization, Vibrance, and has a piece showing today in Hobart currently at TMAG (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery). Lindon is a composer and painter as well as being a psychiatrist. As AI transforms society, the role of art in people’s lives will only grow in importance.
 
I conclude with immense congratulations to Kath on the publication of this novel. I’m halfway through reading it and soon to set off with the main character Sara on the long journey from Tanzania to Tasmania to fictitious Rhondda on the east coast. I can’t wait for her to get here to properly understand Katherine’s skill in using words to paint a landscape. A landscape I know and love in detail.
 
Seeing this this work published and launched is an incredible testament to Katherine. Not just her skills, skill in the craft, but her resilience, tenacity,
and determination. I know how hard it was to return to writing following Roger’s death. But she has prevailed and has produced a piece of work that does our UNESCO status proud and will stand alongside her other works as a masterpiece of both scene and story.
 

Thank you.

Katerine Scholes - 'One Night at Silver Lake'
Katherine Scholes – One Night at Silver Lake

Seasonal Poets Autumn Reading – Hobart, May 18th

5.30pm Monday, May 18: Seasonal Poets Autumn Reading

To be held at Fullers Bookshop, Collins Street, Hobart, featuring Liz Winfield, Susan Austin and Jane Williams.

Liz Winfield is widely published and a stalwart of Tasmania’s poetry community. Her soon to be released book is In My Heart, A Rainforest.

Susan Austin is a poet, eco-socialist activist and mental health occupational therapist. She has published three collections of poetry, and was longlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards.

Jane Williams is a poet of gentle, compassionate insight. To hear her read is to be immersed in fierce and thought-full understandings of the overlooked. Her tenth collection of poems, Afterimage, will be released soon.

Tickets are $12.00 and include a glass of wine or non-alcoholic beverage. Tickets can purchased at the door or at Trybooking.