Kids’ Cover Winner!

The Big Issue is now 700 editions old! But our cover artist is just 10. Congratulations to the talented Freya from Melbourne who has won our 2023 Kids Cover Competition, with her bright, festive drawing of Santa filling up stockings with copies of The Big Issue. If you look closely, you’ll also notice the jolly St Nick has some tell-tale cookie crumbs around his beard.

“The idea kind of just came to me, really,” says Freya. “I just thought that if it’s going to be a Big Issue cover and it’s around Christmas, maybe people would like to give them as presents.”

Freya and her family buy their magazine from Phil at the Alphington Farmers Market, who is chuffed that one of his regular customers won the competition: “It’s going to be a collector’s item for her, and for me as well!”

Also in this edition:

• Three million Australian adults lack the literacy and numeracy skills required to fully participate in everyday life. In this edition, Sophie Quick looks at our national literacy emergency, and talks to three Big Issue vendors about the realities of living with low literacy.
• Bestselling children’s author Andy Griffiths talks DIY publishing, punk bands and the art of a fart joke in his Letter to My Younger Self.
• Photographer Natalya Saprunova spends time with the Evenki reindeer herders of Siberia, whose rich traditions are under threat.
• Journalist and author Julia Baird on the importance of grace.
• Writer Sian Prior celebrates the gift of wicked stepsisters.
• Who is your Celebrity Dream Dad? Yep, it’s a thing! For Deirdre Fidge, it’s Alan Alda.
• Electronica trio Haiku Hands are taking the idea of enjoying your life to the extreme, to the extreme. It’s why they’ve named their new album Pleasure Beast.
• We visit the set of ABC Kids show Beep and Mort to discover where the puppet magic happens.
• MasterChef champ Julie Goodwin shares her festive recipe for Baked Ocean Trout With Seafood – an ode to her childhood Christmases camping by the beach.
• PLUS! 2024 Big Issue Calendar is now on sale, featuring portraits of vendors around the country + some of Andrew Weldon’s funniest cartoons from the vault. Just $20 from your local vendor, who earns $12 for every Calendar sold.