Got a short story that’s crying out for a national audience? Well, it’s time to polish it up, because The Big Issue’s annual Fiction Edition is now open for submissions!

A launchpad for the careers of some of the most beloved household names in literature, The Big Issue Fiction Edition is Australia’s bestselling fiction magazine, publishing new works by local authors for more than 20 years.

Previous authors published in the Fiction Edition include Jane Harper, Tony Birch, Matthew Reilly, Melanie Cheng, Christos Tsiolkas, Chris Ames, Alice Pung, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Max Easton, Bruce Pascoe, Claire G Coleman and Trent Dalton – to name but a few.

Whether you’re an action aficionado, a romance lover, a literary darling or a cross-genre experimenter, we’re looking to publish short stories of all kinds.

You’ve gotta be in it to win it, so here is everything you need to know:

• Entry is FREE, and open to writers based in Australia.
• Every author published is paid $500.
• Stories should be between 500 and 3000 words.
• Stories must be previously unpublished.
• Submissions are limited to one story per person.
• Please submit as a Word Doc attachment, double-spaced with 12-point text.
• Your name, email, full postal address and phone number MUST be included in the body of the email, separate from the story, as the long-listed submissions are judged anonymously.

To enter, email your story to fiction@bigissue.org.au

Entries close 11:59pm AEST Monday 2 June 2025