Borderlands open for submissions

Are you a storyteller living in the Northern Territory? Or a storyteller with a legacy connection to the Territory?

Borderlands is open for submissions for its first online edition. Charles Darwin University, in partnership with Westerly, will publish a special Northern Territory feature of six pieces in Westerly’s November 2019 print edition. All submissions to Borderlands that meet Westerly’s submission guidelines will be considered for both the Borderlands online edition, to be published in September 2019, and the Westerly feature.

Thanks to support from the Regional Arts Fund and Creative Partnerships Australia through their MATCHLab program, all selected contributors will be paid for their work.

A call for submissions for Borderlands’ first print edition to be published in 2020 will follow later this year.

What are we looking for?

Borderlands acknowledges that not all storytelling traditions are written traditions, and therefore we are seeking creative texts, visual, photographic, audio and video submissions from Northern Territory writers and storytellers (and those with a legacy connection to the Northern Territory), including:

  • Essays
  • Memoir
  • Short stories
  • Poetry
  • Book reviews/Arts criticism (including art, literary and performing arts)
  • Translations
  • Multilingual writing

Maximum 3,500 words for text submissions, 10 images for photographic submissions and 10 minutes for audio/video submissions.  A maximum of three poems per submission. It is the responsibility of the writer to secure relevant permissions from the original authors for translation submissions.

Please note that only text submissions will be considered for the Westerly feature, and must comply with Westerly’s submission guidelines.

We define ‘Northern Territory writers and storytellers and those with a legacy connection to the Northern Territory’ as:

  • Current Northern Territory residents
  • Former Northern Territory residents who lived in the Territory for a minimum of two years
  • Anyone with strong familial or cultural connections to the Northern Territory
  • Activists critically engaged with issues concerning the Northern Territory

To submit, email hello@borderlands.cdu.edu.au with ‘Borderlands submission’ in the subject line and include:

  • Your name, contact details (including address), and a 50-word bio
  • A short statement outlining your connection to the Northern Territory if you are not a current NT resident

For text submissions:

  • Your submission attached as a Word document, Times New Roman 12pt, minimum 1.5 spacing

For audio/video/ visual submissions:

  • Your submission attached as a file OR if the file is too large, as a direct link where we can access your submission

All submissions must be previously unpublished and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, apart from submissions to the 2019 Northern Territory Literary Awards. Submissions to the 2019 awards may also be submitted to Borderlands, but will not be considered for the Westerly feature. Please clearly state in your email if your submission has also been submitted to the awards.

Submissions close on May 31st, 11:59pm (CST).

The online journal will be freely accessible. If you submit to the journal, in lieu of a subscription please consider donating to either our Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) or Patreon campaigns. Creative Partnerships Australia will match all ACF donations dollar for dollar and all Patreon pledges will be multiplied by 12 and matched (up to $10,000 by May 31st) through their MATCHLab program. All donations will go directly to paying contributors.