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It’s a lot of work publishing a magazine. And in this economy? Let’s face it: print’s a dying medium. It’s why Voiceworks has finally decided, after thirty-seven years, to call it quits.
‘It’ being our first issue of 2026: Voiceworks #136, ‘Quits!’ (Don’t worry, we aren’t really going the way of Meanjin—though for that matter, neither is Meanjin). Stella Tavener’s painting greets us with an inscrutable squint; Jonathon Fisher’s graphite illustrations are so alive, they threaten to fly off the page; Alex Stevenson’s sharp, squiggly design keeps us on our toes.
Turning to what they’ve quit, our writers turn to where they’ve come from. Paula Campos, Olivia J. Wood, Verity Pascarl, Faith Chung, Saskia Lynzaat and Annabella Luu all write in air thick with ‘the pollution/of people’s leaving’, to quote Luu’s poem. Yet even amid this pollution we find grace, insight, startling humour—imagining how to defend her new navel piercing to her mother, Campos’s narrator lands on the argument: ‘Jesus had piercings too.’
Breakups abound in this issue—though not of the sort one might expect. Emily Wilson takes up the collapse of a close female friendship as a subject just as worthy of attention as any romantic heartbreak, and Frankie Carroll comes to the decision, after long, anguished deliberation, to close their bedroom door to a housemate’s troublesome cat.
As for interviews: poet Emilie Collyer and EdCommer Eartha Davis recall a cool morning spent discussing their recent poetry collections (both with Vagabond Press); and André Dao sifts through his brilliant ‘baggy monster’ of a novel, Anam, with EdCommer Faye Tang.
What are you waiting for? Quit reading this blurb, and pick up a copy of Voiceworks Quits!
It’s a lot of work publishing a magazine. And in this economy? Let’s face it: print’s a dying medium. It’s why Voiceworks has finally decided, after thirty-seven years, to call it quits.
‘It’ being our first issue of 2026: Voiceworks #136, ‘Quits!’ (Don’t worry, we aren’t really going the way of Meanjin—though for that matter, neither is Meanjin). Stella Tavener’s painting greets us with an inscrutable squint; Jonathon Fisher’s graphite illustrations are so alive, they threaten to fly off the page; Alex Stevenson’s sharp, squiggly design keeps us on our toes.
Turning to what they’ve quit, our writers turn to where they’ve come from. Paula Campos, Olivia J. Wood, Verity Pascarl, Faith Chung, Saskia Lynzaat and Annabella Luu all write in air thick with ‘the pollution/of people’s leaving’, to quote Luu’s poem. Yet even amid this pollution we find grace, insight, startling humour—imagining how to defend her new navel piercing to her mother, Campos’s narrator lands on the argument: ‘Jesus had piercings too.’
Breakups abound in this issue—though not of the sort one might expect. Emily Wilson takes up the collapse of a close female friendship as a subject just as worthy of attention as any romantic heartbreak, and Frankie Carroll comes to the decision, after long, anguished deliberation, to close their bedroom door to a housemate’s troublesome cat.
As for interviews: poet Emilie Collyer and EdCommer Eartha Davis recall a cool morning spent discussing their recent poetry collections (both with Vagabond Press); and André Dao sifts through his brilliant ‘baggy monster’ of a novel, Anam, with EdCommer Faye Tang.
What are you waiting for? Quit reading this blurb, and pick up a copy of Voiceworks Quits!
