(Alternate title: I advertise my own writing)
Note: Submissions will be closing on 6 December. They will re-open in early February.
Last November
This time last year, Lauren and I were in the final stages of preparing Banksia Journal for launch. The pages were all up, and sitting in anticipation behind a “coming soon” screen. We made sure we wouldn’t launch with an empty site; our first three stories, “Witches, What Witches?”, “The Glass Slipper on the Stair” and “The Debutantes” were ready and waiting to be read.
Lauren had written her Master’s exegesis on launching a literary journal. That, and the not-yet-public Banksia Journal website had been submitted, and Lauren awaited her final grade with bated breath.
It would be on 5 December, 2023—almost a year ago now—that Banksia Journal first became available to the public, and opened for submissions.
Also in November last year, my short story “I-M-S-C-A-R-E-D” appeared in issue 301 of AntipodeanSF; another, much longer running Australian speculative fiction publication. As it happened, Lauren had also been in touch with the founder and editor of AntipodeanSF. Ion Newcombe was one of several people to answer Lauren’s questions about starting a literary journal, helping her with her exegesis.
But enough about all that. I’ll dedicate next month’s blog to properly reflecting on a year running Banksia Journal.
This November
In more current news, if you stop by the State Library of WA, on the ground floor next to the Geographe Room, you will find eight 100-word micro stories on the wall of Writing WA’s office. These queer little stories are written to the theme Stories with Pride, and will be on display for the duration of Perth’s PrideFEST this month.
Or, if you’re instead nearby in Raine Square, the click of a button on the story dispenser there may also print one of these micro stories for you.
If you subscribe to Banksia Journal’s email newsletter, you’ll know I was one of the authors lucky enough to have my micro story—“A Sisyphean Task”—included among the eight Stories with Pride.
Stories with Pride is a part of Writing WA’s Changing the Conversation: Stories in all Spaces initiative. According to Writing WA, this aims to build “new bridges between writing and other creative fields, offering a series of immersive, often experimental experiences designed to reshape how literature is perceived across the community.” It will run from 2024 through 2025.
When I told my mum a 100 story of mine would be published, she reminded me of a previous foray into micro fiction; a 50 word horror story I wrote for my year 10 English class. She asked if I’d left off halfway through a word this time, too.
I could honestly tell her no, I hadn’t…
…I’d just started halfway through a sentence.
Still, this prompted me to go back and read that decade old micro horror story. I was actually quite impressed with the effort of my fifteen-year-old self.
Here it is:
I regretted accepting the dare as I wandered through the eerie moonlit forest, arms wrapped around myself against the chill wind. I had accepted because I knew it wasn’t the ghosts that took Amy, though I couldn’t tell anyone that secret. Suddenly I heard the crunch of footsteps behind me, and whirled around “that’s imposs
(If anyone bothers to count, you may notice this is in fact 54 and a half words. It looks like I was trying very hard to stay within 10% of that word limit.)
As a final note, I’ll suggest keeping an eye on Podstreet, Writing WA’s podcast.
Brittany Lee is the co-founder, and editor of Banksia Journal. She is a writer from Perth, Western Australia, with a BA in Linguistics, and Postgrad Diploma in Journalism. Her work has appeared in AntipodeanSF, Dusty Attic Publishing, and Perth’s Raine Square Story Dispenser. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and taking photos of flowers (such as banksias).
You can find her online at brittanyerinlee.com.