''Voiceworks'' is a national quarterly print magazine based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, featuring work by Australian writers and artists under the age of 25.

History

Express Media Express Media, formerly Express Australia, is an Australian literary youth arts organisation. It supports young writers and arts managers, and is the publisher of the national quarterly print magazine '' Voiceworks''. History Express Media was f ...

, a non-profit media organisation for young writers, was established in the early 1980s. Its newsletter ''Voiceworks'' was launched by the then prime minister,

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991. He held office as the Australian Labor Party, leader of the La ...

and music journalist

Molly Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent coordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular musi ...

in 1985 for

International Youth Year The year 1985 was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Youth Year (IYY). It was held to focus attention on issues of concern to and relating to youth. The proclamation was signed on 1 January 1985, by United Nations Secretary Gen ...

, to promote the organisation's program of workshops. As Express Australia reduced its other commitments, the newsletter grew. A quarterly, 80-page magazine centred on creative writing, arts, and illustrations was launched as a national publication with volume 1 published in 1988. It later became available online. From around issue 12 onwards (there is no complete archive), ''Voiceworks'' began to be published as a quarterly, 80-page magazine. Then, from issue 98 onwards the format changed to its current 128-page format.

Production

The magazine, published by Express Media, is produced by the editor together with a designer, an intern and a volunteer editorial committee (EdComm), all of whom are also under the age of 25. This committee assists the editor in reading submissions, editing content,

proofreading Proofreading is a phase in the process of publishing where galley proofs are compared against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks, to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place corr ...

, running launches, and writing feedback for all contributors. Each issue is subtitled according to a theme determined by the editorial committee a number of issues advance. A theme blurb is written by the EdComm and distributed with calls for submissions, with potential contributors encouraged to contribute themed work.

Governance and funding

The magazine is based in Melbourne with the

Wheeler Centre The Wheeler Centre, originally Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's bid to be a Unesco Creative City of Literature, which designation it earned in 2008. It is named after its pa ...

, an initiative of the

Government of Victoria The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the Executive (government), executive government of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. As a parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutiona ...

as part of Melbourne's designation by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

as a

City of Literature UNESCO's City of Literature programme is part of the wider Creative Cities Network. The ''Network'' was launched in 2004, and now has member cities in seven creative fields. The other creative fields are: Crafts and Folk Arts, Design, Film ...

in 2008. Express Media's operations and projects are financed by grants from the Federal and state government arts funding bodies

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

and Arts Victoria and from the private philanthropic fund

Copyright Agency Ltd Copyright Agency Ltd (CAL) is an Australian not-for-profit public company that facilitates reuse of copyrighted material by third parties, collecting fees and delivering the payments to the creators. Its business names include Viscopy, Rightspor ...

. The writer John Marsden was until his death in December 2024 Express Media's patron, and in the past provided the prize money for the John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers (renamed Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers in 2020) as well as operational funding.

People

Ryan Paine become editor-in-chief of ''Voiceworks'' in early 2006, moving from

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

to Melbourne to take up the position. He had had his first story published in the magazine aged 20.

References

External links