Splinter Journal

Latest edition of @splinterjournal is now in store at Imprints 🙌

Issue four's launch is a bit of a bonanza - want to come along?? There will be readings, Q&A, a quiz, me (Farrin) looking stressed and confused. Also (importantly), snacks!! ⁠ ⁠ It's happening Thursday, May 21, at 6pm in the State Library of SA in Tarntanya (Adelaide). ⁠ ⁠ RSVP (and find more info) at the link in our bio. ⁠ ⁠ Bonanza launch event includes live readings by:⁠ Tikari Rigney @tikari.doesart ⁠ Olivia De Zilva @oliviadezilva ⁠ Heather Taylor-Johnson @heather_taylorjohnson ⁠ ⁠ And a Q&A with:⁠ Alex Sawyer @alexsawyerwriting ⁠ Audrey Menz @audrey_menz ⁠ Johnny von Einem @jve.adl ⁠ Mx Sly @tendercontainer ⁠ Thomas Gloyn @thomas.gloyn ⁠ ⁠ PLUS a quiz that involves questions about shoplifting from Coles (v. literary!!). ⁠ ⁠ See you there, ok, bye⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTION⁠ ⁠ A lavender blue tile featuring black text with turquoise underlines. The text reads: Issue four launch / Live readings by Olivia De Zilva, Tikari Rigney, and Heather Taylor-Johnson / Plus! Writer Q&A and a quiz. ⁠

ISSUE FOUR WRITER ANNOUNCE !!! About (ok, exactly) twice a year, I (Farrin) wake up at 3am-ish and realise that the next issue is just about to launch. Despite our (very) long production timelines, it always feels like a surprise? So…. Surprise !! (I guess). Issue four is officially out on May 21. This issue has a really odd-fun mix of tenderness and bitterness (is that not just a description of being alive??) and includes new fiction, essays, criticism, and poetry by these excellent writers: Alex Sawyer @alexsawyerwriting Angus McGrath @free_wificore Aries M Gacutan @thearieszone Audrey Menz @audrey_menz B.R. Dionysius @brettdionysius Caitlin Farrugia Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo @eniolaabdul12 Heather Taylor-Johnson @heather_taylorjohnson Jake Dennis @poetofjazz Johnathon von Einem @jve.adl Kate Maxwell Koushiki Dasgupta Chaudhuri @athenaschild99 Lucy Van @busey____ Mahmoud M Alshaer @mahmouddmaher Melanie Saward @littleredwrites Mx Sly @tendercontainer Olivia De Zilva @oliviadezilva Tehnuka Thomas Gloyn @thomas.gloyn Tikari Rigney @tikari.doesart Zarah Yakubu @chillitsonlyzaza Extra thanks to @tyrone.studioworkoffice for this funny video REEL DESCRIPTION An animation set in a light blue frame. The writers’ names scroll down through the frame. Meanwhile, an image of Splinter’s issue four cover – which features an abstract shape with brown, yellow, red, and blue segments – moves upwards through the frame on a loop.

In her issue three essay, Anne-Marie Te Whiu charts the dissolution of time barriers as the past helps her find a way through a present marked by grief, loss, and resistance.⁠ ⁠ Anne-Marie is a full-time freelance writer, editor, cultural producer, and weaver who completed a Master of Social Change Leadership at University of Melbourne last year. Most recently she edited 'Woven' (Magabala Books, 2024) and her debut poetry collection is titled 'Mettle' (University of Queensland Press, 2025).⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS⁠ ⁠ 1 - A yellow-green tile featuring black text. The text reads 'This year brings about the 50th anniversary of the Māori Land March, a hikoi (march) that galvanised the nation. Te Rōpū Matakite o Aotearoa was a group created and led by my Great Aunt, Dame Whina Cooper. The march transformed the social and political will of the nation.'⁠ ⁠ 2 - A yellow-green tile featuring black text. The text reads 'I reflect on the wairua (spirit) of each of these wahine (women), and the ways their call for justice is woven into me. I reflect on ancient breezes that carry their voices and land in my poetic pen ... Can I write without my ancestors having lived the lives they did?' ⁠ ⁠ 3 - A yellow-green tile featuring black text. The text reads 'I don’t think so – I am increasingly present to their ancestral legacy that is alive in my artistic expression. I am attuned to it within my desire to mobilise creatively towards justice. In this process of remembering, a portal of imagining the future opens.'⁠

The ghosts in Maria van Neerven's poem 'Genocide' (from issue three) aren't the type that say 'boo' (which, let's face it, is usually just your mate dressed up in a sheet). Instead, they have much more horrifying and important things to communicate. ⁠ ⁠ Maria is a Mununjali poet from the Yugambeh nation living in Meanjin. Her work focuses on colonisation, racism, discrimination, family, and mental health. Growing up in a large Indigenous family she had to deal with these issues daily. Maria has been published in journals including Aniko Press, Meanjin, Westerly Magazine, and The Lifted Brow: Blak Brow. She was the winner of the David Unaipon Award in 2023 and a Next Chapter Fellow in 2024. ⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTION⁠ ⁠ 1 - A light grey tile featuring black text. The text reads 'once was afraid of ghosts not as much anymore they / leave me alone now since I made peace.'

In their criticism piece from issue three, writer Hana Pera Aoake charts a series of subtle and overt thematic threads that are embedded within Luke Patterson's poetry collection 'A Savage Turn'. ⁠ ⁠ And between illuminating the currents of Patterson's work, Hana sprinkles in visceral associations that Patterson's poetry evoked for them. It is both a thoughtful and surprisingly intimate read.⁠ ⁠ Hana (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Waikato/Tainui) is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Aotearoa. They have published three books and are a PhD candidate at the Auckland University of Technology.⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ 1 - A purple tile featuring black text. The text reads, "What gently unfurls in this collection is the leakiness of belonging to what Māori call the whenua. Whenua means both land and placenta and as people we call ourselves 'Tangata whenua' or people of the land."⁠ ⁠ 2 - A purple tile featuring black text. The text reads, "This ontological intimacy is present as an obvious relationship Patterson holds to Country, but it’s always fraught and exists alongside a more recent colonial history of violence and dispossession that feeds into contemporary Australian life."⁠ ⁠ 3 - A purple tile featuring black text. The text reads, "Throughout 'A Savage Turn', Patterson reminds us that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners account for 37 per cent of all persons in custody, yet according to a 2021 census report make up only 3.2 per cent of the total population."⁠ ⁠ 4 - A purple tile featuring black text. The text reads, "In ‘Dreaming Inside Dillwynia Women’s Prison’, ‘After Big Rain’, and ‘UnLoreful’ we are brought to the panopticon and it is completely by design."⁠ ⁠

it is hard to be sincere in these captions, because it feels like on social media you have to always be REALLY sincere, or always be REALLY silly and obviously (is it obvious?) a literary journal does both. ⁠ ⁠ But, sincerely, it is a real privilege and joy to publish writers who are just starting out. Sharing new and amazing voices genuinely makes the slog (so. many. grant. applications, etc) feel worthwhile. ⁠ ⁠ This is an extract from Mali Harkin-Noack's poem 'I'm still in that water', which is published in issue three. It is a great poem and we can't wait to read more of Mali's work.⁠ ⁠ Mali is an emerging Narungga playwright and poet. She lives and works on Kaurna Yarta, and her poem, I’m still in that water, is written about the shores on Ramindjeri ruwi.⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS⁠ ⁠ 1 - A lemon yellow tile featuring black text. The text reads "all of my ancestors were there in that water with me. / and their children, and their children, and on. I wasn’t ever alone. / I walked out of the water, dried off, and never came back."⁠ ⁠ 2 - A lemon yellow tile featuring black text. The text reads "but I’m still in that water. / I’ll always be under that water."⁠ ⁠

Slipping back and forth in time around the 2023 Voice referendum, Dakota Feirer's memoir piece 'The place on Brooklyn Bridge where two boomerangs sing' is full of shimmering images of melancholy and camaraderie. The full piece is in issue three. ⁠ ⁠ Dakota is a Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr storyteller with his work published in Kill Your Darlings, Overland literary journal, Australian Poetry and more. His book, Arsenic Flower (2025), is a collection of poems and prose that engage with Country, culture, resurgence, and manhood.⁠ ⁠ (PS - Dakota is performing in Tarntanya this week !! Find the event by searching 'We Belong Adelaide Fringe')⁠ ⁠ (PPS - * from tile two: Manahatta is the Lenape word for the area that is now known as Manhattan/Manhattan Island.)⁠ ⁠ (PPPS - is this officially the world's longest social media caption??? No. Definitely not, but it is mid-long for sure)⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS ⁠ ⁠ 1 - A blue tile with black text. The text reads: '09:38, Saturday, 16 September 2023 AEST / 19:38, Friday, 15 September 2023 EDT / the evening before the Walk'⁠ ⁠ 2 - A blue tile with black text. The text reads: 'My dorm room window faces a southern view of downtown Manahatta*, which makes it an invitation to ruminate, or a stage for resurfacing some important questions that linger somewhere deep in my body and its memories. Other times I just sit and witness.' ⁠ ⁠ 3 - A blue tile with black text. The text reads: 'Impulsively, I do that Indigenous thing and imagine the time before. I watch from my window as the city dissolves. Crackling fires hum below a flickering blanket of stars, heavy with story. By the East River, stoic towers of smoke are gently rising, reaching for the celestial waters above.' ⁠

it's actually really strange to write a sentence that tells you all what each piece from the journal is about when maybe I (as in Farrin, it's still me, hi) am wrong/don't know ?? WRITING, eh.⁠ ⁠ I think Emma-Lee Maher's 'Licking my wounds' is a fragmented and sensory memoir piece that captures the ominous suspense of being an unsupervised child. That might just be me, though. Read the full piece in issue three if you'd like to disagree.⁠ ⁠ Emma-Lee Maher is a First Nations artist and writer, her work digs into memory, family, and place. Emma’s storytelling is undaunted and layered, challenging the boundaries between fact and fiction, visual and written, self and collective memory.⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS⁠ ⁠ 1 - A brown-beige tile featuring black text. The text reads: 'My pop hangs dead snakes over the electric fence. Wounds from a blunt shovel congeal into a meal for the blowies – a macabre warning sign to their kin. He scares me.'⁠ ⁠ 2 - A brown-beige tile featuring black text. The text reads: 'The sun is inching to bed, dragging along a sheet of stars and satellites, tucked gently under its chin. / No one comes to call me down.' ⁠ ⁠ ⁠

While looking for creatures that probably aren't there (or are they?? spooky!) , the main character in Kyrah Honner's pacey and delightfully strange adventure story 'Pseudoscientist' ends up confronted by a past they were determined to ignore.⁠ ⁠ The full (and very fun) story is in issue three. ⁠ ⁠ Kyrah is a proud Birri Gubba and Luritja writer and editor based in Meanjin on Yuggera and Turrbal Country. She was a runner-up for the 2025 Nakata Brophy Prize.⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTION⁠ ⁠ A neon green tile featuring black text. The text reads: “A pseudoscientist,” I corrected with aching cheeks. “I specialise in refutable theories, like cryptids. Um, that’s creatures whose existences are hypothetical,” I stumbled. “Not proven. Basically, I’m a cryptozoologist.”

In her poem 'Who am I?', Lavinia Richards moves beyond observation to radical recognition. The full piece is in issue three. ⁠ ⁠ Lavinia was born and lives in Galinyala (Port Lincoln) and is a well respected Elder of the Barngarla Community. Aunty Lovey, as she is fondly known, presents Welcome to Country and is a keen poet, artist, and has studied creative writing with the University of South Australia. ⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTION⁠ ⁠ A brown-green tile featuring black text. The text reads 'I see hurt / I see anger / I see mistrust / I see you my people / I hear your voice'.

when we ask our editorial committee members to send us memes and photos of themselves for socials we feel guilty. perception via the void! Nobody really wants to be part of it, surely??⁠ ⁠ But also, when we go to post these photos there's something warm happening. We're so grateful for the effort everyone puts into the issues and it's really nice to acknowledge. Anyway - to the point - this is Kat Bell, who was part of the issue three editorial committee.⁠ ⁠ Kat is a First Nations Gudjal and Girramay artist, curator, writer, and PhD candidate whose multidisciplinary practice blends traditional artforms with immersive technologies to explore storytelling, cultural expression, and Indigenous representation. ⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ ⁠ IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS⁠ ⁠ 1 - A photo of Kat, who has her hand against a tree and is looking off camera. The photo has been treated with a yellow wash and a filter to make it appear grainy. ⁠ ⁠ 2 - A meme that features a grumpy-looking carton cat and black text. The text reads 'Please do not disturb, I am disturbed enough already'.⁠ ⁠