Taking Submissions: Science Write Now #7 (AU Only)

We welcome submissions anytime!

Please submit your new or previously published poems, short stories, book reviews, or literary or personal essays related to science, technology, engineering, or maths.

Current call for submissions: Our seventh issue is based on the theme ‘Science, Humour and the Absurd’.

This edition of Science Write Now will explore how humour and the absurd shape cultural ideas of science and, in turn, how the world of science influences comic performance in popular culture, art and literature.

Mark Twain wrote, “Humour is tragedy plus time”. So can comedy help us make sense of the scientific and political entanglements of climate change? If laughter is the best medicine, can it also help us manage chronic illness? Existential crisis? How does science explore the absurdities of our age? And how does the science of humour actually work?

We welcome new and previously-published craft or creative essays, fiction, memoir, and poetry related to these themes, with a view to publishing in June 2022.

Submit here.

We pay $0.30/word up to $390 for new writing, $70 for a single poem or $180 for three poems, $40 for reprint stories or essays, and $20 for reprint poems.

Please note—due to current funding arrangements, we can only pay for pieces by Australian writers or by writers living in Australia. We’re hoping to expand internationally soon!