Island has some great new projects planned for 2025 – more opportunities for writers and more great stories, poems and essays for readers. This includes a range of events, workshops and mentorships.

For more details keep checking this page, and keep an eye on our newsletter and socials.

Upcoming events

Nature writing panel

When: Wednesday 9 July, 6pm- 7pm
Where: Hosted live via Zoom
Registration required

In collaboration with Fullers Bookshop and the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, we are delighted to present a new Nature Writing Prize.

We’re inviting writers to submit their finest work exploring nature, whether in fiction, nonfiction, or graphic narrative form. And to inspire fresh and unexpected perspectives, we are running an online panel discussion on all things nature writing. The panel will be chaired by Island's Editorial Manager, Jane Rawson, and she will be joined by James Bradley, Laura Jean McKay and Sharleigh Crittenden (see bios below).

Meet the panelists:

James Bradley

James is a writer and critic whose Deep Water: The World in the Ocean, won the 2025 NSW Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and a Gold Medal in the 2025 Nautilus Awards. He is an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney and his latest novel, Landfall, is published by Penguin.

Laura Jean McKay

Laura Jean is the author of The Animals in That Country - winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award, The Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year and the Aurealis Award. Laura is also the author of Holiday in Cambodia and Gunflower. She is the 2025 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellow, Ireland, and teaches Creative Writing at Massey University.

Sharleigh Crittenden

Sharleigh is a Wiradjuri writer, researcher and mother living and writing on Wangal Country. Her short story ‘River Fish’ won the 2023 First Nations Storytelling Prize and her poem ‘Narrowboats’ was shortlisted for in the 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize. Her work has been published in Island, Portside Review and The Rumpus, among others. She is currently working on her debut novel.

Upcoming events

James Bradley

Laura Jean McKay

Sharleigh Crittenden

Island Magazine