DEBRIS Magazine is now calling for pitches for Issue 07, 'Get Help'.
How now, brown cow? When problems are often so entangled, solutions can easily become problems themselves. Do intentions matter when every response to crisis triggers its own complex chain of side effects? While there appears to be an answer for almost anything these days, little feels promising when it comes to solving the real issues we face – notwithstanding the oligarchs standing in the way. Can we fix anything without simply displacing the damage?
Meanwhile, guides, prophets, tutes and dogmas abound. With an internet connection, you can teach yourself anything, and even more if you cast open the barn doors of your mind. How to set up a router. How to walk your cat on a leash. How to dance. How to refinance a mortgage. How to shop for solar panels. How to achieve euphoria. How to be of help. Don’t get us started on the experts at selling yourself as an expert. Faced with the allure of a better world, or a better life – and as reality itself is increasingly up for interpretation – our ideas could hardly be more disparate.
Searching for new ways to be: perhaps the only rational thing to do with knowledge and a point of view. What kinds of remedies are seductive enough? Which politics will convince us, and which will offer proof? Which marketing pitch will nail the sale? Who will be cured? Will there ever be a panacea for the pain?
Well – you tell us. We invite proposals for short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, visual essays, reviews and more that intersect with this issue’s conceptual frame.
This issue is edited by Cher Tan and Jon Tjhia.
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Details:
Please submit pitches between 250 to 500 words.
The total word count for selected pieces will be up to 3,000 words.
Rates vary from $150–$500 depending on the scope of the commission.
Please note that submissions for Issue 7 are only open to writers living in Australia.
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Key Dates:
Submit pitches by 9 January 2026.
Contributors will be notified of the outcome by 12 January 2026. Please note that we are unable to provide any feedback should your pitch be rejected.
Submission deadline for final pieces will be 2 March 2026.
Issue 07 will be published in May 2026. Please inform us if you are pitching to multiple publishers or if you are pitching an already published piece.
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