ISSUE NO. 22
MAY 2026

Creative

This section publishes creative contributions mostly from currently and formerly incarcerated people. It includes short-stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, and much more.

If you have something creative to submit to us, we would love to read it, or see it, and publish it in About Time – please write to us!

Latest

By Phillip

There’s irony, hypocrisy, fallacy, a vast ocean of distance to cross. The “saint”, the “sinner”, it’s lunacy, that the ignorant could save the lost.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
By Karie

I’m not belle of the ball, not the very least, but we have something in common, I’m in love with a beast. But the beast is not a person but a drug that I call meth, I’ve been talking to myself for hours, I’m running out of breath.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ
By Dennis

Nostalgia is a gentle haze, a soft and fading, golden maze, where time itself begins to blur, and memory’s touch is sweet and pure.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ

Previous Editions

ISSUE NO. 5
November 2024

Behind These Eyes

By MULLO

No one can see the shame and guilt, trapped behind these eyes. As I sit here in a prison cell, all due to a pack of lies.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 5
November 2024

Last Letter

Anonymous

Clean me of this damaged life and make it right. And I swear I will do whatever it takes to be a better man. I swear it.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 5
November 2024

No Regrets

By Alex

My partner and I are both currently locked up down here in Tasmania. Your newspaper has been a huge hit in both the women's and the men's prisons, so I thought I'd send you something from both of us.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 4
October 2024

Not Going Home

By Lance

When in jail some don’t want to go home, it’s true. Hard to believe, so I will find out more for you. Are the dudes for real, or a screw loose in the head. They would rather stay in jail, than going home instead.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 4
October 2024

Not Just Words

By Ashleigh

The voice is beautiful; my lungs fill with a relieved gasp. I expected a prison sentence. A feeling of chest tightening, breath weak, metal and voices. A life of strip searches and beatings.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 4
October 2024

Dream Girl

By Bukks

The woman of my dreams; she isn’t there. The woman of my dreams; she doesn’t care. The woman of my dreams; she isn’t real. The woman of my dreams knows not how I feel.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 4
October 2024

The Birds and the Bees

By Lance

Behind cement walls and razor wire, I can see a tall tree – swaying in the breeze it reminds me, the day I’ll be free. Then in come the birds from out of that tree, I watch these birds with envy and I wish it was me.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 4
October 2024

Heaven From Above

By Malsnight

A wee bit of heaven, drifted down from above. A handful of happiness, a heart full of love. The mystery of life, so sacred and sweet, the giver of joy, so deep and complete. Priceless and precious, so loveable, too – the world’s sweetest miracle, baby doll, is you!

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

Paradise or Prison

By Joseph

Our faces are seen above uniforms of green, we parade in this prison, all shaven clean. "Another day in paradise", we sarcastically wink, "we fake it till we make it", we tell our shrink.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

Inside/Outside

By Joshua

Outside these prison walls exists real life, going daily about their business in haste. The hustle and bustle, too busy to stop, lives synchronised, and no time to waste.

3 MIN READ

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