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Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
1
Issue 13: The Shadowed Side
7th February, 2016
Welcome to our first issue of 2016 featuring creative writing’s Shadowed
Side, where reside the things we hide, things other’s cannot abide. Our feature piece,
Raphaelle Race’s poem The last battle, explores the brutality of dealing with a mental
illness and the feeling of being at war with one’s self. We also have works exploring
love lost, selfish and mysterious villains, and the eternal wrestle with one’s mortality.
Welcome to the Shadowed Side.
A heartfelt thank you, as always, to our contributors, who patiently and
generously incorporate the feedback from our team of editors to make their work
shine just that little bit brighter. We love what we do here at Underground, and
arguing for our favourite pieces is the part we love best. Writers from all over the
world provide us quarterly with a fascinating array of subjects and forms which we
passionately dissect, critique and fight for, and this issue features pieces that were
dissected with particular care. Another heartfelt thank you to you, our readers, who
support us by enjoying Underground, perhaps over a coffee or tea, on the train, or in
a cosy alcove, shadowed and mysterious.
~ Jemimah
Editor-in-Chief
I am a Melbourne-based reader, writer and editor of adventures for word-lovers.
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter @oddfeatheredit, and my website oddfeather.co
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
2
Editor-in-Chief
Jemimah Halbert
Volunteer editors
Timi Adeyemi, Ailish Beahan
Dylan Dartnell, Kate Lomas Glendenning
Ana Neves, Candace Sharpe
Shelley Timms, Jessica Wilson
Contributors
Luna Ma Narama
Flick Oriander
Raphaelle Race
Anthony Ward
Kate Lomas Glendenning
Underground Literary Magazine is published four times a year
Underground would like to respectfully acknowledge this magazine was
produced and edited on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people of
the Kulin nation, and also on the traditional lands of the Wadjuk people of
the Nyoongar nation. As a nationally-reaching magazine, we also pay our
respects to the traditional custodians of all the lands from which the stories
and poems in this issue were sourced.
Views expressed by authors are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright is
reserved, meaning no one is permitted to scan or photograph our pages and publish them
anywhere else. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited.
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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Contents
Cover………...Editor’s Letter
4………….Feature: The last battle, Raphaelle Race
5……………..Wild Mind, Felicity Oriander
6………….Review of Patrick Marber’s Closer, by IntoxiKate
7……Gush, Luna Ma Narama
8………….The Captured, Felicity Oriander
10………….I’m mortal, Anthony Ward
12………….Firestarters, Luna Ma Narama
14………….Upcoming Local Opportunities
16………….Upcoming International Opportunities
18………….Our Editors
Back cover………………...Writing exercise & Contact
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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Feature piece
The last battle
Raphaelle Race
His life has been a series of retreats
unable to make up lost ground
but there was cohesion, until
he heard Them clawing through the pages of his greatest novel
ready to tear him a-fucking-part
the only way to fend Them off
gasoline and an old wheelbarrow by the pond
I saw the ashy dead fluttering
a week later abandoned
in their cradle
he was too terrified to approach it
so there was a new path worn around to the chicken coop
he went back to the whiter the rounder
the easier to see with
with pills, the world is nervous
but it has stopped its quaking
there is stillness now but
that wheelbarrow still squats by the water
swelling in its iron
his eyes glance off it sometimes
and you can see shining on the pond
the pages flaring in his arms
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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Wild Mind
Felicity Oriander
Won’t be silly and desirous
Even though I saw myself in your shiny eyes
For I am on the important precipice
Can’t glorify the dizzying highs
Stories of tell-tale dreams flow forth
You appear to be made from my kind of kin
Enthusiasm unrelenting, we acknowledge
Your value on friendship is the one way in.
Self-consciousness escaped me I feel,
No looking with fake future vision.
It does impress me, entice me to kneel.
Your mind is pointed and humbly wise.
In you I see a mystery that we,
Do have; but lost long ago
Rekindling elusive Universal agape,
Please say you’ve surrendered your born shadow.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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Review
Closer
Patrick Marber
An important feature of a good play is dialogue. The expressions, actions and scenery
are minor to dialogue and character development in Patrick Marber’s
play, Closer. Marber captured moments of brutal honesty regarding contemporary
romance and delivered a sincere account of the mess, love and perfidy caused between
two couples.
In order to appreciate Marber’s play I don’t think it is necessary to be a fan of plays, but
it is necessary to be sympathetic to each character. At the end of the play no character
was right, they each said or did something to each other, yet that is how the play is
captivating. The anger and cruelty of each character, which was especially reflective in
the dialogue, was painfully realistic.
Marber’s play is memorable because of one of his main characters, Alice. Alice was
bewildering from the start; her actions and conversation made her appear to be wild and
overly confident. Yet, as the play progressed, despite being a main character, Alice
appeared enigmatic until the final scene. I loved her for her honesty and her
understanding of how the world worked, this was reflected in her discussion with Dan on
the only way you can leave someone,
“Alice: It's the only way to leave. "I don't love you anymore. Goodbye."
Dan: Supposing you do still love them?
Alice: You don't leave.”
Another memorable “Alice moment” was her description of the concept of falling in love,
“That's the most stupid expression in the world. 'I fell in love'—as if you had no choice.
There's a moment, there's always a moment; I can do this, I can give in to this or I can resist
it. I don't know when your moment was but I bet there was one.”
The play was adapted into a movie in 2004 with a star stamped cast of: Natalie Portman,
Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Clive Owen. The movie remained loyal to the play but
allowed itself to be glamorized by the scenery, rather then relying on the dialogue. I
would recommend the play to people who aren’t offended by harsh language and are
sympathetic to flawed characters with memorable lines.
~ IntoxiKate
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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GUSH
Luna Ma Narama
Giddy hop.
Tongued, torn,
drawn and sanctioned,
she is thorny
and in bloom.
Begging the rivulets
to burst
themselves
and remember high tide
she is acres,
aching for
discoveries,
forest folk
learning leaf languages,
pressed hard
in to archaic memory.
She is fire on the tongues
of the holy,
ice in hearts of the sworn,
she is candy jazz
and salt glass rim
finger printed with sweat,
she is Guatemala,
and she knows it.
Howling down the moon
in thick night,
she the heartbeat of
rubber on tar
making time.
A promise and a threat,
she is sugar and arsenic,
a beginning, a middle,
and an end,
but not necessarily
in that order.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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The Captured
Felicity Oriander
He had a magnetic quality to him. A polarity that, at the time, was addictive.
Fool that I was I ploughed on ahead. Lost in a black forest of his fantasy. As
well as his majestic beard.
When he spoke it was rarely of him or his life. The past became the master of
his present I could see. I suspected his mind became engulfed by it. Many
warning signs I brushed over simply because he was unique. An Old Soul just
like me. An alpha male writer. No wonder I was dazzled by him, I definitely
desired him. I wanted to be comfortable around him and yet I was never fully
unhindered. We had a magnetic chemistry, unlike anything I’d experienced
before with other suitors. But energetically we were mismatched. He was a
critical thinker and deeply hostile towards society.
As always, my intuition was there, trumpeting in the background.
He gave off a strong ‘me against the world’ vibe far too frequently. Creating
in his world a void that only seemed to be gaining momentum until a moment
of cataclysm. A black whirl of bleak thoughts and discontent. However, it was
also visible to me, that in another time, he had blossomed as such. I wish I
could’ve been the one to see him roar with laughter, be in a place of peace
and seen him bound up to friends excited as a child, gushing words of life
delight. Witnessed him showing off about his interests and achievements.
Revelled in his masculinity. But those were my heart’s decisions, not my head’s. I
did not listen to it. Or my gut. Both is required for the soul to flourish. The
‘coming home’ of right decisions.
Socially adept with anyone, he was never thrown inwardly. Never made to
feel rattled or ill at ease. Not that I detected anyway. But, sometimes, I saw
flashes in his eyes of discomfort within himself. The whole way through he only
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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wanted me for his intent. As ridiculous and flimsy as it was- he was not a man
of strong character. In the past he would have been, the future, perhaps, but
not now. In light of his actions, it eroded my inner power.
In the end it all got too much, it consumed me. Ten months after meeting he
occupied my thoughts and very self to the point of being in disharmony with
my Being.
On the advice of my friend Pippa- a woman of sunshine and much strength; I
deleted him from Facebook and erased his number. Relief. New space. I set
myself free. It really did call for that kind of drastic action.
He hit me like an old-worldly train, all charm and mystery and vague
substance.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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I’m mortal
Anthony Ward
Him: I’m mortal? I want to be immortal.
Her: Not this again. We’ve been through this. What’s the point of trying to be
immortal at the expense of living in the hope of existing long after you’re
dead? You spend so much time trying to define life that you’re unable to live it
by constantly being dissatisfied with it.
Him: I’m not dissatisfied with life. I’m dissatisfied with people. I find it
increasingly difficult to show my face in public because I’m ashamed, not of who
I am, but of who I’m not. I’m no longer the person I thought I was. When no-one
else seems to think of you in the way you think of yourself you begin to question
yourself until you’re constantly left wondering who you are. Yet we always see
ourselves differently from what others see us as. We may think we’re somebody,
but nobody else does, so can we really be that person we think we are if
nobody else thinks we are? If everyone thinks we’re somebody we’re not and we
think we’re somebody we’re not then where does that leave us? That we are
only who we imagine we are? So nobody really knows who they are. They only
think they do. But the most difficult thing is admitting the fact that you’re not who
you thought you were.
Her: Well who the hell is? We all turn out to be something else in the end.
Him: That’s the trouble I’m not something else.
Her: Maybe you’re pulling yourself down with all the gravitas you’re expecting
of yourself.
Him: I just want to contribute something to the understanding of humanity. I want
to write something meaningful because I have no idea what anything means. Life
seems so pointless at times. I just can’t find any meaning for it.
Her: Maybe there isn’t any meaning.
Him: I’m more for conversing about the finer details in life, like the reasons why
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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we’re here. The world is a blessing. Nature is so fascinating. It renders your
problems obsolete. When I’m out walking by myself away from people, nothing
seems to matter. I can no longer embroil myself in the mundanity of things.
Her: The mundanity of things?
Him: The trivia of everyday life. That pococurantism towards the main course of
life that gets people excited over mere trifles, gossiping about themselves and
other people. What is gossip if nothing more than the ridicule of others?
Indulging in others mistakes and failures to make ourselves feel superior?
Nobody has time for anyone who is lost or who doesn’t know themselves. When
you’re alone you’re very much alone and when you’re together you’re very
much together. When we’re happy we find one another. When we’re sad we
find ourselves.
Her: Perhaps you’re just a little out of your depth at the moment, but you’re
learning all the time. You can only truly fail once you fail to keep going. There’s
no turning back because everything’s progress.
Him: I just need to know what I’m doing is worthwhile. Not just for me, but for
others who I feel I’ve let down. I believe in hard work but I cannot abide hard
work wasted. I’ve put a lot of effort into what I do—all for what?
Her: Don’t you think you’re being a little self-centred?
Him: If I’m a little self centred it’s because I’ve got ambition. My soul’s seething
with passion. I want to be something more than what others want. I don’t want to
shrivel behind my insecurities. I want to find a voice.
Her: Maybe instead of looking for a voice you should just stop and listen.
Maybe then you may find some meaning to everything.
Him: I do listen. I just don’t like what I hear.
Her: Like the fact you drink too much. That’s why you’re mortal.
Him: I think too much. That’s why I’m pissed.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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Firestarters
Luna Ma Narama
There are words that once wrote the world,
In dark cover night,
fat key type-writers
scorned down from the bourgeoisie syndicate highways,
vowels ebbed
through crack window smoke curls,
new truths
beat out to the street
via psychotropic skyways
Pillars of ink
taken up by sun,
rained syrupy into upturned slick pavement ears
of black blooded babes
strung out on
high wire
celestials
There are words that once wrote the world.
Words marched hot to blister tongues of the uninitiated
to Scorch souls
used to confines,
see there, if you catch the neons just right,
you see the trails left blazing
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
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Come on baby,
carve me a dawn from this here inferno,
lets roll up these school-girl skirts
and blister our knees
on tomorrows promise,
let’s leave scratch marks
on backs
of sleeping darlings
rolled up, in pollo neck rhythms,
those pussies that purred the
pulse of the savage endless.
Itchy finger technicians at the ignition of a
dreaming.
Let beat the heady riots,
slipping unmanned between linguistic acrobatics
to fill slumbered minds with sweet word treats
ready to roll long on the tongue.
There are words that once wrote the world.
Let’s have this pulse relight them.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
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Awards & Competitions
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival and AAWP Prize
A fantastic prize for emerging Australasian writers. The theme is ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, which is a
Hindu concept meaning ‘I am you, you are me’, accepting pieces of up to 30 lines of poetry
or up to 3000 words of prose. Closes 15th May. ubudwritersfestival.com/aawp-prize/
Griffith University Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize & Poetry Prize 2016
First prize of $10,000, second prize of $5,000 for a short story up to 2,000 words.
First prize of $10,000, second prize of $5,000 for a poem up to 100 lines.
Entries for both prizes close 12th February, winners announced mid-May. griffith.edu.au/
2016 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
Open for short stories between 2,000 and 5,000 words, entry $20 for non-ABR subscribers.
Winner receives $7,000, second prize is $2,000 and third prize is $1,000. Entries close 11th
April. australianbookreview.com.au/
The Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing
Currently accepting fiction and non-fiction manuscripts of at least 20,000 words, with an
open theme suitable for children or young adults. Submissions open 1st February and close
4th March. textpublishing.com.au/text-prize
Publications
P3 WA
Kim Sanders Pty Ltd Publishing is calling for original creative writing submissions up to 4,000
words in length for their quarterly publication P3, with an annual prize pool of $2,000. They
accept poetry, plays and prose. writingwa.org/
Westerly Literary Magazine
Submissions are open for issue 61.1 for writing focussing on the theme of renewal in
Indigenous writing and culture. They are seeking essays, creative non-fiction, fiction and
poetry. Submissions close 31st March. westerlymag.com.au/
Upcoming Local Opportunities
Opportunities from Australasian and New Zealand publications and organisations
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
15
Antic
Antic is a new not-for-profit online literary magazine of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and
criticism open to Australian and international writers. anticmagazine.com.au/
Griffith Review Novella Project IV
Griffith Review are accepting submissions for their annual Novella Project edition, prizes
are a share in the $25,000 prize pool and a free one-year digital subscription to Griffith
Review. They are seeking original works of fiction between approximately 10,000 and
35,000 words, submissions close 13th May. griffithreview.submittable.com/
ELEVATE initiative for playwrights
Writers can enter in the young adult round, 18-25, or older ,26+. The competition is for a
one-act play. Both categories close submissions 25th March. theatre451.com/elevate/
Field of Words Flash Fiction & Short Story Competition
Currently open and accepting flash fiction of 100-500 words, and short stories of 1,000-
2,500 words, with cash and publication prizes. fieldofwords.com.au/writing-competition/
Questions Writing Prize
For writers between 18-30 years of age, submissions can be fiction or non-fiction between
1,500 and 2,000 words, first prize of $2,000. questions.com.au/writing-prize/index.php
Local publications regularly accepting submissions
Grouch Publishing—grouchpublishing.com
Tincture Journal—tincture-journal.com/
Island Literary Magazine—islandmag.com/pages/submit
Voiceworks Magazine for Young Writers—oiceworksmag.com.au/contribute/
Going Down Swinging—goingdownswinging.org.au/site/submissions/
Cordite Poetry Review—cordite.org.au/submissions/
Creatrix Poetry & Haiku Journal—creatrix.wapoets.net.au
Uneven Floor Poetry Magazine—unevenfloorpoetry.blogspot.com.au
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
16
Awards & Competitions
The Bath Short Story Award—Bath, U.K.
The Bath Short Story Award, based in Bath, UK, is open to international published and
unpublished writers, entry fee of £8. Short stories of up to 2,200 words in any genres and
styles, entries close 25th April. bathshortstoryaward.co.uk/
Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction—Colorado State University, U.S.A.
Theme is open, stories must be between 2,00 and 12,500 words, and entry is US$15 per
entry, no limit of entries. Submissions close 14th March. coloradoreview.colostate.edu/
Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize—Vermont, U.S.A.
This prize is run by Hunger Mountain journal and open to writers internationally. Stories may
be up to 10,000 words, the winner receives US$1,000 and publication. Entries close 1st
March. hungermtn.org/contests/
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest—Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Open theme, US$18 per entry, limit of 6,000 words. Entries close 30th April.
winningwriters.com/
Conium Review Innovative Short Fiction Contest—U.S.A.
For new writing that takes risks, showing something new in its subject, style or characters. Limit
of 7,500 words, entries close 1st May. oniumreview.com/
The David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction—Texas, U.S.A.
Open to writers who have not published a book of fiction. Winner receives US$1,000 and
publication in Southwest Review. Stories can be up to 8,000 words, entry fee of US$25,
deadline 1st May. smu.edu/SouthwestReview/
The HG Wells Short Story Competition—U.K.
For stories between 1,500 and 5,000 words. Entries close 17th July.
hgwellscompetition.com/
Upcoming International Opportunities
Opportunities from international publications and organisations
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
17
Bath Flash Fiction Award—Bath, U.K.
Maximum length is 300 words, excluding title, entry fees apply. Entries close 14th February.
bathflashfictionaward.com/
Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities Competition—Glasgow, U.K.
A free-entry competition for anyone in the world, they are accepting science fiction short
stories up to 3,000 words, the deadline is the 29th February. scifimedhums.glasgow.ac.uk/
Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2016 Short Story Competition—London, U.K.
Open to all nationalities, entrants must be registered with Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook. The
Prize is £500, a place in a writing course, and publication on the website. Entries close 15th
February. writersandartists.co.uk/
International publications currently accepting submissions
Buffalo Almanack—buffaloalmanack.com/submit/
Stoneboat Literary Journal—stoneboatwi.com/submit.html
Indiana Review—indianareview.org/submit/
Tin House—tinhouse.com/magazine/
Word Riot—wordriot.submittable.com/Submit
Granta—granta.submittable.com/submit
Ginosko—ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/downloads.htm
Sixpenny & Co.—sixpenny.org/#!submit/c1m30
The Wrong Quarterly—thewrongquarterly.com/
Quiddity International Literary Journal—quidditylit.com/?page_id=9
Neon Literary magazine—neonmagazine.co.uk/
Fields Magazine—fieldsmagazine.com/submissions/
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
18
The
team
Read our full biographies at underground-writers.org
LiquorIsh
I’m in my first year of a writing major at Edith
Cowan. I grew up on the beaches of Albany, a small
city on the south coast of Western Australia
So far, it has been a pleasure to immerse myself in
all of your work. Keep it coming!
DylanQuent I am studying a major in Literature and Writing, here
at ECU, Mt Lawley
I believe that collaboration is an integral component
to the creative process. I favour pieces dark in
nature; I cannot help but visualise a beauty in the
macabre. But the pieces that resonate with me most
ultimately leave me higher spirited by tale’s end.
Candy
I have grown up reading every book I could get my hands on.
I have a borderline addiction to Pinterest, am a
vegetarian, am prone to getting attached to inanimate
objects, French fluent, and guilty of becoming too invested in
the lives of fictional characters.
RaeZor I am majoring in Writing and Events Management
with Minors in History and Hospitality at ECU.
One day I hope to own a book café, where anyone
from anywhere can come and enjoy the
atmosphere… or more importantly the food. That’s
what reading and writing is to me—a medium that
anyone from anywhere can contribute to.
Issue 13: Jan./Feb. 2016
19
Ana’Rchy
Avid reader, writer and feminist. I even taught Mark
Ruffalo how to be a great feminist. You’re welcome
ladies (and Mark – call me later, babes!)
Find Ana’Rchy on Instagram and Twitter
@anamonthsago
IntoxiKate
I have spent my life with my head inside books. I am a
perpetual student, zealous writer, incurable reader
and passionate editor. My weaknesses are books, tea
and quoting authors, “Always”.
Tim
I have a Bachelors in Mass Communication from
Redeemer’s University, majoring in Public Relations
and Advertising, and I am currently a first year
Postgraduate student of Marketing and Innovation
Management at Edith Cowan University. I am a lover
of poems and great speeches, “Let a Hundred
flowers Blossom” by Mao Zedong seems to be my all
-time favourite. I also love star gazing.
ShellShock
I am currently a Journalism student at Edith Cowan University.
There’s something about getting to know the inner workings of
someone during an interview that is compelling, and the same
goes for fiction.
Issue 11: 14th June, 2015
20
Writing exercise #13
Write the place you are in right now. List the sensations
experienced by your skin, ears, eyes and nose. Reduce it to the
three strongest images and write a separate scene for each linked
to a memory of a similar sensation, i.e. sitting under a tree in
dappled shade can become lying on a trampoline under the shade
of a gum tree when you were a child, or the smell of coffee
reminds you of mornings before school. Turn these three scenes into
a poem, linking each scene as a journey through memory.
Contact
Submit your work to Underground at
For general enquiries you can email us at
Our website is underground-writers.org
Find us on Facebook at Underground Writers
Follow us on Twitter @undergroundWA