Other places where the literature is red hot molten lava, or where we've had a lot of nerdy online fun and reckon you might too.

Lastest update: 1 July 2006

Fresh Links, just unwrapped:

Spoiled Ink
Spoiled Ink is an online literary magazine that publishes short fiction and author interviews, book reviews and news. It's also a writing community with over 4000 members who interact, share advice and critique each others work. You can have your own site and get involved in the community or you can just graze through what's on offer. Think speed dating in a bookshop.

Blog 'O' The Month:
MONKEY PUNCH DINOSAUR - "Hello. I have started a new blog called MONKEY PUNCH DINOSAUR! It is simply pictures of monkeys punching dinosaurs. I think the internet is ready for something like this.
I would like to invite you to send me your pictures of monkeys punching dinosaurs so that I can put them on MPD! They can be hand-drawn, computer-drawn, photographed, whatever. only 3 rules: monkeys. dinosaurs. punching.
Send your monkeypunches to adamatsya@gmail.com." Adam Ford.

the spoken word>
online journals & e-zines>
young writers' sites>
comic art>
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essential literary stops>
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Anthony Lister
You should have heard the squeals of delight from the editorial team when Anthony Lister agreed to us using one of his works on the cover of issue #23. The one we chose is called "Who cares" and we absolutely love staring at that guy and having him, and his hat, stare back at us from the cover. As an artist, Lister is brilliant, unexpected, free and un-pin-downable. Intelligent, funny, and a little bit goofy too. A bit like GDS, we think. We also think he's gonna be a long-burning star. Enjoy more of his art and inspirations at his website.

The spoken word

Eadon's Place - Online spoken word radio. DJs: Linda DiFeterici & keith roach. Location: Paulsboro, NJ, United States. Airs 24/7 poetry & spokenword, interviews & shows featuring a little jazz, blues, hip-hop & more....

The Word Wrestling Federation
Bringing you Australia's first national team poetry slam competition.

Book Slam - The website of London's "literary nightclub", the brainchild of Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl) and Patrick Neate. Their intention was simple: create a regular literary event in London that doesn't make sane people want to stab themselves with rusty cutlery. It sounds like they achieved that, plus some. Book Slam takes place @ Cherry Jam in 'Ellowendeeowen', on the last Thursday of every month. Cruise the website and consider moving to the UK.

Online journals & e-zines

Tarpaulin Sky
It's an online journal, it's a new small press venture, it's based in the USAand it's publishing really wonderful new wordsmithery from writers all over the world. (sure, they might publish you too if you send something in). They're interested in eco-publishing, which makes them excellent in our book (pardon the pun). They run events in NYC, Michigan, even India! AND they can help out writers and publishers with websites. Is there anything these guys can't do?

Orphan Leaf Review
orphan leaf n.1. a single page apparently torn from a book. The page exists, the rest of the book may not. Read to the end of the page. Let your imagination do the rest.
2. An international small press literary magazine, an anthology of orphan leaves, published three times a year (March, November and July).

Digital Fiction
Digital Fiction projects are created as an exploration into innovative new approaches to writing. They use the unique potential of the internet and multimedia to blend unusual, creative narratives with other art forms. The site also has loads of links to other great sites on the web so don't start surfing here without some time on your hands.

Words Magazine
Volunteer-run website for worldwide writers and readers of short stories. New and unpublished authors encouraged. Publishes quarterly hard copy magazine - free gift for subscribers. The website has lots of resources, competitions (many free to enter).

Poets Corner
WA poetry site

Spoiled Ink
A monthly e-zine, featuring short stories, poetry, reviews and author interviews.
The Spoiled Ink Network is an online writers' community where writers can showcase and workshop their stories and poetry as well as promote their published work. Visit Spoiled Ink's submissions page for information on the next Spoiled Ink print anthology. http://www.spoiledink.com

Dumbfoundry
Poetry news, poetry blogs, poetry magazines, poetry journals, poetry sites, poetry links... there seems to be a pattern developing here...

Cry Bloxsome
Promise "good hard literary penetration." Wonder how long they can keep it up? (boom boom)

Snorkel
NZ expats publish nice simple magazine of poetry and prose.

Trout
Online publishing house for New Zealand and pacific islands literature.

Mad Hatters' Review
Edgy & Enlightened Literature, Art & Music in the Age of Dementia - an online multimedia magazine staffed solely by mad hatters. obviously kindred spirits.

Diagram
arresting electronic text and art journal from the USA - both simple and complex at the same time - beautiful. open for submissions of text and, well, diagrams - plus they run an annual Chapbook award.

Cordite
australia's premier exclusive poetry e-journal. essays, reviews, rants and, of course poems.

Slope
slickly-designed poetry journal with an international focus.

Thylazine
edited by coral hull, focussing on australian poetry about landscape and animals. also features an in-progress index of australian poets.

McSweeney's
if you ever thought that a sense of humour and literature weren't close friends, mcsweeney's will prove you wrong.

La Petite Zine
all sorts of good craziness from the sticky end of WDS. fun-poker. pop sensibility.

Cornerfold
SBS webmag highlighting the alternative universe of zinemakers. themed issues and you can submit stories.

VeRT
visual and concrete poetry. avant-garde, dare we say. online there are no berets.

The Prose Poem
dedicated exclusively to the somewhat inscrutable form of the prose poem, with links to resources and essays about prose poetry

Jacket
John Tranter's online literary journal. He's grumpy about the time it takes to produce this fine journal, but he keeps on releasing new issues, bless him.

Electronic Writing Research Ensemble
the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide runs this impressive hypertextual site.

The Barcelona Review
wonderful multi-lingual review publishing fiction and reviews in English, Spanish and Catalan. archives of previous stories are great too.

Elimae
don't pretend you understand everything here, but enjoy trying. superior poetry and essays, some content obtuse, but keep digging. where else will you find reviews of Chaucer written in Old English?

Serialtext
online novels growing chapter by chapter. quality a little uneven, but makes up for this in plot twists. Dickens would have loved it.

Minima
small but perfectly formed stories. nifty flash interface. tiny, perfect art.

Bookmunch
reviews on new books of all stripes, written in a style best described as "witty armchair pundit". check Heroes & Villains section for rants on individual writers.

Wagtail
it's not really online but you should know about wagtail. Rob Riel publishes this monthly magazine featuring one poet, extracting work from their entire oeuvre. very low cost to buy, looks great, fresh poetry.

overland express
publisher of new australian poetry, fiction and hypertext, currently "resting".

Drunken Boat
poetry, fiction, reviews and web art that doesn't suck. the experimental writing and visual arts on drunken boat are always of high standard. floats my boat.

One Thousand Ridiculous Tragedies
hosted by the remarkable tay arrow sherman and eryk salvaggio. exploring the infinite possibilities of pop culture and absurdity. now with extra pie charts.

Meanjin
home on the web of the well-known journal of literature, art and criticism

Mudlark
publishing poetry in three formats: issues (electronic chapbooks), posters (electronic broadsheets) and flash poems, responding to current news.

Heat
dipping its toe in more adventurous waters recently. Ivor Indyk launched version2 of Heat in June 2001 also runs his press, Giramondo, from this site. Emma Lew's new book of verse Everything the Landlord Touches, is recommended.

Island
tasmanian journal of poetry, prose and essays. home to the gwen harwood poetry prize.

Nerve
excellent literary smut.

Linnaean Street
essays, fiction, quality.

Riding the Meridian
if only all hypertextual writing was this good.

Alt-X
virtual imprints, theory, and the Electronic Book Review.

Papertiger
samples from the brisbane-based CD-ROM only journal.

Overland
thinking person's crumpet. left-leaning, acerbic. critical essays always worth reading.

deluxe rubber chicken
playful and experimental poetry.

Sleepy Brain
wants you. a new online journal helmed by Simon Sellars. he uses the term psychogeography, the clever-trousers.

woodwork
editor allan boyd, better known as antipoet, presents an eclectic collection of new writing and visual art

divan
Box Hill TAFE's online poetry journal. Clean design and lots of good content.

Poems That Go
quarterly journal of poetic animations.

exquisite corpse
crazy, boundary-pushing fiction and poetry with no sense of squeam.

Sites for Young Writers

Pretend Paper - new and groovy online artist community, magaziney, thingy.

Voiceworks
if you're under 25 and looking to get published, this is for you. lovely print magazine of Express Media. they run workshops, events like the famous Make it Up Zine Day, and offer mentorships to yoof. lots of practical opportunities to learn skills here.

Vibewire
slick non-profit org. site aimed at young guns, but old fogies feel pretty welcome. lots of zine and comics reviews, taken seriously, oh joy oh rapture.

Comic Art

Jim Woodring
is Woodring scary or sexy? maybe he's both. follow Frank and Pupshaw around for a day and make up your own mind.

E-Sheep
exploring the boundaries of webcomics with various short stories including APOCAMON, Revelations told manga-style, and DELTA THRIVES, a bandwidth heavy, but very worth it, 3-D story about sex and whales.

Scott McCloud
the author of Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics demonstrates how the Internet has changed the way comics work.

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GI Jesus! Inspector Fuckup! The Pink Thing! this strip is the max!

Silent Army
headquarters of some of the best Australian comic artists practising today.

I S O M E T R I C
cubic shenanigans.

Dave Cooper
the freaky inside of Dave Cooper's head, creator of Weasel and various other viscous comic stories.

Artbabe
Jessica Abel is an old-school practitioner whose explorations of content do her much justice.

A-Girl Studios
Elizabeth Watasin presents A-Girl, Charm School, Flying Girl and a bunch of comics made with photographs of dolls.

Savant
serious critical culture for comics. and a squirrel.

Red Meat
from the Secret Files of Max Cannon. perverse 1950s-style clip art strip. get ready to shudder.

Nowhere Girl
brilliant coming-of-age story.

Essential Literary Stops

audible.com
This is essentially your one-stop spoken word and audio books supermarket. Like any other supermarket there's your gourmet and your home-brand items, there's your dodgy 'special deals' and your hidden treasure. It does cost money but not too much on the face of it. And you can get, say, a daily audio edition of the Wall Street Journal. (Hey, it's nice to know you can). The other reason to keep one eye on this site is that every now and then they call out for new (paid) voices - and also have been known to call for new spoken word/ poetry titles, too.

Roald Dahl Museum Opens ... mmmm, chocolate doors...

The Paris Review - generous! Archived interviews with literary genii (ie, genius, plural) in full, and audio readings that download without too much faffing about and actually play right through to the end. Right on.

Poetry Magazine - Neat. As in, you know, tidy. Reviews of American poetry publications.

The 1000 Journals Project
1000 journals are travelling from hand to hand throughout the world. If one of them lands in your hands you're asked to add stories, drawings, and then pass the journal along. A strangely compelling global diary - much more interesting than reading your sister's while she's out.

Poetry Daily
is what you might think - a new poem every day popping up online. But there's more - there's poet profiles, book reviews, articles... no, just one poem a day isn't enough.

The Morning News
not a penguin but home to some of the funniest column writing online. Surreal links, cocky op.ed. from non-experts, journalism as capricious beast.

Arts & Letters Daily
the great gleaner of news, reviews and all things literary. lots of gossip too. indispensible.

The Blue News
laugh your arse off and understand publishing. scary.

Gargoyle
a gust of wind winnows the chaff from what passes as online literature and leaves us this. fantastical, catholic. new fiction or essays every day.

web del sol
"locus of the new literary art" - a voluminous resorce of writing and journals on the web.

Creative Blogs

tomas ford's cabaret of death
Tomas Ford = charismatic, freewheeling punk electronic cabaret rock poet dude from Adelaide. There's no point in trying to encapsulate him here - visit the site and click all over his head to find out what makes him tick and how to hear the explosion. The thing that got him in our Blog 'O' the Month section here is that he quoted "When Doves Cry" in his first (and only) blog entry. Cool.

reading revival: a poetry book blog - By Michael Farrell - Melbourne
"devoted to promoting australian poetry books and related discussion through reading one book - firstly, duty by geraldine mckenzie. i will choose a new book roughly every 3 months," says Michael Farrell.

antipoet
Our man in the West.

Brisbane Writers Festival - Book Club/Blog/Match
Online dating service for book clubs! It's also a really happening little forum space about the festival mainly, but also with reviews and general chit chat.

Fireland
make up life.

The Scam
stories and music reviews. may have something to do with gds.

Hot Soup Girl
will burn your lips. and you'll enjoy it.

Diary of Samuel Pepys
Ye olde blog. Sourced from expurgated diaries but beautifully cross-referenced. pass the hock.

Writing Resources

Sydney PEN
There are PEN offices and networks around the country, but the Sydney website is currently the most reliable. PEN of course is an international association of writers, and it exists to promote mutual understanding and world culture - mainly, to speak up on behalf of writers who are harassed, imprisoned, sometimes killed, for their views. In Australia, PEN is working hard for writers in detention. Joining doesn't cost you much and it does make a difference to what they can do.

Australian Literature Resources
Still under construction but starting to gather a strong load of information about poets in Oz. Check out the jivin' posters from 60s readings!

The Academy of American Poets
Everything you ever wanted to know about American poetry, then and now, but just didn't know you wanted to ask. With map.

The AA Independent Press Guide
a free online writers resource, listing over 2000 magazines and publishers and 700 internet magazines - it's a messy ride in there, but you'll find things to do if you have a strong stomach for vibrant font colours.

Trace
out of Nottingham University in the UK, and a very good place to find other like-minded writers. runs online workshops and collaborative projects.

The Alliance of Artists' Communities
dreaming of the ideal residency? hook up with this amazing list of bequests, residencies and trusts, almost none of which specify nationality in their eligibility criteria.

Geekgirl
hive of information for events from conferences to dance parties.

Poets & Writers
despite naff and obvious name, features excellent articles and fiction, plus amazing classifieds. trawl at own risk, but if you have thought about submitting online, start here.

The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce's savage A-Z online. Trangressive satire.

Online Etymology Dictionary
impress your friends.

Banished
words, phrases and hackneyed bon mots that are so exhausted they deserve retirement. shoot the television and burn the newspapers - anything to escape turgid, lazy journalism.

Visual Thesaurus
meme sprouting ideas. plumb beautiful. beats a dip in boring old Roget's anytime.

pilot search rocks the boat for online lit searches