ISSUE NO. 21
APRIL 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!

Ethan Cassidy

My Happy Place

The winner from our first Writing Challenge!

By David

There is a place not far from Flinders Street Station, along the bank of the Yarra River, that’s at the centre of everything I love about Melbourne.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ
Ethan Cassidy

My Happy Place: Rusty, My Soulmate

The runner-up from our first Writing Challenge!

By Pip

Everyone needs their own happy place. Especially in here. Somewhere to escape the drama and politics of the yard.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ
Ethan Cassidy
By Shea

What a joy it can be, to wrench open your mind and find yourself inhabiting a song. To live out a thousand lives, to know the intimacy of a stranger, and experience nostalgia in such a visceral way for times and places you’ve never been to.

ISSUE NO. 21
3 MIN READ
By Nicholas

I hope you all have a place that you can feel your strength from. I wish I had more of these than I do, now he’s gone. Make most of your time people, inside or out – our lives are too short to waste. Find your Happy Place.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ
By Trieste

It’s 10am, I am at work deciding if I need coffee to get the jitters, a piece of fruit for some sugary glucose or a peanut butter and jam sandwich.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By Neale

Maybe the title for this competition should be OUR Happy Place rather than MY Happy Place. As I think it is more about how we approach a place together that determines if we are going to be happy or not.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By James

My experience of entering gaol was hazy and blurry. A brick, as they say, is a 10 year term of imprisonment, and getting outta my mind was on my list of things to do, not realising that I would find my true happy place in nature.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By Jonathan

Within that club of egos, I had found a friend. He talked to me of glory and made me want to join. So I sent a few gold coins and received a nonsense letter. I must be a member! In a group of names, I am the unclean one, the token unpublished poet; there always must be one.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By Anonymous

The straps of his back-pack chaffed and pulled against his shoulders, the weight of each uneven step threatening to topple him back down the slope. His boots crunched the tiny pebbles that slided and slid, plumes of dust flicking into the still air.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By Russell

Two words, one name. I was stunned. Gathering my thoughts, I started the mental checklist. Had I pressed the wrong button? No. Was it a stranger answering? No. It was definitely my son, a changed son.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ

Latest

Art From Inside

By Lanie

Our team was blown away by this beautiful painting.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ
Lanie

You Don’t Know Your Worth

By Flame

Don't fear my love, everything’s alright. Don't fear my friends, the future looks bright.

ISSUE NO. 21
2 MIN READ
By Caleb

Love’s definition cannot be just one, not one, two or more but a tonne. Love is the greatest quality of them all, a verse written by the poet Paul.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ
By Emma-lee

I sit here watching the second-hand ticking by as it slowly keeps passing my time... And just as I thought the world can’t be changed it's an apocalypse of the mind.

ISSUE NO. 21
1 MIN READ

Previous Editions

ISSUE NO. 7
February 2025

This Miserable Existence

By Darren

Icy fingers clawed the nape of the old man’s neck as swirling wind whipped up dust and debris into Jack’s tired weathered face.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 7
February 2025

Surely You’ll Love Again

By RM

I see the pain in your lost eyes, and see, all your life ends in cries.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 7
February 2025

Whispers in the Wind

By Rachel

My whispers every night never reached you it seems. Now I only see you in my vivid dreams.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 7
February 2025

Stair-Ways

By Sofia

Whether it's going up or down or just round and around I cannot figure it anymore.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

Artists With Conviction

By Sara

Now in its 14th year, ‘Artists with Conviction’ is an exhibition of art and writing by people at the Risdon facilities as well as people on parole in Tasmania.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

First World Prison Problems

By Belly

As I strive to read this paper, I am constantly bombarded with various forms of attempted conversation.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

An Ode to Tree Hugging

By Simon

In the past, I laughed at tree huggers, sandalwood-scented hippy buggers. But all that hatred was ill-fated, now that I'm incarcerated.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

Treasures Lost

By Joey

Where once I held, a life so charmed, so clean. So pure. Not odd!

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

The Cell

By Rossco

One day we will part, “Yes” you and me, that’s the day they set you free.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 6
December 2024

Only Three

By A.S.

I think that God is dead, and he really isn't there, or maybe he is on strike, and he just doesn't care.

3 MIN READ

Welcome to About Time

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