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 In a group of names, I am the unclean one, the token unpublished poet; there always must be one.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. 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
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

Legal Dogma

By SKS – 7K2

Obey you must O’feeable citizen, do you dare to cross the line?

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

Love Breaks Chains

By Malnight

Oh how I can’t stand these nights alone, wishing that I could just go home. Never thought this is where I’d be, constantly dreaming of being free.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

I Cannot Write Poetry

By A

I’ve tried to write poetry, but I find it hard to do, I’d like to say in pretty words, just what I think of you. And what I would like to say, would be something like this: you make my heart run wild, with just one little kiss.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 3
September 2024

Beyond the Bars

By Codey

Beyond the bars, I sit and think about the past. Beyond the bars, I wait and watch the time pass. Beyond the bars, I barely ever see the stars. Beyond the bars, I’m alone in the dark.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 2
August 2024

You Were Never There

Anonymous

You were never there to tuck me into bed. No, you were never there at night when I was scared. Mama, where were you when I needed you most. Mama tell me why all alone I had to cope.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 2
August 2024

Freedom Is Not a Box

By Taylor

Freedom has been likened to a bird, a plane, a song, it has been once personified as a road that’s very long. Freedom has been likened to people: from war, death, or insanity, to others it is being absolved from rules for eternity.

2 MIN READ

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