ISSUE NO. 23
JUNE 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

Food for Thought
Ethan Cassidy

A Memorable Dinner

By Jeff

“I recognise that”, “that’s someone I know”, “I can’t place who, but that is someone’s smell”.

ISSUE NO. 23
2 MIN READ
By Chelsea

I hated the kitchen on the outside but have learnt from being inside that it makes me feel wholesome and happy.

ISSUE NO. 23
By Anonymous

He awoke, annoyed, just able to make out his cellie in the blacked-out gloom. He began to protest, but his spirit soared when he heard the word: “Your library books are here!”

ISSUE NO. 23
1 MIN READ
By Triste

It was November 2025. I had zero dollars in my jail account. Mum sent me some Christmas dollars. I’d just started working and was earning $47.00 per week, plus $9.95 hygiene allowance.

ISSUE NO. 23
1 MIN READ
By Grant

Buy-Ups feed my belly, but what about my mind? Wth nothing on the telly, I might as well be blind.

ISSUE NO. 23
1 MIN READ
By Daniel

The pain that I feel, this place that I’m in, these four walls closing in…

ISSUE NO. 23
2 MIN READ
By Punkin

As this time comes to an end, I wonder which way the next will bend. The earth and moon will do their thing, I’ll embrace everything.

ISSUE NO. 23
2 MIN READ

Previous Editions

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
ISSUE NO. 2
August 2024

Eco-cow

By Kyle

The two men popped open the Tesla's doors, thump thomp, and stepped out into a blooming orchard. The air was a herbal tea. Honey bees bobbed between the peach pink flowers.

3 MIN READ

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