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 In a group of names, I am the unclean one, the token unpublished poet; there always must be one.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. 17
December 2025

Christmas Day in Prison

By Joshua

Christmas day without my family, was such a terrible burden to bare, no Christmas tree, decorations, no presents, no laughter, no joy, no Christmas fare.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 17
December 2025

A Poet’s Thought of Soulmates

By Elijah

Every feeling they felt, the other feels too, trust is a must and communication too. Together as one, soulmates we are destined, forever to each other we are.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 17
December 2025

Poking the Bear

By Russell

After all his team had been through to get here, physically and mentally, the farm boys were disrespecting them big time. “Only one way to shut their gobs,” he thought with venom.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

Expressing Emotions While on Remand

By Derek

The poem was written in the early weeks of being on remand, expressing my raw emotions while coming to terms with it all.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

In My Cell

By Bart

Here I sit inside my cell, thinking to myself, is this Hell? Cold and dark, with a terrible smell. I think it is, only time will tell.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

I Will Always Love You

By Jack

A poem for the one true love of my life. I wish I could change the past, but I can only change my future.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

Morgana

By Alex

I remember the day I saw you, I held your tiny form, the chilly air made you tremble, so we took you home.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

Faith in Recovery

By RB

The pressure of the pain inside, formed diamonds in my mind, tempting me to throw it in, to leave it all behind.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

An Incarcerated Truth

By Travis

Belief in a future, they do persist, for everyone has the right to exist.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 16
November 2025

Rage on a Saturday Morning

By Georgia Sheales

Locked down for the third time this week, sixth time this past fortnight, with Bird of Prey playing on Rage, the shitty fuzzy speakers on the shitty fuzzy TV barely able to conjure up something that resembles bass.

2 MIN READ

Welcome to About Time

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