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 In a group of names, I am the unclean one, the token unpublished poet; there always must be one.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. 15
October 2025

Butterflies

By Wormy

Butterflies, can be the colour of your eyes. They start life as tiny eggs, finally having wings and six legs.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 15
October 2025

The (Powdered) Milky Way

By Jeff

An ode to our last 750-gram powdered milk, taken from our treasured weekly Buy-Up Sheet.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 15
October 2025

The Darkness Returns

By Leslie

Facing the darkness, the pain and cold travelling through the body, the soul taking me back to when I played alone when hell exists, the place my home I spend years, months, days wearing the mask trying to pretend there is no fear or pain.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 15
October 2025

Sam Kerr

By Henry

The big idea behind this painting is to display a very strong, tough Australian sportswoman. Through her athleticism she has helped to inspire a huge number of young Australian girls to take up soccer as their favourite game.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 15
October 2025

Human Being

By Matthew

As I come back to jail, I walk through that familiar door, I promised my mum and kids, I wouldn’t break the law.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 14
September 2025

Heroin

By Natasha and Mikayla

Behold my friend, I am heroin, known by all as the destroyer of men. From where I came no one knows, a far away place where the poppies grow.

3 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 14
September 2025

Getting Closer

By Lanie

It’s been almost 10 years now, since my life has changed. For better or worse, nothing will ever be the same.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 14
September 2025

The Struggle

By Travis

I fall, twisting and spinning in duress, a darkness complete, vast and eternal. An emptiness felt, thick as molasses, noises and sounds rend my mind infernal.

2 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 14
September 2025

Precious

By Kaiya

Do not cry by the window, gazing out to the sky. For I’ve not only left you, I’ll never say goodbye.

1 MIN READ
ISSUE NO. 14
September 2025

Window Pane

By Kelly

Window Pane is a reflection of childhood memories, looking outside of my bedroom, locked away.

1 MIN READ

Welcome to About Time

About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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