We are proud to announce the continuation of our relationship with The English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch).
The ESU’s priorities coincide with those of The Borough insofar as the former has established a Formal Verse Contest whose winning poems can be read here: ESU Formal Verse Contest 2025 – Winners | The English-Speaking Union (Victoria Branch). The Borough will henceforth seek to publish winning and shortlisted poems from the contest, bringing these to a wider audience in print form, while remaining open to unsolicited submissions from Australian and New Zealand authors.
The Borough will be an annual publication, themed in tandem with the ESU contest of the previous year. The theme of the 2026 issue will be ‘Tradition’, which may be interpreted as including all life rhythms, verse rhythms, national, cultural, religious and family traditions, and of course literary tradition.
Another innovation for us will be the inclusion of prose alongside verse. The Borough will publish reviews of poetry as well as essays of literary and cultural criticism relevant to the issue’s theme. We are also open to short fiction.
In short, 2026 will see The Borough metamorphose into a literary annual, retaining an emphasis on poetry but engaging with the entire literary scene, with a strengthened Antipodean emphasis.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions are open. These should be in Microsoft Word format and sent to theborough.editor@gmail.com. Please include a two-sentence author bio in the document.
Specifications:
Poetry: up to five poems or ten pages
Fiction: up to ten pages
Essays: up to ten pages
Reviews: around 2000 words, single or paired titles
The Borough 