On a hike you hear birdsong—first kookaburra, then raven, then something you don’t recognise, then magpie warbles, gang-gang creaks—pouring forth from a single source. Your uncle found a lyrebird feather nearby, but has never knowingly seen or heard them before. The sound feels like a magic trick; you can understand being seduced by it.

If a lo-fi beat hip-hopped with no-one around to study it, would it still make a sound? Everything in creation is noisy, from the hum of a blackhole to the pulse of blood in your ears. The spring burbles into the stream babbling to the river roaring to the ocean, where cetacean songs rise from mystical depths, evaporate in the whisper of sea foam, and then come raining back to earth to fill a lake where you skip a rock to make a harmony with the surface... plip-plip-plip- plonk!

You’re standing right at the back and someone passes you a tub of earplugs. The same six guys just switching between sets all day. They’re a duo, and now they’re a four-piece band. You find the earplugs in your pocket the next weekend: there’s a new set of guys, a disco ball, a bassist who smiles.

more blurb !

Quaver sounds like quarter, although it is actually a half or an eighth, depending on what you’re dividing. Imagine being American and using measurements for music—‘full note’, ‘half note’ etc. Imagine being American—apparently they don’t like P!nk as much over there, or Kylie, or Robbie. What other celebrities should be represented by animals in their biopics, or toys, like Pharrell.

It is easy to understand how a pipe organ would reinforce belief in God. The Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ was refurbished in 2001—debuting with a commission from Phillip Glass. Glass was flown out—first class tickets funded by wealthy benefactors he had picked up when he still drove cabs, they’d just seen Einstein at the Beach. Or at least that’s the story that is told to emerging arts workers learning to build philanthropic relationships.

blurb :)

Submit to Loom Literary Journal, Issue 1: Quaver

Deadline Pitches and full drafts for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and comics are open until Midnight AEST, Thursday 12 June 2025. Pay All selected artists will receive $180 for their work. Constraints Pieces from ‘Quaver’ will first appear in print, and subsequently on our website. We encourage work that challenges and expands out of the page (requiring digital elements), but all pieces need to function effectively in print. We’ll be printing in duotone, page dimensions are 170mm by 200mm. For fiction and essays, we are generally looking for work between 1500–3000 words. We are seeking previously unpublished work. Feel free to send a pitch, draft or something more fully fleshed out. You may submit up to three pitches and/or drafts for consideration. How to Submit Via our Wufoo (link in bio!)

OPEN FOR SUBS
loomlitmag.wufoo.com/forms/submis...

Adalya, Mira, Hasib and Selena looking at each other in zoom call

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Adalya Nash Hussein—Editor and Publisher Adalya is a writer and editor. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Overland, Liminal, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging and others. It has also been shortlisted for the KYD Creative Nonfiction Essay Prize and the Scribe Nonfiction Prize. She has been the Editor of Voiceworks and The Victorian Writer, Managing Editor at Australian Poetry, a Co-Editor at Liminal, a Guest Editor of Debris Magazine and The Circular, and an Online Co-Editor of The Lifted Brow.

Hasib Hourani — Poetry Editor Hasib is a writer and editor based on Wangal Country. He has served as online editor at The Lifted Brow (2019–2020) and Voiceworks (2020–2021) and was the guest Co-Editor of Debris Magazine Issue 04: Illuminated Manuscript. His debut book, rock flight, was released with Giramondo in 2024 and has been shortlisted for the 2025 VPLA for Poetry. His work has been published in Meanjin, Overland and Going Down Swinging among others.

Mira Schlosberg — Fiction & Comics Editor Mira is a writer, artist, cartoonist, zine-maker and editor. She served on the Voiceworks magazine Editorial Committee from 2016–2018 and was Editor of Voiceworks from 2018–2020. She has also worked as a subeditor for Gusher magazine. Mira is the author of Guidebook to Queer Jewish Spirituality (2018) and Kugel Western (2021), both from Glom Press.

Selena Repanis — Designer Selena is a graphic designer. She has experience working with clients across the Australian arts and literary landscape, writing for and producing creative campaigns in the not-for-profit sector, and teaching Bachelor of Design students at Monash University. Selena has designed for Voiceworks, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Gusher, Safe and Equal and others. In August, she will be moving to Estonia to study her Masters of Art (Graphic Design.)

Loom is... Image of Adalya Nash Hussein, Mira Schlosberg, Hasib Hourani and Selena Repanis in a Zoom call

NICE TO MEET YOU

Loom Literary Journal Coming Soon

Loom is a new, national interdisciplinary literary journal. Loom will work in conversation with non-textual artistic mediums—both thematically, via longform visual art, music, film and theatre criticism; and formally, via the publication of experimental interdisciplinary literary work. With editors in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Loom aims to be a genuinely national publication—collaborating with artists and organisations across the country.

LOOM LITERARY JOURNAL—COMING SOON!

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