Iconoclast
May 2025
Iconoclast
May 2025
- Editors’ Note (Verity La Reborn) Issue One: ICONOCLAST
After years of silence, Verity La returns. This is our first issue since the journal’s Managing Editor, Michele Seminara, endured a ... - The Curse of the Man Who Could See the Little Fish at the Bottom of the Ocean (Simon Leys)
For Hanfang Since the Beijing massacres, the question has already been put bluntly to me several times: “Why were most ... - The Skin I’m In (Iona Italia)
All my life, I have been accused of having the wrong skin colour. My body’s wrapper—loosening and crinkling slightly around ... - The Emperor’s Return (Anne Casey)
Just one piece—they will never notice he whinnied as he secreted the piece in his pocket just before he ordered ... - The World’s Longest Daisy Chain (Jenny Lindsay)
The first time I was complicit in inflicting public humiliation on someone has left a strong enough impression on me ... - Desolation Songs (Robbie Coburn)
Karma Indiscriminate rain and sunlight. muted light, the room instantly full of bodies — the way they pull up your ... - Back on ‘Zac (Nina Paley)
Why I am returning to my regular dose of Prozac after 2 years of tapering off A few days ago, ... - Monostich for a time of resistance (Amanda Anastasi)
Within the tyrant, a tripped over child. The stuck are full of words. The mirror reveals my first and last ... - Reading and Writing in Exile (Mammad Aidani)
A short philosophical-poetical text I gaze at the mirror, and I say to myself: You were born, There is no ... - As a Mother (Mandy Sayer)
Mrs Vickers was watching the six o’clock news, as she did every night, while sipping a Guinness and lemonade shandy. ... - Eggs of Freedom (Nina Sanadze)
If you’re not a runner, get out of bed the moment you open your eyes. Throw on your ripped jeans ... - it wasn’t that the yoga teacher shouldn’t have a car (Ali Whitelock)
just it was a porsche / & the registration was ... - Lesbians: the canaries in the mine (Susan Hawthorne)
I would suggest that when lesbians become victims of attack, they are a signal. They are the canaries in the ... - Trust: A Fractured Fable (Jeanne Ryckmans)
MARCH 2020, SYDNEY A magistrate finalised an uncontested Apprehended Violence Order for two years against the Irish Professor under the ... - I am a Palestinian Child (Badaoui El-Hage & Zeina Issa)
Seventy years and spring has not yet arrived. For seventy years, our windows and doors brought forth revolt after revolt ... - Threads of Silent Longing (Hasti Abbasi)
Bahar drinks a glass of water. A soft sensation starts to stir inside her. Still within her regular cycle, yet ... - This Land Is Mine (Nina Paley)
Who’s Killing Who? A Viewer’s Guide Because you can’t tell the players without a pogrom! Early Man This ... - When Feminism Becomes a Tool for Assimilation (Nathalie Martinek)
You’re at a women’s empowerment event. Everyone on stage speaks fluently and eloquently. The language is crisp, the tone measured, ... - Heathpack (Gregory Day)
The birds live a parallel existence to us in this place. Their comings and goings. Chords and clusters. Three pelicans ... - Griftivism (Michele Seminara)
My first exposure to what I now call “griftivism,” a hybrid of grifting and Critical Social Justice activism, occurred in ... - Damnatio Memoriae (Nina Power)
Well, the Romans thought they could kill a man every record, after death (you could kill him too) zero He ... - To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon)
December 1944 1 Lotte Nialu She hears singing: one lone voice at first, clear and resonant, a tenor, then others ... - THE PASSION OF ANDREI (Nathan Dunne)
after A. Tarkovsky I was born of cold hands in the light of the cells. I left the arms of ... - The False Dissension Over ‘Islamophobia’: an Iranian outlook (Ali Beikzadeh)
‘Cultural relativism commands us to see what we call our values as simple prejudices; the beliefs of a particular tribe ... - Analysis (Yvette Henry Holt)
In the Middle of Analysis In the middle of the night in the middle of a shared pandemic I lay ... - Duende (Magi Gibson)
The Girl with Eyes like Dying Stars We sit in Costa, she bristling with the blue hair of her new-found ... - As Satellites Replace Stars (Joshua Dabelstein)
The commodification of the cosmos is having a profound impact on humanity itself On Monday March 3, 2024, at 2:05pm ... - Lost Within Myself (Mohammad Ali Maleki)
Mother, see the dust of my lonely sorrow — I need your prayers; I am drowning in my own swamp. ... - Only One Son (Magan Magan)
Once Mohamed had a dream about his son. The dream kept him up until the early hours of the morning. ... - Lines on Maps and Foreheads: Three Poems (Paul Mitchell)
Ode to dismantle a poetry god I saw you bathing on the roof with all your Greek myths. Medusa was ... - Rattle up the Road (Siân Darling)
Flesh and fat were luxuries of childhood, in that window before starvation was understood. My loose, thickened skin — coloured ... - The Orchardist (Claire Miranda Roberts)
Rigid and bony like an orchard in winter— a single tree can produce forty types of fruit. We can collapse ... - Heimlich Unheimlich (Sieglinde Karl-Spence and Hazel Smith)
(To enlarge the images, please enter full-screen mode on your device and zoom in) A Note from Author Hazel ... - Shut Up and We’ll Be Good to You (Koraly Dimitriadis)
Shut Up and We’ll Be Good to You Shut up and we’ll be good to you Be good and we’ll ... - The Leaves (Jacqueline Rule)
The morning sky is flat, a smooth grey pebble. There’s a row of trees across from the house where the ... - Courage (Maxim Bishev)
Inspired by ‘Mourn Not the Dead’ by Ralph Chaplin Grieve not the innocent who lie In cobbled cells, Awaiting execution. ...
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Fiction
Non-Fiction
Visual Art
- Editors’ Note (Verity La Reborn) Issue One: ICONOCLASTAfter years of silence, Verity La returns. This is our first issue since the journal’s Managing Editor, Michele Seminara, endured a ...
- The Curse of the Man Who Could See the Little Fish at the Bottom of the Ocean (Simon Leys)For Hanfang Since the Beijing massacres, the question has already been put bluntly to me several times: “Why were most ...
- The Skin I’m In (Iona Italia)All my life, I have been accused of having the wrong skin colour. My body’s wrapper—loosening and crinkling slightly around ...
- The Emperor’s Return (Anne Casey)Just one piece—they will never notice he whinnied as he secreted the piece in his pocket just before he ordered ...
- The World’s Longest Daisy Chain (Jenny Lindsay)The first time I was complicit in inflicting public humiliation on someone has left a strong enough impression on me ...
- Desolation Songs (Robbie Coburn)Karma Indiscriminate rain and sunlight. muted light, the room instantly full of bodies — the way they pull up your ...
- Back on ‘Zac (Nina Paley)Why I am returning to my regular dose of Prozac after 2 years of tapering off A few days ago, ...
- Monostich for a time of resistance (Amanda Anastasi)Within the tyrant, a tripped over child. The stuck are full of words. The mirror reveals my first and last ...
- Reading and Writing in Exile (Mammad Aidani)A short philosophical-poetical text I gaze at the mirror, and I say to myself: You were born, There is no ...
- As a Mother (Mandy Sayer)Mrs Vickers was watching the six o’clock news, as she did every night, while sipping a Guinness and lemonade shandy. ...
- Eggs of Freedom (Nina Sanadze)If you’re not a runner, get out of bed the moment you open your eyes. Throw on your ripped jeans ...
- it wasn’t that the yoga teacher shouldn’t have a car (Ali Whitelock)just it was a porsche / & the registration was ...
- Lesbians: the canaries in the mine (Susan Hawthorne)I would suggest that when lesbians become victims of attack, they are a signal. They are the canaries in the ...
- Trust: A Fractured Fable (Jeanne Ryckmans)MARCH 2020, SYDNEY A magistrate finalised an uncontested Apprehended Violence Order for two years against the Irish Professor under the ...
- I am a Palestinian Child (Badaoui El-Hage & Zeina Issa)Seventy years and spring has not yet arrived. For seventy years, our windows and doors brought forth revolt after revolt ...
- Threads of Silent Longing (Hasti Abbasi)Bahar drinks a glass of water. A soft sensation starts to stir inside her. Still within her regular cycle, yet ...
- This Land Is Mine (Nina Paley)Who’s Killing Who? A Viewer’s Guide Because you can’t tell the players without a pogrom! Early Man This ...
- When Feminism Becomes a Tool for Assimilation (Nathalie Martinek)You’re at a women’s empowerment event. Everyone on stage speaks fluently and eloquently. The language is crisp, the tone measured, ...
- Heathpack (Gregory Day)The birds live a parallel existence to us in this place. Their comings and goings. Chords and clusters. Three pelicans ...
- Griftivism (Michele Seminara)My first exposure to what I now call “griftivism,” a hybrid of grifting and Critical Social Justice activism, occurred in ...
- Damnatio Memoriae (Nina Power)Well, the Romans thought they could kill a man every record, after death (you could kill him too) zero He ...
- To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon)December 1944 1 Lotte Nialu She hears singing: one lone voice at first, clear and resonant, a tenor, then others ...
- THE PASSION OF ANDREI (Nathan Dunne)after A. Tarkovsky I was born of cold hands in the light of the cells. I left the arms of ...
- The False Dissension Over ‘Islamophobia’: an Iranian outlook (Ali Beikzadeh)‘Cultural relativism commands us to see what we call our values as simple prejudices; the beliefs of a particular tribe ...
- Analysis (Yvette Henry Holt)In the Middle of Analysis In the middle of the night in the middle of a shared pandemic I lay ...
- Duende (Magi Gibson)The Girl with Eyes like Dying Stars We sit in Costa, she bristling with the blue hair of her new-found ...
- As Satellites Replace Stars (Joshua Dabelstein)The commodification of the cosmos is having a profound impact on humanity itself On Monday March 3, 2024, at 2:05pm ...
- Lost Within Myself (Mohammad Ali Maleki)Mother, see the dust of my lonely sorrow — I need your prayers; I am drowning in my own swamp. ...
- Only One Son (Magan Magan)Once Mohamed had a dream about his son. The dream kept him up until the early hours of the morning. ...
- Lines on Maps and Foreheads: Three Poems (Paul Mitchell)Ode to dismantle a poetry god I saw you bathing on the roof with all your Greek myths. Medusa was ...
- Rattle up the Road (Siân Darling)Flesh and fat were luxuries of childhood, in that window before starvation was understood. My loose, thickened skin — coloured ...
- The Orchardist (Claire Miranda Roberts)Rigid and bony like an orchard in winter— a single tree can produce forty types of fruit. We can collapse ...
- Heimlich Unheimlich (Sieglinde Karl-Spence and Hazel Smith)(To enlarge the images, please enter full-screen mode on your device and zoom in) A Note from Author Hazel ...
- Shut Up and We’ll Be Good to You (Koraly Dimitriadis)Shut Up and We’ll Be Good to You Shut up and we’ll be good to you Be good and we’ll ...
- The Leaves (Jacqueline Rule)The morning sky is flat, a smooth grey pebble. There’s a row of trees across from the house where the ...
- Courage (Maxim Bishev)Inspired by ‘Mourn Not the Dead’ by Ralph Chaplin Grieve not the innocent who lie In cobbled cells, Awaiting execution. ...
Explore ...
Fiction
Visual Art
The Australian literary scene and beyond is under attack. Tune in to our podcast, where poets Magan Magan and Michele Seminara explore the hostile nature of woke ideology and its attack on freedom of expression in the arts.
The Australian literary scene is being undermined and stifled. Tune in to our podcast, where poets Magan Magan and Michele Seminara explore the hostile nature of woke ideology and its attack on freedom of expression in the arts.
The Vault
Portrait of a Departed Lady (Amanda Anastasi)Funeral plans: a wall crypt underneath her mother’s; pink roses on the pew ends. A house-size increase upon the exodus of children, husband, friends, dissention. Her disdain for the coverings ... Read More
stone beach on kos (Linda Godfrey)echoes smack on a photograph/ show about twelve/ all standing round in their morning/ like our thoughts/ all children have to leave somewhere/ and yet fishponds reflect/ if not actual ... Read More
THE PASSION OF ANDREI (Nathan Dunne)after A. Tarkovsky I was born of cold hands in the light of the cells. I left the arms of my mother to find reeds and smoke of the steppe. ... Read More- Antithesis (Michelle Hartman)Antithesis I am reading Mark Strand’s poem about a man in his bedroom clipping pieces of his body away while he lays there and hums the part of me that ... Read More
Leave you shoes here (Claire Rosslyn Wilson)Artist’s statement ‘Leave you shoes here’ is a video-poem that has gathered together images, sounds and text from both Barcelona and Australia, layering one on top of another in order ... Read More
The Vault
VEGAS* JUNKY (Brent Cantwell)sometimes I wish we could pick the drizzle and make peace with the relics of Vegas; one old guy tiptoes arpeggios my way muttering almost immediately: shoul’ be makin’ tracks ... Read More
The Light Fantastic (Mark O’Flynn)GRASSHOPPER, 1889 Stuck fast the grasshopper in Van Gogh’s painting Olive Grove has achieved some immortality, at least so far as it goes for grasshoppers. Like Pharaohs eviscerated, or thylacines ... Read More
Thawing of Time (Richard J Bell)Artist’s Statement ‘Thawing of Time’ is a poetical short film about life beginning to thaw after being exited from mental health services. For years I tired to create movement in ... Read More
26 Outings1. Friday evening, as my husband and I are getting ready for bed, I tell him I think I’ve fallen for a girl. That night we have passionate ‘I can’t ... Read More
MALE IDENTITY AND THE DANGER OF PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS: an interview with Michael Mohammed AhmadInterview by Samuel Elliot (edited by Angelina Tsinganos) Michael Mohammed Ahmad is a Western-Sydney-based, Arab-Australian writer, teacher and editor. He is also co-founder of the autonomous literary organisation SweatShop, which prides ... Read More