Established in 2010, Verity La is an on-line, transnational creative arts journal publishing short fiction, poetry, cultural comment, photomedia, reviews & interviews from Australia and around the world.  

In the Verity La universe, publication days are Mondays & Thursdays. But sometimes we mix it up a little. In 2020 we’ll be reading submissions in March & September. 

Payment

Verity La INC is an artist-run, not-for-profit organisation. However, as a result of financial support from our fabulous readers and Create NSW, we are able to pay our writers in 2020 — woohoo! Each piece — or suite of shorter pieces — published (excluding previously published book extracts) will receive the grand (in literary circles) sum of $AU100. Read our full submissions guidelines for more details. 

Do Stay in Touch

Subscribe to us via our Home page. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Dance a jig. You know you want to. If there’s something you want to tell us, something you want to share, or you just feel like saying ‘Hi there, how are you?’ then drop us a line via editor@verityla.com.

Official Info

The National Library of Australia archives Verity La in the National Bibliographic Database as part of the PANDORA Archive, which ensures that all the material published here is safeguarded against changes in hardware and software, and that all the contributions made to this journal are protected in perpetuity.  ISSN 2200-6969.

A small selection of work is also archived at Deakin Research Online, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

The journal is comprehensively listed on the AustLit database.

Verity La gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Australian Council for the Arts for supporting the journal throughout 2018 and ’19, and to Create NSW for its support in 2020. 

The opinions expressed in the works published on Verity La do not necessarily reflect those of its Editorial Team, Board or Advisory Board, nor are they necessarily endorsed through the act of publishing. We welcome respectful and informed discussion and urge you to get in touch via editor@verityla.com to raise any questions or concerns. Our ears are always open.

Why Verity La?

Hope Verity Fitzhardinge, 1972; photo supplied by Geoff Fitzhardinge, courtesy of The Land/Fairfax Media

It’s an abbreviation of ‘Verity Lane’, a very dodgy back-alley in Canberra, Australia’s national capital, where the journal was born. (These days we operate from a network of laptops all over the country – don’t tell ASIO.) More importantly, however, the name now given to the lane also commemorates the birth there, in 1938, of Verity Hewitt’s, Canberra’s first serious bookshop. In that pre-electronic age, this bookshop and its owner encouraged the distribution and intelligent discussion of literature in the otherwise bleak cultural environment of 1930s Canberra, perhaps comparable in some ways to the use today of online journals. From a wider perspective, Verity was a remarkable example of a mid-twentieth-century woman, independent, brave, and with a deep and creative interest in literature and people. In fact, she was such a special lady, a book has been written about Verity and some of her letters have also been published! Verity’s family has informed us that she would have been sympathetic with our aims and pleased with our work.  Hope Verity Fitzhardinge (1908-1986): we honour you; you are our patron saint.

What They’re Sayin’

‘Increasingly influential’ 
— The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Verity La puts the umlaut in über-cool … Verily.’
 PS Cottier

‘An online Australian literary journal that has evolved from interesting to absolutely indispensable …. In terms of quality, depth, intelligence, and respectful aesthetic engagement, the Verity La interviews are the closest thing we have right now in Australia to The Paris Review interview archives.’
Daniel Davis Wood, University of Melbourne

Verity La is the future of Australian online publishing.’
Paul Hetherington, Professor of Writing, University of Canberra 

Other Stuff

Verity La is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW

National Library Of Australia Certificate

critics circleVerity La received a Canberra Critics Circle Award. Tops!

SPN logo fro VLVerity La is a proud member of the Small Press Network

 

*

Verity La acknowledges the Aboriginal people as the Traditional owners and Custodians of the lands on which we now work and live. We pay our respects to the Ancestors and Elders who were, and continue to be, the storytellers helping us to know our Country and her people of the past and present more clearly. We are reminded of the journey that began with the Aboriginal people in this land, but that now incorporates the larger family of Torres Strait Islanders and Australian people.