Chances are your favourite writer got their first break in a literary journal. While they're most often seen as flash-in-the-pan print publications, run on love and free labour, the reality is a lot more complicated.

Ahead of of the 2025 launch of Writers Australia — the federal government's proposed peak body for Australian literature — Western Sydney University released a report into the state of Australia's literary journals. It provides a critical snapshot of the working reality of literary journals, which battle chronic funding shortfalls, precarious employment, and patchy digital infrastructure.

The report's co-author Catriona Menzies-Pike — an award-winning writer and former editor of the Sydney Review of Books — explains how the report might inform future literary policy.