extempore encourages submissions from established, known writers as well as new fresh voices. The journal’s theme is the celebration of the way improvised music (including jazz) can inspire creativity in writers, artists and others just by the sheer transfer of energy. And of course it works the other way as well, with many jazz composers and musicians drawing inspiration from poets, painters and writers. Your work does not have to be about jazz. Lots of people make that mistake. All we need is a link, which can be as simple as ‘I was listening to an intensely emotional piano solo by Mark Isaacs on my car radio as I barrelled down the highway from Merimbula, and was inspired to write this story about restitution and forgiveness ’. See? Easy. Stretch out a bit and let the music in…

If you would like to write for us, we prefer an initial contact by email with examples of your work.

We respond to all queries, as quickly as we can! Queries are invited from the pool of writers, poets, journalists and academics who currently write about or are inspired by jazz and improvised music in Australia and overseas. And we also hope to discover previously unpublished contributors by raising awareness and welcoming contributions of quality writing and artwork... so don't be shy!

And also...we pay for what we publish.

Want to know more?

Check out the submission guidelines on this page and then if you still have questions, contact us at submissions at extempore dot com dot au