ABOUT FLOOD MEDIA

Flood Media is a Brisbane-based radical left media organisation. We write, work, and live on lands stolen from the Jagera, Yugara, Yugarapul, and Turrbal Nations and pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded. 

In recent years, Brisbane has become a site for nascent political movements seeking to to explore and enact ideas such as the right to the city, new collectivist models, decolonisation, and the radical possibilities of a post-work future. Our engagement with these ideas takes place in the context of major global issues, including refugee crises, accelerating climate change, and a capitalist system lurching from one crisis to the next. The current moment is one of upheaval, as we witness the dissolution of old structures and the forging of new ideas. We feel that such a moment demands a voice.

Flood Media is an attempt to amplify this voice by bringing existing local media initiatives together, showcasing exciting political projects, and prompting discussion, critique, and the forging of new pathways and connections. Flood Media incorporates both written and audio content on a wide variety of topics. While we are Brisbane-based, and formed via initiatives happening in our own city, our politics extends beyond the frame of the local to incorporate critiques of capitalism at every level. Our aim is to both reflect and shape radical left politics, in Brisbane and beyond. 

submission guidelines

Flood is looking for nonfiction essays of about 1000-3000 words that cover a topic nobody else is writing about, or develop an argument nobody else is making. We encourage writing that’s concise, direct, and unpretentious, that avoids falling back on cliché and does its best to deal honestly with its subject. We ask our writers to be critically-minded but generous.

We are mostly interested in pieces that connect with material circumstances or make strategic arguments, rather than engaging purely on the level of ideas or academic debate. While we’re obviously leftists, we’re interested in a wide range of ideas, and we don’t want work that does nothing but confirm our existing beliefs. Stuff that could get our attention includes:

• Coverage of under-discussed local and regional issues (including journalistic coverage)

• Stories about political organising and suggestions about how we can do it better

• Policy analysis that explains what the state should be doing and how it’s screwing up

• Forgotten bits of Australian history that might be interesting to the modern left

• New ways of looking at some neglected bit of film, art or literature

• Timely reactions to current news stories 

• First-person essays that merge the personal and political (see for example Alyssa Battistoni’s Spadework) 

Please email pitches or full submissions to floodmediabrisbane(at)gmail(dot)com

Editorial Team

Joanna Horton

Joanna Horton is a writer and radio producer living in Brisbane. Her work has appeared in Overland, The Millions, Jacobin, and other publications. You can find out more about her.

Luke Martin

Luke is passionate about enabling people to tell stories, stemming from his background in visual comms and design. He is the quiet legend behind Flood's website, design and social media.