Axon: Creative Explorations, the journal of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra, is named for the axon, the primary point of transmission within the nervous system and the means of communication between neurons.
Axon: Creative Explorations is an international, open access, peer reviewed journal that publishes works that express or are about creativity and the creative process, including:
- the methods and techniques of artists and other creative professionals
- approaches to creative-led research and the theorisation of creative practice
- the ways in which creative works are made and function
- creative interventions and explorations of contemporary matters of concern
- poetics and poetry, and
- the cultural contexts and theoretical frameworks informing creative practice.
NB: Axon does not accept unsolicited poetry, and the editors will not read unsolicited poems.
Axon publishes two general issues a year, and occasional special or capsule issues. This Submittable site will open for a restricted period for each new issue.
We invite 150-word abstracts for proposed articles, which might include topics such as:
- New models for “inspiration”
- Reconceptualising the “Muse”
- Intertextuality and the genesis of new creative writing
- Cultural works (e.g. works of visual art) and the genesis of new creative writing
- Starting points in the creative process
- Creative writing, “inspiration” and the factual
- Finding creative writing prompts in the real
- Recreating histories in creative writing
- Truth, invention and “inspiration”
Abstracts for articles on related topics are also welcome.
All abstracts should be submitted by 15 September 2026.
If an abstract is accepted by the editors, the full article will be due by 15 DECEMBER 2026.
Articles, essays, papers and other scholarly contributions are peer reviewed in a double-blind process, and in producing a research-based paper, authors should be drawing on a sound framework of scholarship relevant to the paper’s topic, rather than purely on personal experience and/or anecdotal evidence. Papers are expected to make a contribution that extends the current literature in the field. Authors are welcome to take a creative or lateral approach to their topic or to incorporate images or other graphic work.
Further information for authors is available here: https://axonjournal.com.au/contribute
Final revised articles, papers, essays and interviews (including endnotes) will be a minimum of 3,000 words and maximum of 6,000 words in length.
Please note: poems for the issue will be solicited by the editors. Unsolicited poems should not be submitted.
2025 saw the 80th anniversary of the first use of atomic weapons in war, alongside a plethora of expressions of nuclear anxiety, and of creative responses to past and current atomic threats. Both research and media commentary indicate that nuclear anxiety—a term first coined by Margaret Mead as the ‘fear of a nuclear war and its consequences’—is permeating creative, academic and popular literature and the arts. Like a phoenix, it continually re-emerges into popular, literary and artistic consciousness, rising with new threats from geopolitical tensions and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
A number of key reports, such as the World Humanities Report, as well as testimonies from hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), point to the need for humanities and creative arts insights and responses to help address the problems of both nuclear proliferation, and poor information and understanding about the extent of atomic risk. This demonstrates the need for ongoing conversations in the Arts and Humanities about nuclear disarmament and the emotional scars left by past conflicts.
In this context, Axon: Creative Explorations invites contributions that:
- explore the ‘unfinished business’ of the atomic bomb
- connect the earlier creative work of hibakusha to contemporary issues and literatures
- rethink/reframe nuclear war and nuclear proliferation
- examine what, or how, creative interpretations of the atomic legacy may contribute to broader social understandings
- contribute new understandings of the role of creative work in responding to social anxieties about nuclear escalation and atomic warfare
- address the tension that exists in both the spoken and the unspoken, the silences and the noise, about atomic power
- utilise artistic mediums to convey personal and collective responses to the atomic bomb and its legacy
- inspire innovative storytelling that challenges conventional narratives about nuclear war and promotes dialogue through creative forms
Submit:
- essays (standard or lyric) of up to 7000 words
- photo essays of up to 12 images, plus a commentary of 500–1000 words
- poems: maximum of 6, plus a commentary of 500–1000 words
(Please do not submit poems or photos without a commentary or other framing document)