About the Journal
Focus and Scope
LiNQ (Literature in North Queensland) publishes fiction and poetry, as well as peer-reviewed papers and reviews of regional, national, and international interest in the areas of literature, media/cinema, and culture.
Peer Review Process
Suitable papers will be double-blind peer reviewed.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Advisory Board
Prof Alan Lawson, University of Queensland
Dr Robert Clarke, University of Tasmania
Dr Peta Mitchell, University of Queensland
Dr Kylie Cardell, Flinders University
Assoc Prof Stephen Torre, James Cook University
Assoc Prof Tony Simoes da Silva, University of Wollongong
Sources of Support
The James Cook University College of Arts, Society and Education supports the journal by donating the services of an expert typesetter, Karen Nettelfield; contributing computing and technical support; and providing storage space and office facilities. LiNQ also receives welcome financial support from the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies (FALS), based in Townsville. We’d like to pay particular thanks to its board members, especially Associate Professor Don Gallagher, one of the early contributors to LiNQ.
Over the years, many colleagues and students have played an integral role in keeping LiNQ alive. The editors would like to thank these dedicated workers for their effort and time. Without you, LiNQ would not exist.
Journal History
LiNQ was founded in 1969 by Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, a lecturer in English at the then University College of Townsville, by members of Townsville community belonging to the English Language and Literature Association (ELLA), and interested undergraduates in the Department of English. The founders’ vision was to encourage and support writers living in tropical Queensland by providing them with ‘an authoritative publishing venue, and by linking their work with the national and international literary communities.’ LiNQ therefore was to include ‘a limited amount of work by authors not based in the region’. From its first issue in 1971, LiNQ has published poetry, short stories, play scripts, reviews, and articles on literary, artistic, historical and social themes for scholarly and general readers in the arts community. LiNQ‘s readers and contributors, although eminently local, now span the globe. We receive emails and submissions from loyal readers and contributors overseas almost as much as we receive correspondence from North Queensland. LiNQ has continued in unbroken production from 1969 to the present, and is therefore one of the longest-lasting Australian literary journals.
LiNQ‘s longevity depends on unpaid work by editors, subscriptions, and on grants mainly from government bodies, including the Literature Board of the Australia Council, the Queensland Government (Arts Queensland), and the Townsville City Council.
From 1975 to 1990 the co-editors were Elizabeth Perkins and Cheryl Taylor, assisted by tutors, including Dr Stephen Torre, Dr. Graham Barwell and Dr Kay Ferres. ELLA members provided administrative support by managing subscriptions, banking, and payments to contributors, while the Department of English contributed office assistance. Typesetting and printing were carried out by central JCU services at minimal cost, although early LiNQ issues were printed by local commercial printers. In the early 1990s editors were Elizabeth Perkins, Dr Robert Dixon, Dr Phillipa Kelly, and Dr Greg Manning. Dr Gina Mercer and Dr Greg Manning co-edited LiNQ from 1995 to 1998, when Gina Mercer became sole editor. From 2004 to 2006, LiNQ was edited at the Cairns campus of James Cook University by Dr Dosia Reichardt. From 2006 to 2007 it was edited by Dr Tony Simoes da Silva and Assoc Professor Cheryl Taylor. In 2008, Dr Lindsay Simpson and Dr Victoria Kuttainen took over as co-editors of LiNQ, before Dr Ariella Van Luyn replaced Dr Lindsay Simpson in 2013. LiNQ has a long association with the Department of English at James Cook University. Most of LiNQ‘s editors have built reputations as distinguished scholars of Australian or other literatures.
LiNQ is one of the few remaining literary scholarly journals that also profile creative writing.
