Get CROOKED: Submissions & Workshops Now Open
Calling all writers and artists! Submit your work and join our workshops in this new collaboration from Michael Smith and the minds behind SISSY ANARCHY. Read more…
Holy shit. I’m so excited to invite you into the ever-expanding world of SISSY ANARCHY with a new love child: CROOKED.
As some of you who have been following since the jump will well and truly know, SISSY ANARCHY has always been a living organism. It’s never been just one thing: it’s a mood, a protest, a messy, beautiful collision of identities. It bends around new concepts and formats like water. From the local foundation of our home in London to international streams, we’ve always tried to exceed expectations by pushing into the spaces where we aren’t “supposed” to be. We’ve done the high-art thing, the DIY thing, and everything in between.
Since we kicked off in 2023, the trajectory has been a bit of a fever dream. We’ve produced books, zines, workshops, and journals that I know are sitting on your bedside tables or stuffed under your pillows as dirty little secrets. We’ve been featured in white-cube galleries, book fairs near and far, and even made a splash at the Venice Biennale. But as much as I love the global playground—and have needed the necessary time off from production—there’s a specific kind of hunger that comes from moving further and further away from the soil that actually made you.
That’s where CROOKED comes in. This project isn’t just a new chapter, it’s a homecoming. It’s about taking everything we’ve learned in the metropole and bringing it back to so-called Australia; the place that grew me, the place that raised me. But we aren’t going to the “big” cities. We’re going rural. We’re going back to our roots in a place almost as quaint as its name: Townsville, or more importantly, Gurambilbarra.
But let’s be real about why we’re going rural right now. We aren’t just looking for a change of scenery or a quiet place to hide. We are living through a global pivot toward the hollow and the hateful. Whether it’s the rising tide of fascism across the West, the relentless machine of war, or the live-streamed genocide of the Palestinian people, we are witnessing a coordinated attempt to narrow the world; to decide who is human enough to speak and whose life is “culturally sensitive” enough to ignore.
Look at what just happened in so-called Australia. A major writers’ festival imploded because the board decided that a Palestinian author, Randa Abdel-Fattah, was a “risk” to the comfort of their audience. They used the language of “cultural sensitivity” to mask a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship. When they silenced her, they didn’t just hurt one writer, they exposed the fragility of the “liberal” arts world. It proved that if your “anarchy” or your “art” only exists within the safe, curated walls of a city institution and programme, it can be switched off the second it makes anyone—the state, directors—uncomfortable.
CROOKED is a refusal of that silence. We are returning to the rural because the “centre” is rotting. In the city, we are often fighting for a seat at a table that was built to exclude us. But in the regional, in the beauty of Gurambilbarra, we are forced to reckon with the actual ground we stand on. To talk about rurality in this country is to talk, first and foremost, about colonialism. You cannot look at the scrub or the coastline without seeing the ongoing occupation. You cannot talk about the displacement of Palestinians without acknowledging the stolen land right beneath our boots. Indigeneity isn’t a footnote here, it is the foundation. By moving SISSY ANARCHY to the regional for our collaboration on CROOKED, we are stripping away the polish of the metropole to look at the raw mechanics of power: how it occupies land, how it polices bodies, and how it tries to sanitise our histories.
Zooming into the local landscape we’re stepping into: we now have Nick Dametto as the Mayor of Townsville, a man who transitioned from the populist right of Katter’s Australian Party to lead this city with a “back to basics” brand of hyper-masculinity. Dametto has built his image on being the “Minister for Muscles,” a bull-riding, shirtless-selfie-taking avatar for the kind of “rugged, pioneer” politics that has always tried to chest-beat its way over queer and marginalised identities. While his campaign catchphrase of “putting boots on the ground” focuses on a blue-collar push for infrastructure and trade jobs, it also sits alongside a much sharper edge; one that points toward a thinly veiled threat of increased surveillance and policing against anyone who doesn’t fit the mould of his “orderly” city.
Beyond the tough-guy posturing, Dametto’s political lineage and public stances carry a weight of queerphobia and exclusion that makes a project like CROOKED a literal necessity. When the leadership of a city is obsessed with “boots on the ground,” they aren’t looking for community; they’re looking for control. They are creating a climate where being different is a liability and where radical, queer expression is something to be “cleaned up.”
By bringing CROOKED to Gurambilbarra, we are putting a different kind of house-down-sissy-kinky-boots-on-the-ground (lol, I had to, excuse em moi). We aren’t here to police or to perform safety for the state; we’re here to plant seeds of dissent and joy in a soil that the local government wants to pave over with its own brand of populism. We are reclaiming the space from those who use their platform to punch down. If the mayor wants to talk about boots, then let’s talk about the heavy boots of the sissies and the anarchists who have always been here, surviving in the margins. We are here to show that Townsville isn’t just a backdrop for his theatre; it’s a site of queer vitality and resistance that refuses to be trampled by anyone’s “order.”
We are going back to the roots, not to escape the world’s horrors, but to find a more honest place to fight them. We are choosing to be “crooked” because the narrow path leads to complicity. We are choosing the rural because that is where the resistance is quietest, deepest, and most necessary.
Though, this isn’t a solo mission. SISSY ANARCHY has always thrived on collective energy, but CROOKED feels different because of the lineage and the shared heart behind it. Last year, I sat down with creatives Michael Smith and Caitlin McLoughlin to begin the conversations that would eventually become this project.
Working with Michael and Caitlin has been a masterclass in what happens when you stop trying to “curate” and start trying to commune. We spent hours deconstructing what it means to bring a queer, anarchic sensibility to a regional landscape. How do we honour the specific beauty and grit of Gurambilbarra without polishing away the edges and its histories?
Michael brings a perspective that challenges the way we look at space and legacy. His ability to see the architecture of a feeling is what gives CROOKED its structural integrity. Caitlin is a heartbeat, bringing forth a very specific design approach and an intuition for storytelling through a deep connection to the nuances of local identity; ensuring that we weren’t just “dropping in” on a location, but rather listening to what the land and the community are already saying.
Together, we realised that SISSY ANARCHY in London is a different beast than SISSY ANARCHY in North Queensland. In London, the anarchy is often about finding space in the crowd; in Townsville, it’s about finding the subversion in the stillness, the heat, and the histories.
We chose the name because there is so much beauty in the off-kilter. To be “crooked” is to refuse the straight line: the straight narrative, the straight history, the straight identity. It’s a nod to the way the scrub grows, the way the heat waves shimmer off the bitumen, and the way our community survives in regional areas by leaning into each other.
CROOKED is our attempt to bridge the gap between the international “Art World” and the visceral, dusty reality of the places that shaped us. It’s about recognising that the “roots” we talk about aren’t just a metaphor; they are the dirt, the saltwater, and the specific queer resilience required to thrive outside of a capital city.
This project has pushed us to rethink our roles as creators. It’s not just about making a zine or an installation; it’s about the labour of being present. Michael, Caitlin, and I haven’t just been planning an output; we’ve been building a bridge.
To those of you who have been with us since those first zines in 2023: thank you for letting us grow. Thank you for following us from the canals of Venice, through London, and now into the tropics of Gurambilbarra. CROOKED is for the rural kids, the ones who felt like they had to leave to find anarchy, and the ones who stayed behind to start their own.
We’re going back to the start, but we’re bringing the whole world with us. Welcome to CROOKED.
xo
pea
CROOKED is a defiant queer publication born in the dust and heat of regional Queensland. It carves space for the bent, the broken, and the beautifully out-of-line. Rooted in transgressive queer realities and shaped by the rugged landscapes of so-called Australia, CROOKED rejects assimilation, embraces distortion, and celebrates the art of deviation.
The word “crooked” calls up everything queer bodies and lives are accused of being: twisted, wrong, not straight. It’s a slur without being a slur; coded, sly, and subversive. It holds the pain of being called unnatural, and flips it. It’s pride oozing.
In a regional context, “crooked” also evokes a relationship with landscape: gnarled trees, winding dirt roads, the off-grid, rural life. Nothing neat. Nothing suburban. Everything real. It hints at criminality too, “crooked” like corrupt, dangerous, outside the law; a nod toward trans and queer anarchy in a settler colony where laws were never made to protect us.
Who we are:
Born from the creative minds of artist Michael Smith and SISSY ANARCHY‘s P. Eldridge and Caitlin McLoughlin, CROOKED is a powerhouse collaboration funded by the City of Townsville and Arts Queensland via the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF).
The project bridges local innovation with international prestige; while gaining traction in underground queer archives, CROOKED joins forces with SISSY ANARCHY, the London-based press celebrated by AnOther Magazine and recently showcased at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale. Together, they push the boundaries of trans-anarchist philosophy and queer identity.
Our tenets:
Drawing from perspectives across urban centres and regional fringes, and grounded in the lives of trans and queer communities who inhabit, resist, endure, and thrive in regional spaces, CROOKED continues the legacy of queer resistance through storytelling, visual art, poetry, critical essays, and anti-colonial critique.
CROOKED is independent and radically committed to showcasing the voices of trans and queer people surviving and thriving beyond the cities.
Submission Windows & Local Workshops:
We are so stoked to finally open the gates for you to join us in building this first issue.
Starting January 22nd, we are launching two distinct paths for involvement; both of which are paid opportunities.
First, for the local people in Gurambilbarra, we are offering a Writing Workshop hosted by P. Eldridge. This is an intimate space—only 8 spots available—for local trans and queer folk to spend four weeks together (Wednesday evenings throughout February, AEST) honing a piece specifically for the first issue of CROOKED.
Parallel to this, we are launching an Open Call for Submissions for all queer and trans people living, working across, or from so-called Australia. We are seeking submissions across a broad spectrum of expression, including: Experimental & Long-form Prose, Poetry, Visual Art & Photographic Essays, Anti-colonial Critique & Queer Theory, Underground Dispatches, and more. We are particularly interested in perspectives that bridge the gap between urban centers and the regional fringes: stories of survival, thriving, and anarchy from the “off-grid” corners of so-called Australia.
Both the workshop applications and the open call for submissions will be handled via Google Forms, where we will ask you to share details about yourself and how you’d like to contribute; no more than a few hundred words with a sample of your work, be that your artwork, photography, or writing (just so you’re prepared).
All the links, prompts, and finer details will be sent out directly through the SISSY ANARCHY Substack, so please be sure to subscribe to receive this information (for free here) by January 22nd.
Offt, I know… a lot going on here. But before you go, please consider sharing this post (screenshot it, share the instagram post here, do what you want) so the word of this new opportunity can reach all your cool pals.
SEE YOU HERE ON JAN 22.
CROOKED TEAM: MICHAEL SMITH, CAITLIN MCLOUGHLIN, P. ELDRIDGE
FOLLOW for more on Instagram: @sissyanarchy or @crooked.magazine