a conversation with fifteen journals, presses and platforms
Let’s Do It! Who Can Stop Us?
We spoke to Sasha Francis and Achille Segard of 5ever Books, Damien Levi of bad apple, Shania Pablo, Nathan Joe and Lily Holloway of eel mag, Michelle Rahurahu and Essa May Ranapiri of Kupu Toi Takataapui | Takataapui Literary Journal, Briana Jamieson of Mineral Press, Ben Fagan of Motif Poetry, Grace Shelley of Overcom, Jennifer Cheuk and Aidan Dayvyd of Rat World, Faith Wilson of Saufo’i Press, Rebecca Hawkes and Nikki-Lee Birdsey of Sweet Mammalian, Maia Armistead, George Wearing, Amelia Kirkness, Pippi Jean, Cadence Chung and Erin Dailey of Symposia Literary Magazine, Kit Willett of Tarot Poetry Journal, Ash Davida Jane and Stacey Teague of Tender Press, Charlotte Gibbs of Toitoi, and WORD – The Front Line: fifteen journals, presses and platforms launched in recent years showcasing the work of emerging writers in Aotearoa.
What were the beginnings of Motif and WORD – The Front Line, and how do your organisations operate in the spoken word space?
Motif: Motif was started by Sara Hirsch and Ben Fagan (that’s me) in 2018 as a way to tautoko poets, promote the performance of poetry, and create a space for amazing writers all around Aotearoa! We’d both been working as poets and producers in the UK, and wanted to bring what had learned to NZ. We knew from touring here that there are poets in every city and small town, most of whom don’t get the opportunity to share their words with their community. Slowly, step by step, we’ve been trying to change that. Spoken word is super-accessible which makes it the perfect format to engage with communities and writers.
WORD – The Front Line: WORD – The Front Line is the flagship programme of Action Education, where Ramon Narayan has been the manager since 2010. Ramon was one of the co-founders of the South Auckland Poets Collective (SAPC). In 2012, SAPC fundraised to attend Brave New Voices, the biggest youth poetry festival in the world. After attending BNV we saw the potential that poetry had to build community and positively impact on social change. When we returned to Aotearoa we began to plot and scheme about how we could uplift the spoken word poetry game here with a vison to one day bring a team to BNV to represent New Zealand. We achieved this seven years later in 2019 when Action Education and our 2018 WTFL champions Ngā Hinepūkōrero performed at the festival.
WORD – The Front Line was the vision of Luti Richards who was a member of SAPC. We found the funding and made it happen in 2014, and had 27 young people take part. This year is the 10-year anniversary of the programme, with around 200 young poets from schools across Auckland participating in the slam every year.
Literary Journals! What led you to start your journal, and what are you looking to address or showcase?
Kupu Toi Takataapui: We (Michelle and Essa) started hanging out through working on Te Rito o te Harakeke (a collection of creative work in response to the LAND BACK movement at Ihumaatao) and everyone who was a part of putting that together (Hana Pera Aoake, Sinead Overbye, Ruby Solly) also just like happened to be Maaori and queer. We think a takataapui journal was brought up shortly after we finished that first project, then we all got too busy. But yeah, we just like kept hanging out after that and then felt like we should be doing something with that time that was somewhat productive (takataa never rest lol) and going back to this idea of making a journal of writing for queer Maaori seemed like the obvious thing to do. And to honour the people we worked with on Te Rito all of them will be featured in the first issue, kinda for that whakapapa reason and also because their writing is just incredible.
Sweet Mammalian: Hannah Mettner, Morgan Bach, and Sugar Magnolia Wilson started the journal in 2014, out of a shared wish to see more vibrant new writing shared in the world. As we approach our tenth issue, it’s funny to think Sweet Mammalian might now seem to upcoming writers like an ‘establishment’ journal – the olden days of 2014 was before the current bounty of online journals in Aotearoa, and sparked by a rebellious energy of... let’s do it! Who can stop us? We’ve aimed to keep SM firing in keeping with the original brief – providing a home for warm-blooded work, beautifully presented, in relatively short and carefully curated annual issues.
Symposia: It seemed like such a wonderful coincidence that a group of young poets were all in Wellington at the same time, and we knew we wanted to collaborate somehow. We’ve all had our work uplifted by literary magazines since we were young, and we wanted to pass it on and give the same opportunities to others. For submissions, we wanted to open up the literary space in Pōneke and read work that excites us, especially from newer voices that may have never been published before. Our unique presentation style also means that we’re on the lookout for poems that are visually interesting on the page – we love fun formatting!
Toitoi: The idea for Toitoi started in 2015 when my then-7-year-old daughter wrote a poem at school and her teacher tried to get it published. There was nowhere for it to go. I had a background in publishing and so offered to publish a little creative writing booklet for the school. We asked sparky artists to illustrate the stories and poems. It was such a hit, I then expanded it to other schools in our area and it grew from there. Since then, we have published over 2500 young writers and artists across 33 journals. It has been incredible to watch it grow and become something much more than I ever could have imagined.
Rat World: I started Rat World in March of last year with graphic designer Aidan Dayvyd because I loved print, I loved art, and I loved seeing what was going on in our community. But, in retrospect, I think I also started Rat World because I knew how hard it was to break into the arts and publishing world. I wanted other people to have an easier time in this industry. I wanted people to connect and meet each other without so much pressure. I wanted there to be more guidance and advice for emerging and minority creatives. Rat World was my way of saying: ‘hey, I understand what it’s like to be left out of these spaces. let’s make our own space’.
Truth be told, I really didn’t start Rat World with a particular message/goal in mind. I was just so excited to see the amount of creative work going on, I wanted everyone else to be excited too. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in our community, but it’s rarely platformed in print. And I’ve never really understood why.
Overcom: I started Overcom to give queer people a specifically queer space to get their work published. I felt that a space didn’t exist within the intersection of writing and the queer community. Overcom was less a literary journal than a magazine when I started it, and I’m not sure how the transition to full-on lit journal took place – almost without me noticing! – but I’m so glad I went there.
My first criteria for work to appear in Overcom is that it’s excellent writing. I look for care taken in the choice of vocabulary and imagery, and interesting or unexpected phrasing. For me, as an editor and a reader, good writing has to come first, before a message can land. However, I am conscious of not making choices just based on my own tastes. As a one-person editing team it could be easy to fall into creating a journal which appeals to just one person – me. I need to keep in mind things that are certainly good, even if they aren’t my usual style of choice, and I always end up falling in love with those pieces! I’ll be taking on a co-editor in a few months, and the journal will only get better for having two brains to bounce ideas between.
Tarot: As a journal, we really aim to present a snapshot of Aotearoa at any given time: a vibrant, evolving, and complex country of diverse expression and experience. We aim to support the voices of those not often heard by publishing them alongside those who are. In terms of style, I try to publish a wide range of quality poems and not to be too biased toward my preferred style of poetry, but I have noticed that poems with vivid imagery, subtly masterful meter, and a clear affective purpose are generally more likely to be successful. Since its inception, Tarot has been interested in layers of meaning – hence the name – so poems with mature narratives underpinned by insightful revelations of the human condition do well also.
eel mag: eel was founded to uplift and platform contemporary queer writing with a current focus towards poetry. At the time, it was to fill a gap that existed. Though the young poetry scene is very queer, there hadn’t been many queer journals run by queer editors in Aotearoa. It’s the notion of doing something for the community, by the community, that was exciting. We aim to give writers permission to be openly, loudly, radically queer if that’s what they want to be. Queerness has a way of being covert, subtextual, or peripheral when it has to navigate heteronormative or mainstream conditions. At eel mag, you can serve us your saddest sapphic elegies or your most faggy piggy haiku if you choose.
bad apple: With bad apple, we have one core aim that forms the backbone of our kaupapa: to publish works by LGBTQIA+ and takatāpui folk from, or living in, Aotearoa New Zealand. Our journal was established because we were unhappy with the representation in existing queer media and felt there were few opportunities for developing writers to get published to counter this. We’re closing in on one year of bad apple and hoping, in the next year, to develop beyond our core aim and engage with our community through live events, mentorship programmes and maybe even a print mag.
5ever Books, Mineral, Saufo’i Press and Tender Press, you’re all publishing presses who are strong advocates of emerging writers. How did your press begin and what are its aims?
Saufo’i Press: Short story – I wanted to read more Pacific poetry books, so I thought I’d start publishing them. Longer story – I wanted more representation of Pacific writing in Aotearoa literature. I wanted to use my skills to help platform our writers. I wanted to encourage more Pacific poets to publish books.
Tender Press: We’re just looking for interesting work by interesting people. There’s a deficit of published work in Aotearoa from certain communities and we want to create another avenue for the people in those communities to get their writing out there, in a way that feels positive and safe for them and their work.
Mineral: Mineral grew out of a love for editing and publishing poetry as well as a love of books that are beautiful looking and feeling objects. After making the poetry journal zines Salty in 2017 & 2018, it felt like a natural next step to start publishing books. I learnt a lot about publishing while making guide books for Welcome to Nowhere festival in 2020 and 2021. The first poetry collection I published was Jane Paul's Ebbs & Floods, in October 2022. I first came across Jane's writing when I published her work in the first issue of Salty. Jane and I worked on Ebbs & Floods over the last three years. I got to know Jane's poems so well over the years and they were so inspiring that I created an exhibition of paintings based off the imagery and feelings in the book. The exhibition, ‘Wishbone’, was shown at KAUKAU in November 2022. Each painting was titled after words in Jane’s poems. Mineral is a space where I aim to make beautiful books to hold inspiring writing. I will also continue to work in ways where my painting and publishing interact.
5ever Books: 5ever books is first and foremost a survival tactic for us two. A way to keep nihilism and hate at bay in an increasingly violent world. For us, the purpose of the press is to keep us sane. To the world, the purpose of the press is to contribute to the literature and arts ecology and to provide infrastructure for our friends for self-expression and artistic practice. Read: an excuse to do cool things with our friends.
At every level of what we do and through every relationship, 5ever is a political practice: we humbly yet uncompromisingly look towards constitutional reform, inspired by the collective effort led by Margaret Mutu and Moana Jackson, to name only two.
Our work is really very varied - from books that fit more traditional categories such as ‘poetry’, to our performance art ‘Book Factory’ collaboration with Marcus McShane, to our work with Home Ground supporting the delivery of their art workbook in Arohata prison to women in all security levels. We launched in December 2020 with five abridged versions of forthcoming full texts – an approach that was unlike others we had seen – and this was a really exciting, important and proud moment for us both: in less than a month we learned every step of the craft and everything about each other. We founded a press as well as a lifelong friendship.
That high-stamina uni project crunch mode moment we found again recently with our latest author Renae Williams, who is involved with us at every stage of her upcoming publication Butter on Toast the Next Morning – from bookmark design to launch event organising to binding her own books. Here again, we’re most proud of the friendship we made along the way.
Saufo’i Press is named for your maternal grandmother, and you write on your website that ‘We do this for the generations before us. For the ones after us.’ How do you envision Saufo’i fitting into that lineage of Moana Pacific writers and publishers?
Saufo’i Press: I think any writer from the Moana is making a contribution and is part of that lineage. Some of our greatest writers might never share their stuff, or might share it only with a group of friends, their family, their church etc. I guess my statement is about acknowledging those who have paved the way for us in any capacity and responding to our ancestral callings, as well as increasing our representation in literature so that future writers have even more of a wealth of Pacific poetry books to read, be inspired by, critique. I hope I can continue to publish and work with Pacific writers for a long time, whether it’s through Saufo’i Press, or in other capacities.
5ever has developed the Notebooks for Prisoners project – can you describe what this project entails, and how it fits into the overall vision of 5ever as a publisher?
5ever Books: Notebooks for Prisoners is our contribution to an existing vibrant network of art practitioners and organisers who unleash the power of art for transformational change. The carceral system is a colonial, racist, harmful shitshow, and we’ve been told by our abolitionist friends and people from the inside that access to basic art resources really makes a difference (duh).
The project is two-fold: empower our community to make notebook-shaped art on one side, and give away those objects that are full of potentiality and empty of prescription to prisoners. To produce the notebooks, we gather waste paper from local printers as well as donated paper from the community. We organize working bees (all welcome, get in touch) and bind and chop as many notebooks as we can in one day. Some of these notebooks are absolutely stunning: spliced with coloured pages, collages, art prints, reclaimed images, hand-folded flaps. Some volunteers spend hours finding the right colour combination, or hand-cut wavy patterns. There is so much care and love going into those notebooks, we are shedding a tear typing this. We’re upskilling our friends and community who learn to use the tools at Rebel Press – we share space with like-minded people, everyone gets to do art, and the landfill gets one fewer load!
Overcom, Kupu Toi Takataapui, bad apple and eel journal all showcase writing by queer Aotearoa authors – do you think the visibility of queerness in our literature has changed or developed in recent years, and what would you like to see more of in the future?
Overcom: And don’t forget about The Agenda Zine! Aotearoa is going through a huge literature renaissance right now – just incredible poetry books and novels and short story collections being published all the time, and so many of those authors are queer, and identifying as queer – we’ve had incredible queer writers in our history who couldn't identify that way while they were writing or at all during their lives, like Frank Sargeson, and writers around whom there are still academic arguments about their sexuality, like Ngaio Marsh and Katherine Mansfield. Now, not only can people more easily publicly identify as queer, but stigma is reducing around bisexual and pansexual writers in straight-presenting relationships. When I first started Overcom, a number of people commented that because they were in straight-presenting relationships, they didn’t feel queer enough to submit work to queer publications. Now, I hope, that feeling is reducing. Everyone is queer enough to submit to Overcom, if they consider themselves queer. It’s fantastic that there are a number of different specifically queer spaces for writers to submit their work to. Same Same But Different Literary Festival also elevates queer writing. I’d love to see queer literature continue on its current incredible trajectory – more queer writers, more queer publications.
bad apple: Personally, I am so happy to see the growing number of small literary journals either focusing specifically on queer writers or heavily featuring them. With a growing acceptance of queer identities and young people feeling more comfortable writing freely about how they identify in the world, it definitely feels like there has been a shift in the literary landscape of Aotearoa. Looking toward the future, I would like to see major local publishers taking note of what our LGBTQIA+ whānau are doing and engaging them to develop and publish their work.
eel mag: It’s changed a lot in a short time. Even since our first issue came out, the queer presence in the sector has skyrocketed. We owe a lot to those who came before us (Overcom, Same Same But Different literary festival, and Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa, to name just three contemporary queer pioneers). An interest for us lies in opening up all parts of the publishing process to the queer community. There’s a strangeness in being part of a panel who decides who is in and who is out – we received so many submissions for our first issue that we wanted to include but didn’t have space for. We’d like to see (and be a part of) opening up the selecting, editing, and designing processes of journal creation to people who want to give it a go. The more the merrier! Also, more funding for writers, more funding for gay stuff! That’d be the dream.
Kupu Toi Takataapui: There has been more visibility – just the existence of more than one platform atm is so cool. There are more opportunities to be intersectional and part of our journal that we think is really neat is that it presents Maaoritanga and takataapuitanga as braided together. And for the future we both want queer characters with more arms - (Essa means in an octopus way, Michelle means in a spider way) (both: more fingers overall 😉)
Symposia, you operate as a collective. How does this work in terms of the selection and editing process?
Symposia: When we first receive poems, we read them separately and create our own shortlists, then discuss these with each other. It’s definitely a matter of balancing out our different opinions and tastes, as we all look for something slightly different in a poem. There are definitely some debates! But this doesn’t seem to hinder us – our favourite moments are when we manage to change each other’s minds about poems. It’s really exciting to be able to discuss the submissions in depth and what we each appreciate in them.
Sweet Mammalian, how has the journal evolved since its creation?
Sweet Mammalian: Within the journal itself, perhaps the biggest evolution has been an editorial changing of the guard from the original trio to Nikki-Lee and I (Rebecca). When I was in undergrad, reading the first issue of Sweet Mammalian felt revelatory. Here was poetry that could be mystical and cheeky, energetic and lachrymose, intellectual and earthy. It was the first place I read Hera Lindsay Bird and Emma Barnes. This may have also been just a formative year for me – and it wasn’t til later that I was introduced to print and online journals that had come before, like Trout, JAAM, Glottis and Hue & Cry. As a younger writer I wish I’d been reminded that every stately old journal was new and radical once! But I have always loved that Sweet Mammalian provided an easily accessible mouthful of poetic zingers from Aotearoa freely online. Nearly a decade on, it’s much easier to find current New Zealand writing from younger authors on the web, but we still think SM creates a special space to bring all sorts and stages of writers into conversation.
How does publishing online influence your journal and audience?
Tarot: It’s unsurprising that online publishing gives Tarot a broad readership and submission range. It means I occasionally publish overseas writers – who are seemingly not connected to New Zealand at all – whose work feels connected in some way to life in Aotearoa. Occupying the online space also, naturally, means my audience and submitters tend to be a bit more tech-savvy, and generally have a younger voice. Choosing to be an online-only space was a deliberate choice. And, choosing to publish primarily in a flipbook format reminiscent of print was a deliberate choice also. The intended message is this: online spaces are valid spaces for poetry; aesthetic (both visual and verbal) excellence and prestige can exist online. Initially, I only published the PDF in the flipbook format; now, I present each poem on the poet’s page also to fully utilise the online medium: to encourage searchability and, more importantly, accessibility of quality Aotearoa poetry.
bad apple: Publishing online gives us the very unique opportunity to put a piece out into the world with a very short turnover. We are able to have reactions to things affecting our community (whether positive or negative) immediately up for others to engage with. Being solely online can have its drawbacks, like when our website goes down or the reoccurring costs of maintaining our digital spaces. At this point in time, however, it works best for us and allows us to connect with queer folk up and down Aotearoa in a way that is accessible for those outside the main centres or who wouldn’t be able to buy a physical magazine.
eel mag: Accessibility is the major thing. The reach of an online journal is massive. And while it would be nice to have a physical copy of the issue, it allows space for us to be a bit more flexible with audio recordings or adventurous formatting. According to our website analytics, our first edition has been read by people in 34 different countries over 3,000 times (2,000 of those being unique users). Being an online journal means we are more easily accessed by people outside of Aotearoa.
While the accessibility applies to our audience, it also applies to poets seeking to submit their work. For new (and younger) poets especially, the process of being published in a physical journal may seem like an intimidating one. Hopefully, having our publishing process take place online eases new poets into the publication process and that eel mag becomes a solid springboard for them to pursue their other poetry goals!
Toitoi has recently expanded to accept submissions from writers aged 5-18, where previously you focused on writers aged 5-13. What prompted this change, and how do you think this will alter or expand the work you publish?
Toitoi: We are very excited about this change. It was prompted by many requests over the years from Toitoi alumni for more publishing opportunities as they progress through school. We send them to Starling of course – we love what you do! The Michael King Writers Centre also publishes Signals, which is fantastic.
We will publish a few writers and artists over the age of 13 from Toitoi 31. I think it will add depth and variety to what we offer. Toitoi is special because it is all about young people inspiring other young people – they learn from and challenge each other to do better all the time – so having examples of work from older writers and artists will really raise the bar and expand the horizons of our younger submitters. Our hope is that, along with Starling and others, we can reinforce the bridge from intermediate to beyond school and encourage the Arts as a place of wellness and joy, safety and acceptance, as well as a potential career path.
Why is the print aspect of your journal important?
Rat World: I think there’s something incredibly special about print. You have to engage with the work in a different way than in the digital sphere. You have to be slower, and more intense in your interaction with each work. On social media, I see new artworks every five seconds, and I am briefly amazed before scrolling onto the next. But in print, I really take in what I’m looking at. I have to turn the page, I have to see how an image dips into the bind, or where it stretches to in the margins. The act of reading a print magazine is more intentional than consuming the work online. And it’s bigger! I love that print means it can be huge. I went to this bookstore in Hong Kong a while ago and saw a huge poster-sized A2 magazine leaning up against the shelf. It was fantastic.
I suppose it’s also that print feels more permanent – what happens to all the cool art when no-one’s paying for the website domain anymore? Rat World can sit on someone’s shelf for 10 or 20 years and still showcase the same art in the exact same way as it does right now, and that’s really cool to me. I was recently flicking through indie print magazines from the early ’90s and it was like a time capsule. You can’t log into old books and update the design for 2023. It exists exactly as it is forever.
Most of all though, Rat World is in print simply because I like print and I want everyone else to like print! I’ve always had an intense love for magazines and independent print publications - I've actually been collecting indie mags since I was around 10 years old! Here are some of my childhood favourites: Frankie, Juxtapoz, C Heads, Hi-Fructose… Growing up, I probably emailed the editor of each of these at least once, asking to work for them.
Toitoi: I am a reader first and foremost. As a child, how a book looked and felt and smelled was very important to me. It still is. I bought a book only last week based on its proportions and cover design. Books are beautiful objects – they are crafted by people who care deeply about them, they build their own history depending on who reads them, when. The watermarks and dog ears become part of the story. We tell our young people all the time how much we love their work but often this is just lip service and they are treated disrespectfully. By making Toitoi a high quality publication with beautiful paper stock and design, we show them that their creative work is valued and they understand the instant they lay their hands on their journal that what they are doing is important.
Briana, you're a visual artist as well as a writer, editor and publisher. How does your art practice inform your approach to Mineral Press?
Mineral: There is a certain type of design that many art books and photo books have that I am drawn to. A high quality, minimal design, where there is lots of breathing space, and the text, imagery, paper, and physical qualities all become artworks in themselves. I am interested in books that exist as artworks. Editing and publishing Ebbs & Floods felt similar to putting together an exhibition of paintings, or even creating a painting. There are big waves of inspiration and joy throughout the creation process, times of reworking and cutting things out when things don’t quite work, and then there are moments when something feels just right – it’s kind of a warm, exciting feeling when I look at something/read something and I know it’s finished. A lot of thinking, editing, trusting my feelings, and riding waves of inspiration goes into the processes of both publishing and painting.
Each of the five books Tender Press has published has felt very tailored to the individual author, in terms of cover, layout and other publication choices, while also having a Tender Press ‘house style’. How do you balance the two sides of this equation as a publisher?
Tender Press: It’s important to us that the author is getting the book that they want, and they have a lot of say in how the book looks. This includes cover art, any illustrations, fonts, and the layout of their work. We’re quite flexible when it comes to these things, and keen to experiment. If they want a book that is very long and thin, why not? On the other hand, we have to build a recognisable brand and so it helps to keep some things consistent if the author doesn’t have a particular preference about an aspect of the book.
5ever, you are involved in all aspects of the creation of your books not only as writers and editors but by physically printing, binding and producing the books yourselves. How does that hands-on approach to publication influence the work published by 5ever?
5ever Books: As anarchists, we are committed to being self-reliant at every stage of the making process we can do by ourselves, and remain accountable for our own transformation of matter rather than to delegate with our dollars. In this sense making is subversive. But that may be a post-rationalisation of our artisan vocation. In this sense making is grounding. There is a powerful sense of agency that comes from full involvement in the process from the gestation of an idea, to the digital design and typesetting, to the production of a physical book. By having full control, we are able to experiment with the process – sometimes we splice our books with collage; we’ve painted on some covers and then printed once dry; we're easily able to experiment with different shapes, textures, book sizes and paper colours. Both of us are attracted to and intrigued by physical machines that enable creation, and so we have slowly acquired different tools such as an automatic pamphlet folder and a spiral binder… all in the name of experimentation!
By being so involved in the creation of the book object, an element of craft (as well as variation) is introduced in the physical production of each book: consistency across multiple books takes a particular level of care, crimping covers in the exact right spot requires measurement and adjustment, getting caught in conversation while binding often means mistakes like sending books back through the glue machine, and ending up with square books is more difficult than it may at first appear. Over the years we have made numerous books, and in doing so have learnt the quirks and characters of the machines we use: to align spines on our binding machine requires the front edge sit a few mm higher than the back edge, our guillotine sometimes cuts on a slight angle, and before we got a new printer at Rebel Press in 2021, we’d have to ‘splice’ our printing to avoid curves created in the printing process. Our enjoyment of this process is perhaps reflective of our background: we were both artists before we were publishers.
For us, these quirks are delightful and speak to our ever developing relationship with the tools we use. Sharing these skills with others who are new to the space – whether authors themselves or volunteers – is also particularly enjoyable and really helps to render the book object accessible. By physically making the book objects ourselves, we are able to counteract any sense of gatekeeping, elitism or scarcity mindsets often associated with the traditional world of publishing. Our particular relationship to the production process also means we can produce at leisure. Unlike publishers who rely on external printing companies, the smallest print run we are able to do at any one time is four books. A typical day at ‘the office’ may include topping up stock of any particular title with 12 or 16 books. Such an involved process means that we need to feel passionate about bringing the book into the world in order to do the work: so we are very passionate.
What would your advice be to any artists considering starting their own print publication?
Rat World: Don’t think too much. You can plan as much as you want, but at the end of the day, you just need to go for it. Some things you will need to figure out on the go – for an example, we didn’t know we would hate our original design so much until we received our first Issue One proof. We re-designed the whole magazine in one night and that’s what you see in your hands today. You won’t know what works and what doesn’t until you actually do the thing. Go for it! Also, if you’re looking for advice, guidance, or just want to chat about the process – feel free to reach out to us! We are happy to grab a coffee or have a chat with other people interested in independent print publishing!
Overcom: Print can feel more daunting than online, because of the cost of production. But you can get started on a tiny budget – I designed the first issues of Overcom in Microsoft Word, and printed them using my work printers, which luckily charge peanuts. You could look into other low-cost options, like printing at the library, or Warehouse Stationery, or a pal’s workplace. A really small print run – like 10 or 20 – is enough to get you started. You can sell online for next to nothing using BigCartel’s free plan, but I’d recommend your local zinefest as a starting point for first-timers! Beyond that, I would really recommend thinking carefully through your vision for your publication before you start – this is advice based on what I didn't do. Long-time fans of Overcom will know how much it has changed – in aesthetics and in general vibe – since the beginning. I love where Overcom is now, and I just wish it could have been that from the very beginning!
How can young writers get involved in, and are there any tips for how to approach, slam/spoken word events?
WORD – The Front Line: We have so many opportunities to get involved, whether that is taking part in Word – The Front Line, our national youth poetry conference The Word Summit, in our many open mics or taking part in workshops. Just follow our socials and sign up to our newsletter. As far as advice, be authentic. Speak your truth. Your personal safety is worth more than a poetry score. Know your poem, seek critique and feedback from those you trust. Practice, practice, practice! Also, immerse yourself in art that inspires you, whether it’s other spoken word artists, music, books, any of it.
Motif: Young writers can get involved by checking out our social media, rocking up to one of our events, or emailing us on kiaora@motifpoetry.co.nz. We have open-access events in each of our regions, including open mics, workshops and poetry slams. Our friendly team have all been there, done that, and are happy to offer advice on what the best pathway might be for you.
There’s lots of ways to write a poem! If you’re particularly interested in performance techniques, check out spoken word or slam videos on YouTube, there’s tons. But remember, any poem can work in a performance environment, just bring what you’ve written and see how it feels when you say it out loud. You don’t have to memorise it, and if you’re nervous about getting up on stage, come along to watch first, bring a friend, and have a chat with someone who is already doing it.
Do you think the space for young writers in our literary community has changed or developed in recent years, and what would you like to see more of in the future?
Sweet Mammalian: Absolutely! There are so many more journals that explicitly court younger voices, and festivals like the National Young Writers’ Festival and Verb have done a stellar job of creating energetic, exciting places for writers to thrive and gather. Sweet Mammalian began somewhat in defiance of what felt like a more restrained literary environment at the the time, but these days there are quite a number of exciting journals out there, and young writers finding (or creating! ) places for their work. Having more spaces for writers to get their work out there and read is wonderful, and enables an important diversity of voices to be heard. It feels like now there are more accessible online spaces where newer writers can experiment together, which is a beautiful thing. It’s also great seeing fellow young/emerging writers take up editorial roles, or start their own platforms to celebrate the work and writers they want to see published - creating new paths for their peers and successors. Bluntly, the main thing we’d like to see more of is funding for literary journals and the arts more broadly. We also have dreams for more bodacious live events… more on that shortly xoxo…
Symposia: We feel that the literary community has become even more seen and out in the open, and it’s exciting to see poetry becoming a more visible and popular form, especially among younger people. Spaces for young and emerging writers to share their work, such as Starling, do a great job at demystifying poetry and making it accessible. Poetry isn’t just for old men speaking in rhyme anymore: it can be for anyone and take any form. We definitely feel that there’s a real network of support for emerging writers – when we started Symposia, we were really cheered on and shared. This is really the essence of the NZ literary community, and we hope we can give back to that in some way.
What are some of the best things young writers can do to help build their portfolio and career in Aotearoa?
Saufo’i Press: Submit writing to journals. Start your own journal/publication/zine. Build a website or share your writing on social media. Reach out to writers you admire and share your writing, ask them questions. I think for the most part we’re a really supportive community and love to gas each other up, so it’s always exciting to read new writing, meet new writers etc.
Tender Press: The best thing to do is make friends with other writers and go to literary events. When you’re part of a community of writers, there’s a wealth of support, feedback, and a sharing of information and opportunities that is so valuable to a young writer. Your writing will be better for it.
Have you noticed any trends in the work of young or emerging writers featured in your journal? Do you have any tips for anyone interested in sending their work in?
Sweet Mammalian: We are very lucky to read the work of first-time writers alongside established authors. Our journal doesn’t have a targeted demographic focus, but we believe maintaining a space that allows many different writers to mingle is important – so in our issues, laureates like David Eggleton rub shoulders with young talents like Cadence Chung. Sweet Mammalian’s early issues included astonishing young writers like Nina Mingya Powles and Tim Grgec, who have now gone on to publish widely. It is a special joy to offer a platform for new writers, and in our case we have been able to watch many emerging authors grow across our submission rounds and issues – Jake Arthur, whose delightful sasquatch poem featured in our very first issue, has just released his debut book!
We do notice trends year on year in the concerns, sensibilities and comedic styles of the time. Sometimes our selections might reflect this, as poems cluster on a theme, but equally we might choose work that differs from the dominant grain. The main shift is that young writers seem to be more confident – benefiting from the support of lively literary communities – and this is exciting to see.
It’s not super helpful to say we want writing that knocks our socks off – everyone is saying this! We have broad tastes and like a range of different work. We try not to bring too many preconceptions to the table when approaching the reading. We approach each poem fresh, trying to access it on its own terms. Our advice would be not to second-guess what an editor might want, and to send writing that feels true to your own voice!
Tarot: The young writers who have been included in Tarot are as diverse as any other group. Many have very wistful, nostalgic poems which pinpoint the moment when the veil was lifted and innocence was lost – these are poems which deal with memory, hope, and early romances. There are many more that are protest poems, space-making poems, and identity-forming poems. The trend that connects them is that all of the poems are completely integrous in their directedness: they are unabashedly what they are. My top tip for anyone interested in submitting is to pay attention to structure. Young poets have often spent many hours mastering the language in a poem, and they have emotionally rich ideas and stories. However, special care needs to be taken when deciding where the poem starts and ends, the shape of the path the reader travels, and how to use repeated language: repetition is most effective its meaning is reshaped by each iteration. Finally, take advantage of the journal’s submission policy. If you may submit up to five poems, submit a full range of five radically different pieces.
Toitoi: We are looking for connection and community – original and authentic voices, and writing and art that makes you laugh, cry, gasp, think. We are not worried about grammar, spelling or perfection – we want stories from the heart. It is joyous when you find it.
How can a writer submit their work to Kupu Toi Takataapui?
Kupu Toi Takataapui: We only accept tuupuna submissions atm lol. No but seriously, we haven’t done an open call yet but plan to in future issues! For the first issue we thought it would be nice just to reach out to writers we knew. Sometimes the open call can feel a bit threatening (especially when it’s to a new thing) so going to takataapui writers and being like hey here is some money to write a thing felt like a good vibe. And it also means there will be writing for people to look at when we do eventually open submissions. But for now we’re just working at getting the first issue done and out this year <3
Presses, how can a writer approach sending in their full manuscript to you?
5ever Books: TL;DR: send us your manuscripts at 5everbooks@gmail.com! All contributions welcome!
For us it’s all about relationships – and we don’t mean nepotism by that. If your art practice is trying to do something cool for the benefit of all, and that it might manifest in print, let’s get in touch. We will collaborate towards a work that often takes the shape of a book object, but sometimes it’s something different.
Warning: we are not a printing service! The kaupapa of printing at Rebel Press really sets the stage. We’re only allowed to print something that is in line with the transformational agenda. So you get the cheap printing only if you vibe with the politics, and are willing to do some manual labour at the press. We share the workload, and lunch!
Tender Press: Our current reading period has just closed, and we’ll have another open reading period later in 2023 for people to send us their manuscripts. We love reading new work, especially in various genres. The reading period will be announced on our social media, so make sure to follow us if you’re interested. The best way to get our attention with a submission is to read and follow the submission guidelines carefully so we can focus on the work.
Saufo’i Press: They can email it to talofa@saufoipress.com. I have to preface this by saying that I work full-time in another job and Saufo’i Press is my outside of regular galuega/work, so it might take me a while to read and respond, but I am always happy to receive a submission. Fa’afetai lava!
Mineral: After publishing Ebbs & Floods I am taking some time to take stock of the experience and think of ways to publish that are sustainable long term as a one-person press. As I am taking some time to consider what the future of Mineral might look like, there are no formal manuscript submission guidelines, but I am always happy to hear from anyone that loves the look and feel of Ebbs & Floods and has work of their own they would like published in a similar style. I can be contacted by email at mineralpress@outlook.com and instagram @mineralpress.
Motif and WORD – The Front Line, what does the future hold for your organisations?
Motif: We have got such an exciting year ahead! Our slam competitions in Hawke’s Bay, Tauranga, Otago (with the NZ Young Writer’s Festival) and Wellington are growing every year, and we’ve got another exciting expansion still to be announced... We always look forward to our special annual events like the crack-up Anti-Slam (worst poem wins), Team Slam (hordes of poets), Queer Showcase, and most importantly we’re excited to meet a whole lot more amazing writers.
WORD – The Front Line: So many incredible poets have been part of our programmes throughout the years and we are dedicated to helping carve out professional pathways for poets and artists. Many of our staff are alumni of our programmes, and we are working hard to create new opportunities for those poets and our community. We will also be releasing some new teaching resources for using spoken word in the classroom. Our biggest goal though, is that we would love to take WORD – The Front Line national, for it to be a national poetry programme. Watch this space, big things are coming.
5ever Books is an underground publishing house based at Rebel Press, Trades Hall in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, publishing punchy, intense and interdisciplinary work, woven together by a shared transformational kaupapa. bad apple is an online literary journal that publishes the work of LGBTQIA+ and takatāpui writers based in or from Aotearoa New Zealand, founded by a group of angry queers and is currently headed by Lead Editor Damien Levi. eel mag is a queer literary publication for poets of aotearoa, edited by Shania Pablo, Nathan Joe and Lily Holloway. Kupu Toi Takataapui | Takataapui Literary Journal (will be) a publication both online and offline, committed to hosting and sharing creative writing (of all forms) by takataapui (queer Maaori) writers. Mineral is a publishing project with an interest in the poetic, run by artist and writer Briana Jamieson, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Ruri Tūtohu | Motif Poetry began in a shed on a Te Matau a Māui orchard in 2018, and has since grown into a national platform for performance poets, working in education, leading workshops and guiding up-and-coming writers of all ages from viral videos to pen and paper, alongside touring, collaboration and commissioning opportunities. Overcom is a literary journal based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, publishing work by queer writers and artists from Aotearoa and around the world. Rat World is an independent print magazine and collective platforming underground and underrepresented voices, providing a space for minority creatives who have been traditionally left out of arts platforms, for emerging creatives wanting a place to discover their craft, and for creatives wanting to experiment with weird, off-kilter work. Saufo’i Press is a small, independent publisher of Moana Pacific poetry books in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It was founded in late 2021 by writer and editor Faith Wilson. Sweet Mammalian is an indie darling committed to publishing warm-blooded writing free online and in handmade print issues, edited by Rebecca Hawkes and Nikki-Lee Birdsey. Symposia Literary Magazine is an emerging youth-led organisation working to facilitate conversation between emerging poets, started by six young Pōneke based creatives who have had their work published and efforts encouraged by organisations like The Spinoff, Starling, Landfall, Redraft, National Schools Poetry Award and the Michael King Writers Centre Young Writers Programme. Tarot is a free-to-access digital poetry journal for Aotearoa. It is edited by Auckland-based English teacher and poet Kit Willett. Tender Press (formerly We Are Babies) is an independent publisher based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, with a particular interest in publishing work by people of colour and queer, indigenous, disabled, and otherwise marginalised writers. Toitoi is a quarterly journal that publishes the writing and art of young New Zealanders aged 5-18 years. WORD – The Front Line is the flagship programme of Action Education, New Zealand’s leading arts based youth development organisation, structured around the medium of spoken word poetry.