Buckle up, we’re getting meta about writing here – this is an article where a writer writes about writing and the reality of being a writer, taking time to reflect on the state of the writing industry within South Africa. In an attempt to engage the issues that young writers, wanting to start their own publishing companies or wanting to self-publish, face, we turned to an individual who has been navigating the terrain for some time now.
Nick Mulgrew is a writer, and due to feeling that “the publishing industry was failing both writers and readers” he began to initiate projects and form publishing avenues for others like himself. For, “how can I flourish if the publishing industry and our country’s reading culture aren’t?” These projects include Prufrock Magazine, where Nick is now the fiction editor and designer; uHlanga, an award-winning poetry press, where Nick is founder and publisher, and publishing the bestselling collection, ‘Collective Amnesia‘ by Koleka Putuma.
The result of these endeavours has been to help unearth writers and launch their careers at Prufrock; writers such as Simone Haysom and Lidudumalingani, some of whose first literary work appeared in the magazine. uHlanga has managed to bring poetry into the mainstream again, bringing poetry into places where poetry usually hasn’t been considered of much importance. Koleka’s book, which was named one of City Press’s Books of the Year, was one of the main catalysts for that.
In terms of managing both a business and a career as a writer, Nick offered some very practical advice, saying, “The secret is being productive, not busy. I divide my working day in two, roughly. In the morning, I work on one project, then I go to gym or have lunch or run my errands or whatever, and in the afternoon and evening I work on another.”
An already accomplished author, Nick’s own writing has to do with “deconstructing and looking at South Africa’s dysfunctional society, especially in the ways it is riven by racism, sexism, homophobia and so on. That’s not to say my work is always serious in tone. ‘Stations‘ is a book that deals primarily with the everyday ways in which people make negative impacts on their lives and the lives of other people; ‘The First Law of Sadness‘ has to do with larger events: catastrophes, spectacle, grand moments. Some people might say those descriptions sound boring, which they are in contrast to the subjects I write about – like pornography, making biltong out of roadkill, tattoo removal – but those are the underlying mechanics that give life to the entertainment and the emotion.”
Nick’s passion and commitment to his craft were immediately picked up through our correspondence. He sharpens his craft through practice. I quote: “If you want to get good at rapping, you rap. If you want to get good at painting, you paint. Writing is no different: I hone my writing by writing. I don’t take cues from other writers, but I’m always influenced by my reading.”
Ending off, Nick had some words of wisdom for local emerging writers; “I wouldn’t say that they should just read, because what you read matters just as much as whether you read. You should read as much local writing as possible, because it’s impossible to make an impact on your literary community if you’re not listening to what artists around you are producing and engaging with.”
The word ‘zine’ is derived from the term fanzine, referring to a publication form that first started circulating in the 1930s. During the 1970s fanzines translated into a more developed type of publishing with the then popular punk fanzines and later the upsurge of queer and feminist driven zines in the late 1980s. This was the result of the fanzine form moving away from fan culture and clearing a space for zinesters who felt misrepresented by mainstream media to have their opinions expressed in print. Zines have been described as “non-commercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves”. With developments in technology, zines have shown growth by incorporating more diverse content such as personal reflections, special interest, literary zines, and fanzines. The unifying elements of zines are their independent production, writing, and design, existing outside of the fringes of mainstream publishing. Zines explore topics that are frequently ignored and overlooked by mainstream media and play a pivotal role in representing the possibilities for counter-hegemonic transformation. Being independent of commercial contemplations and viability, zines address a smaller audience of like-minded individuals and can act as a safe outlet for self-expression (Bold 2017).
We are living in a time where there has been a large-scale resurgence of older forms of content creation and storing. This can be seen when looking at the popularity of film photography in recent times and the ‘coolness’ that is associated with vinyl, tape and the early ’00s aesthetic. We are currently living in the golden age of paper and there is an increasing interest by creative sugar babies to voice themselves through self-publishing. To find out more about this phenomenon I spoke to the creators of two new South-African zines, ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ and ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ is a zine created by Capetonian creatives Keenan Oliver, Mzonke Maloney and Dumi Mparutsa. This zine uses the act of waiting for someone to arrive, specifically Joshy Pascoe, as its basis. These zinesters are looking at defining image use as a colloquial language combining the images used with news headlines from the day that they were waiting for Joshy’s arrival. This combination of news headlines as image labels is intended to mimic the way that text is added to imagery in meme creation. They explain in our interview that this union is imposed as an emphasis on the disparity of news image reception in contrast with socially constructed images and how they are received.
The idea for the self-published piece was brought to life after Joshua Pascoe saw an image of Keenan on an insta story which led to Joshua’s instant engagement. Evidently liking what he saw, he jumped on the DM train and asked Keenan for an impromptu shoot in which he planned to finish the remainder of the frames left on his roll of film. The images that made it into the zine were captured while the act of waiting on Joshua took place. When asked why they believe the act of waiting for someone’s arrival was significant enough to base an entire zine on they tell me that their self-published content is aimed at challenging the entire concept of significance in relation to the fundamental elements of image creation.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“The democratization of image making as an industry and a practice, has rendered all images equally significant, specifically within the cultural/social space. Our deliberate use of suburban tedium and non-activity looks to further emphasize the fact that there is no longer an accurate barometer, used to gauge the importance or non-importance of an image.” This statement holds a considerable amount of weight as we are living in a time where there is content on nearly every subject imaginable. We are bombarded by content whenever we open our web browsers. From small pop up adds advertising weight loss products, to celebrity scandals, food recipes, people dyeing their hair with Nutella spread and artistic short films of girls smashing their faces into food (yes I’ve actually watched this). The list is never-ending. Curating your content is a rather new idea and the first time I stumbled upon it was in the book by Michael Bhaskar titled ‘Curation – The Power of Selection in a World of Excess’, published in 2016. This book is a rather useful guide to removing actual bullshit content from your cyberspace experience.
The team behind ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ explain that this zine was a way for them to express their views on the consumption of news imagery, and what people’s reactions are to them at present. “The rapid technological development of the various image generating mediums has prompted the reimagining of images, as more than just ‘artifacts of technology’ but rather as what Hans Belting has termed as being ‘the boundary between physical and mental existence’”. The inquiry addressed within this zine attempts to create a discernment between images within mental existence and images that move into a physical space within our current social context. “What becomes urgent and what remains trivial.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
“I could somehow watch the news and instantly disconnect from the images and their implications (these images would not transcend past mental existence), yet Joshy could watch an insta story and respond immediately, bringing the image to the fore of his physical existence.” This zine thus questions the relevance of news imagery and its significance in modern day society. This is done by almost saying that their social media interactions that led to a photo shoot and zine were more significant and impactful than news headlines were. They were more inclined to interact with a social post than they were to read the news of that particular day. And let’s be honest, I don’t engage with the news much, I can, however, tell you what my insta connections were doing this weekend in excruciating detail.
News headlines were used as a form of tagging in this zine which is explained by the team as follows, “In attempting to synthesize those two thoughts; we realized that whilst we were waiting, absorbed by our own daily tedium and taking pictures of mundane suburbia (which is significant to us), much more “significant” events were taking place around the country, and the reconciliation of these two events occurring simultaneously would create the significance of the moment.”
Utilizing screenshots from the DM thread between Joshua and Keenan, a timeline is visually built to create a context for the imagery that rests on the opposing pages. This timeline provides a temporal space in which the events were taking place and aided in establishing the overriding narrative of the zine. This zine is in my opinion, a storage space for a ‘live’ event taking place and is almost a self-published insta story/documentary piece of work addressing a complex question. All the content within the zine questions the idea of significance. The team tells me that these images are significant because of the mere fact that they exist.
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Explaining the connections made between social media, the act of image creation, texting and newspapers the creators tell me, “Whether it is the form of a meme, post or photo sharing, social media has made photographing a part of colloquial dialect for our generation. News making (documentary photography) was the most impactful form of image production from the past couple generations, but no longer holds the same weight, due to the rate at which images are being produced. The news now exists in synthesis with this colloquial/new language. The news of the day includes personal images, memes and other forms of social imagery.”
This zine considers itself an anthropological study. It is explained as, “Regardless, the mass production of art means that all of art has dissolved into life or more accurately all of life has dissolved into art and therefore an inquiry into the use of medium must be considered anthropological.”
Image from ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ zine
Following my discussion with the creators of ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ I spoke to the young interracial queer couple behind ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine, Boni Mnisi, and Leal after the launch of their zine on the 30th October in Cape Town. Boni expresses that the zine came about rather unexpectedly, “I wasn’t even entirely sure how to create one when I decided to announce to my Instagram followers that I was going to do it. I wrote and shared a painfully mediocre poem on my Instagram story and quickly explained it away as a sample of writing from a bigger body of work that I was trying to put together. I got DMs from so many people who were interested in getting involved and kinda got trapped into doing what I said I was going to do.”
Cover image for ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ zine by Gina Hendrickse
The zine’s name was inspired by Lana Del Rey’s 2012 single that shares the same title. Boni regrets this title and explains that at the time she did not consider the exclusion that is linked to the word ‘girl’. “While we do actively recognize that trans and non-binary people who identify with our message may not themselves identify as ‘girls’, the word should have no place in our work from now on. As an intersectional feminist zine, we have an obligation to protect our trans and non-binary family, which includes eliminating the violent language that we have ourselves mistakenly employed. We want to rebrand and come back with something more representative of the community we hope to create. As of 2018, this working title is dead.”
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ is made up of mostly contributed content from South African creative womxn that is bound together by Leal’s illustrations. This zine which consists of an online and print version made use of social media to promote itself.
Photography by Alessia Dossantos
Speaking about the launch of the first issue Boni tells me that they were overwhelmed by the response they received. Only expecting roughly 50 people, about 250 – 300 attended the event. “We began with an exhibition of our Cape Town based contributors’ work and shortly after began our entirely womxn DJ line-up featuring the insane DJ-duo ‘No Diggity‘. It was an incredibly sweaty night of grinding and vogue-ing. People expressed their gratitude for having a predominately womxn space where they were able to be themselves and feel safe. So we had lots of titties! Lots of girl-on-girl action and not a voyeuristic penis in sight! It was unlike anything I’ve experienced at any party.” Looking at the response that this zine has received as well as the intention of creating a safe and inclusive space for all womxn it can be said that this zine gives a voice to an underrepresented community and a safe space for self-expression.
‘This is What Makes Us Girls’ features content created by Afrah Mayet, Jemma Rose, Alice de Beer, Lianne O’Donnell, Claire & Abi Meekel, Amu Mnisi, Keo Borjeszo, Sandra Wilken, Marcia Elizabeth, Kayo Fay, Jesmin, Sasha de la Rey, Phoenix Falconer +30 more. In order to get their vision going, Boni and Leal raised funds in the months leading up to the launch. “This project was made possible by our generous friends and family whom we are so grateful for.” The zine will be available in Johannesburg soon and a digital free version is in the works.
Photography by Gina Hendrickse
Zines are a powerful tool for self-expression and can relate to literally anything as there are no rules to making a zine and they do not need to be commercially viable. A zine can be an experimental exploration and can be about something that the creators feel are relevant which is the case with ‘Still Not Joshy Pascoe’ or they can address concerns or grant a voice to a community of likeminded often underrepresented individuals as is the case with ‘This is What Makes Us Girls’. The act of zine making has been described as the “mass amateurisation of publishing” (Bold 2017). With the rise of digital folk culture over the decades, zines can be executed in a different way and do not necessarily have to be a physical print. Zines’ audiences are engaging differently today than they would have a number of years ago and zinesters are employing all the tools they have to voice themselves, such as social media. With the internet, there are more options for affordable cultural production with the ability of a global audience (Bold 2017). I believe that today, more so than ever it is easier to create a zine. Amateur creators have a space to explore a different type of cultural production with zines. So to zine or not? – yeah, if mainstream media won’t hear you out then please do zine! However, I do believe that there are many topics that were once considered experimental or non-commercial that have received attention from mainstream media in recent times. I like to think that people today are more connected, and aware of the narratives of some misrepresented and underrepresented communities which I attribute to internet culture. Zines do however still hold a place and creative sugar babies seem to love the heck out of them.
“Not so long ago, I got an amazing team together to start an online mag (only but a few of the crazy things I have done),” declares the opening line of Landa Willie’s editor’s note in TWENTY Mag’s first issue. And while most of us may agree that self-publishing is a crazy, risky business, the finished product only speaks to bravery, raw creativity and the drive to do something different.
Despite ever-decreasing circulation numbers in print, the scourge of fake news, and the financial hurdles of trying to get a publication off the ground, there is no doubt that young South African readers are still asking for content made for them by them. TWENTY provides just that. In an intelligent balance between strong written content, interviews that let the characters speak for themselves, and the most luxurious Highsnobiety rivalling look and feel, Landa (and her amazing team) have produced something that shouts down every naysayer who says self-pubishing is a juice not worth the squeeze.
The magic of TWENTY lies in its ability to be both pragmatic and hugely optimistic. While some of the content deals with the marginalization of black women and the difficulties around creative work, the tone is still incredibly uplifting. Drawing from Kendrick Lamar’s black pride anthem, the first issue was entitled We Gon’ Be Alright – setting the tone for an odyssey of content which says to the black creative that anything is possible.
“I actually took a few months out to rethink and work on our brand identity. I mean in all honesty when we started Twenty, we did it out of passion and didn’t realy think about the project as a business. When we launched the first issue I realised how we can turn it into a business with the response it received,” explains Willie.
Although the magazine has only produced three issues (with number four on the way), available on ISSU for free, there are the ingredients for a powerhouse product. Between minimalist art direction, careful advertising placement and content that reflects the mood of its young, black, creative reader, there is space for the publication to grow and evolve. And Landa has already got some serious heavy-hitters gracing the pages.
From an interview with Creative Nestlings’ famed founder Dillion Phiri, to moody lifestyle and editorials featuring the likes of Manthe Ribane, there is no doubt that this team sits at the bleeding edge of cool culture. But instead of taking itself too seriously, it delivers an authentic browse through, with something for everyone engaged in the creative process. Landa shares her plans for the next issue, and has set her sights on going beyond the pages of the magazine.
“One of the most exciting things I am currently working on is a BLVCK QUEER DINNER series with my partner. We will be hosting dinners to raise money for Queer people who has fallen victim to hate crimes, etc. We are hoping to help victims (especially in townships) and families with hospital bills, rehabilitation, funeral costs and more”
