FRACTURE ZINE
Self-published and edited FRACTURE, an anthology of female-created poetry, prose, illustration, photography and design. Launched at NGV Art Book Fair and distributed in Melbourne, London and New York.
PREFACE
I grew up believing women couldn’t write. It was sad, because I wanted so badly to write myself. When I was finally introduced to the work of female writers at university, it was like stumbling upon a party in a silent night. Suddenly, there were voices: there was chatter, there was celebration and they were many. The party had been going for a while; I just needed someone to give me the directions.
FRACTURE comes from the need to give a platform to young women who want to write creatively. We don’t want to be a lone voice—we want to be one of many in the din. For this zine, we’ve collaborated with talented and creative young women whose work deals with just some of the facets of female experience. These are narratives of growth, trial and change and we hope that in reading them, you will find something that resonates. Enjoy.
Featured on i-D: https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/gyqnqy/the-future-will-be-in-print-meet-the-kids-changing-australian
Do you feel Fracture has an ultimate message?
We're about inclusion and representation. Growing up I had this idea that women couldn't really write, because of how little of women's work I was exposed to in school. I remember discovering writers at university—Aphra Behn, Marguerite Duras, Joan Didion, Zadie Smith, Clarice Lispector—countless exceptional writers, from all eras—and I felt cheated. I loved writing but had never felt it was my tradition to add to — reading all these writers made me realise I had a place there, too.
Everyone who has contributed to Fracture said similar things; it's about feeling included, finding voices you recognise and feeling compelled to underline the words on a page that resonate with you the most.
Tell us about the responsibility behind you job.
As a zine that deals with something so broad and inexhaustible as "the female experience", we wanted to showcase a diversity of voices. But as a small, first-time publication, we were limited editorial-wise to who we already had on board or knew through friends. In future issues, I would really like to feature a greater variety of women's voices and works; if we want to convey snapshots of women's lived experience, we have a duty to honour the huge variety of perspectives that fall within that category.
How do you feel about the local publishing scene?
I asked my friend and Fracture writer Kim about this one. She's in publishing full-time and mentioned that writing and publishing in Australia is slowly losing its sense of cultural cringe and is seeking to speak its own unique language, without creating caricatures and stereotypes. We're trying to understand, in an increasingly unfiltered way, what makes the country tick.