More Than Melanin: A collaborative literary zine

I got a taste of The Australian literary landscape after moving here and doing a Master’s in Creative Writing and Literature. I found that these spaces were riddled with whiteness and it felt impossible for me to ever properly be a part of it. I just felt very tokenised if I was even let into a space like this. Especially being an immigrant as well and not just a WOC. 

I had the idea for more than melanin in 2018 but it felt like a very distant “When I grow up one day I’ll do this…” kinda dream. I wanted to do this  because it felt like there was a hole in the literary world in this city when it came to bla(c)k, woc, OTPOC voices especially in a city like Melbourne that is so diverse in its population. I wanted to create a safe space for literary expression where I felt like one doesn’t have to explain their queerness, or culture, or colour, and where they can just be and tell stories, and write poems and not have publication use them as a tool to meet a diversity quota or whatever. 

I’ve already done one zine. It only had a print run of a 100 copies and sold out in 12 days! So now it’s time for a second! I want this issue to have all the creatives paid for their time and work and establish my idea a bit better by having more streamlined ways of operating. For the sake of transparency below you can see what you’ll be paying for! 

1. Printing: $1390 — All zines are printed on eco-friendly paper

2. Small merchandise items that come with every zine: $347

3. Incentives for contributors: $354.83  

4. Compostable Mailers: $109

5. Domain name and website subscription plan x 1 year: $428

6. Pay 10-12 participating poets: $1200 

7. Payment for participating illustrators: $1000

8. National Postage costs that I incur after shipping has been paid for as per my out of pocket expenditure from my last zine that I did: $450

9. 5% for the fundraiser merchant cost: $275

My total comes upto $5,553.83

There are going to be a 100 copies of the second zine up for pre-order, and the next 100 are going to be sold after the making of the zine. Remember, they sell out quick! So get your hands on them while you can .