A Bird in the Hand, a great new zine distro based in Sydney, has given Pod People a wonderful review. It helps to confirm what a great job everyone has done in putting this issue together – our designer Chris and our writers, illustrators and photographers. Thanks guys!
You can read the review here.
Jordi Kerr
Media release dated: Monday 17 November 2008
The second installment of popular commuter zine Story To… has arrived and is centered on the theme Pod People. This issue has more pages, allowing a more ambitious grouping of literary and design talent.
Designed by Christopher Gray, Pod People has a selection of words and images by young creators from all over Australia including: Crystal Andrews, James C Spinks, Simon Smithson, Estelle Tang, Kathryn Ledson, Angela Meyer, Sean Greenhill, Sudeep Lingamneni, Jordi Kerr, Kellyanne Gentle and Richard Ibrahim.
“The theme, Pod People, was a reaction to the fact that so many people who travel on public transport bury themselves in their music. We wanted to show them the train station life they are oblivious to,” says Kate Nicholson, co-creator and editor.
“We are happy we chose an open call for submissions for this issue and lucky that we got such a large number of quality artwork emailed in to us. This has made for a very interesting collection of short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, illustration and photography,” says Beth Keating, co-creator and editor.
Story To… was founded in July this year and is now onto its second issue. It aims to give Melbourne’s public transport travellers an intelligent and free literary alternative whilst providing publishing opportunities to emerging artists.
Story To… Issue Two: Pod People is available free from selected zine distros or as a free download from this blog.
Just a quick one to say that an article on Pod People has been published in UK online journal, Fallyrag. Thanks guys! Check it out here. And make sure you have a look at the other articles too.
Story To… Issue Two: Pod People is due out on Monday 17 November and will be available as a free downloadable PDF from this site. Very limited print copies will be available for free at the following shops and distros:
Australia
Sticky Institute (Melbourne)
Hand Held Gallery (Melbourne)
A Bird in the Hand (Sydney)
Overseas
Cherry Bomb Comics (New Zealand)
We are hoping to get copies into many more cities around the world. Issue Three and above will be global!
We have some flyers available for distribution which point readers to our website. If you’d love to help us get the word out about Story To… then email us with your postal address and we’ll send you a bunch to hand out.
Submissions for Issue Three will open shortly. We’re looking for writing (short fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, comics, scripts, song lyrics) and images (photography, illustration, collage) related to transport and movement. The theme will be announced when we open for submissions in December.
While our ridiculously talented designer, Chris, is working hard on the layout for ‘Pod People’, Issue Two of Story To…, we thought it about time we got on to announcing those whose words and art work will be gracing the pages. So, in no particular order…
Words
Crystal Andrews
James C Spinks
Simon Smithson
Estelle Tang
Kathryn Ledson
Angela Meyer
Sean Greenhill
Images
Sudeep Lingamneni
Jordi Kerr
Kellyanne Gentle
Richard Ibrahim
Check back here soon to download your very own copy of ‘Pod People’ – free!
Well, if you haven’t already got your submission for Issue Two in to us then you have missed out. Yes, the deadline has closed and the shop is shut. For the moment at least. Now Beth and I are going to spend the weekend wading through all the great articles, stories and images we received over the last month. Boy, are we looking forward to that. No, really, we are. Then our trusty designer Chris will get straight on to the design and layout and all that jazz. Then… the launch party – a chance to celebrate the hard work that everyone has put into this issue. What fun!
After a very successful first issue, Melbourne’s only alternative commuter zine, Story To…, is once again calling for your work.
The theme for Issue Two is “Pod People”. So many people who travel on public transport bury themselves in their music and we want you to help us show them the train station life they are oblivious to. We want to see this reflected in writing (short fiction, poetry, film and theatre scripts, creative non-fiction and song lyrics) and in artwork (photography and graphic design).
Please stick to a limit of 300 – 500 words. The closing date for submissions is Tuesday 30 September 2008. All submissions need to be emailed to storytoproject@gmail.com. Please format text as Times New Roman / size 12 font / single-space with no other formatting.
If you want to discuss your submission ideas with us, or have any general queries, then drop us an email at storytoproject@gmail.com.
Check out our first issue here and browse the rest of our website to get a feel for what we’re about.
We look forward to reading your submissions!
Kate and Beth x
Courtesy of ~ Aчυυυ (www.flickr.com/photos/ayumina)
Filed under Issue Two, Issues, News, Opportunities
Hurry along to Sticky or PolyEster to get your free copy of Story To… Issue One The last 20 copies will shortly be on the shelves of both these lovely stores and it will be your last chance to get your mits on your very own edition.
Kate x
A few people have requested copies of Story To… Issue One be posted to them so I spent a bit of time in the weekend cutting, gluing and packaging up editions to send out. All with hand-written notes of course. They’ll all be sent out this Thursday.
Kate x
All the lovely packages
Story To… has been well and truly launched. Firstly, on Wednesday 9 July, Kate and a good Story To… friend Eliza Park got dressed up in what looked more like trolly dolly outfits but were actually meant to look like hot train conductor outfits. Sticky Institute let us use their girls toilets to get ready in, where make-up artist Katie Tregar applied our faces and Richard Ibrahim was allowed in to take photographs of the whole process. As it neared 6pm Eliza and I, all dolled up, nervously crept towards the door that opened onto Degraves Subway. After hanging around by the door for some time debating the best ways to make our entrance and whether two people passing every three seconds was a steady enough flow we decided to just go for it and strode out yelling “free short story, get your free short story” and “short story to (insert relevant suburb)”. This was to the bemusement of many older suited men, the joy of Sticky staff and other Degraves shop owners and the scowls of only a few passers-by (thank god). It took us about ten minutes to hand out fifty copies of Story To… which we both thought was pretty good. Anyway, the photos will probably give you a better idea of what actually went on so here they are:
Our second (official) launch party, kindly organised by Lisa Pham and Vibewire, was the Melbourne Media Makers Showcase on Sunday 13 July at Horse Bazaar. All four projects were launched to a crowd of around fifty people, with sound performances, story readings and an acoustic set. Photos will be available soon (hopefully). It was a proud moment for Beth and I and we want to again thank the many people who were involved in getting Story To… out into the world.
Kate x
Story To... 