For the first podcast of 2018 Ali went to Edinburgh to talk to Heather McDaid and Laura Jones who are behind the innovative and acclaimed independent publishers 404 Ink. If you aren’t yet familiar with the name then where the hell have you been?
As well as their unmissable periodical literary magazine, they have published the phenomenal Nasty Women, introduced us to Chris McQueer through his debut collection of short stories Hings, collaborated with rock band Creeper on The Last Days Of James Scythe, and are due to publish SWH! favourite Helen McClory‘s new collection of short fiction Mayhem & Death as well as republishing her award winning On The Edges Of Vision (one of the best books of recent years), and that’s really only scratching the surface.
The two talk about their inspirations and the reasons for deciding to work
together, the phenomenon of Nasty Women and the challenges which followed, the desire to publish new voices, the importance of social media and different methods of funding, mixing content and contributors, why the live experience is increasingly important for writers and publishers, and their belief that anniversaries of note should never go uncelebrated.
It’s essential listening for anyone interested in books, writers, writing and culture in general, which surely must be all of you reading this. What you get is a fascinating discussion on the way that all of the things we celebrate and champion on SWH! can be approached, produced, promoted, and funded in different and inventive ways. All this and Jeff Goldblum too.
If you want to get involved with 404 Ink, (and once you’ve listened you will), you can find out how to do just that over at Patreon. The Kickstarter for the forthcoming collaboration with BHP Comics, We Shall Fight Until We Win, a graphic novel celebrating the centenary of the first wave of women gaining the right to vote, is open now for your consideration. Everything else you need to know about what 404 Ink do can be found over at their website. You can also keep in touch by following them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
If you are new round these parts there is quite a substantial back catalogue of podcasts for you to discover. If you aren’t yet a subscriber you can do so, (or simply listen) at iTunes or by RSS (but you’ll need to have an RSS reader to do so). You can also download the podcast by clicking on the relevant link to the right of this post, or, if you want it right here, right now, you can listen on SoundCloud…
…or on YouTube:
We have got some great podcasts lined up for 2018, the next of which will be with you very soon, so keep ’em peeled…