Join us in giving a very warm writerly welcome to our newest team member—Farrin Foster!
Farrin comes on board as inaugural editor of our new literary journal, bringing a wealth of experience, vision, and creativity to the role, and we can’t wait to see it take shape.
Farrin is a writer, journalist, editor and documentary filmmaker. She was the founding editor of CityMag, and of the Walkley Innovation Fund-supported City Standard. Her commentary, memoir, and journalism has appeared in mastheads like The Guardian, The Big Issue and Kill Your Darlings and has been shortlisted at the SA Media Awards.
Extracts from her draft manuscript, The Same House, saw Farrin shortlisted for the inaugural Deep Creek Fellowship. The development of that manuscript has also been supported by Arts South Australia funding.
Farrin said ‘I am really grateful for this opportunity to create a conversation between writers and readers. It is exciting and slightly terrifying to be collaborating on a new journal that will help South Australian writers get their work in front of new audiences while also providing a platform for writers from across the country to chronicle the strange and often harrowing era we live in.
‘There’s a strong group of amazing literary journals here already, and I’m excited to create something that can stand alongside them and pick at the fault lines in our collective reality with a sense of both intellectual rigour and (probably dark) humour.’
Spearheaded by Writers SA, the journal is a partnership with the state’s three universities, Flinders University, the University of South Australia, and the University of Adelaide, and receives funding support from Arts South Australia.
Featuring the best in new fiction, non-fiction, poetry and literary criticism from Australian writers, the publication is a key milestone for South Australian literature, as the state’s only print-based literary journal.
Writers SA CEO Laura Kroetsch said ‘There has long been a desire in South Australia for a homegrown literary journal, one that celebrates this place and the writers who live here.’
‘We are absolutely delighted that Farrin Foster has agreed to become its founding editor. Farrin is one of Australia’s most innovative publishers, writers, journalists and filmmakers. She is well known for the magazines she has created here in Adelaide, and the projects she has worked on, including most recently documentary films. Farrin brings to this project a wealth of experience and a desire to innovate, and we are excited to watch the journal take shape.’
The editor will be supported by an advisory committee that meets quarterly comprising community, industry and university partners, including Jessica Alice, Dominic Guerrera, Jane Howard, Benjamin Madden, Amy Matthews, and Jessica White.
Support also includes a volunteer editorial committee of eight, giving the journal a dual function of artistic output and vocational training for emerging editors.
The first issue, as well as the journal’s name and online presence, will be launched later this year. Stay up to date by subscribing to our e-news or checking out the page here.
