Since 2009 Underground has published over 103 writers who contributed over 140 pieces of writing in the forms of short fiction, micro-fiction, poetry and reviews, and has been the volunteer home of 15 volunteer student writers and editors. Underground exists to publish, critique, support and grow emerging writers, and was first based out of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. Now we have expanded to the suburbs of Melbourne, and, if we count our contributors and previous editors, every corner of the globe!

What we actually do:

• every three(ish) months we release a zine containing that month's review, creative writing from our submitters, a round-up of competitions, prizes, fellowships and other opportunities available to writers in Australia and around the world, and a writing challenge for our readers
• in the lead-up to the release of each issue the editors meet to read and discuss each submission sent to us, then we email our submitters the feedback generated by the group, and from there we work with writers as they improve their work for publication
• each month an editor in the team writes a review of a work of their choice (book, movie, play, poem) , which is published through various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads) and our website
• ultimately we provide a friendly, supportive platform for writers who are navigating the very start of their writing careers by providing detailed and supportive critiques of the work sent to us, regardless of whether we ultimately publish the work

Issue 16 printed and ready to go! Having each issue professionally printed is another of our goals for 2017.

The Underground Writing team

These are the students, writers and editors who volunteer their time to put every issue of Underground together:

Jemimah - Editor-in-Chief

After working as a collaborative editor during Underground’s second iteration in 2011-2012, in early 2015 I revived it with a brand new team of passionate young writers, all keen to read and critique the work of creatives like ourselves and broadcast their work tot he world!

Dylan

I believe that collaboration is an integral component to the creative process, and I think this magazine will provide a promising opportunity to inspire those other amateur writers among us and to learn from one another. I favour pieces dark in nature. I cannot help but visualise a beauty in the macabre. 

Jess Rae

I am majoring in Writing and Events Management with Minors in History and Hospitality at ECU.

One day I hope to own a book café, where anyone from anywhere can come and enjoy the atmosphere… or more importantly the food. That’s what reading and writing is to me—a medium that anyone from anywhere can contribute to.

Jess G.

I’m Jess, one of the founding members of Underground and after several years of pretending to be an adult and three years of globetrotting I’ve returned to support the new Underground Team. My goal is to help our new Chief achieve her visions for Underground as she continues to improve upon our dream of supporting writers in those beginning stages and spreading their talent to the public.

Kate

I have spent my life with my head inside books. I am a perpetual student, zealous writer, incurable reader and passionate editor. My weaknesses are books, tea and quoting authors, “Always”.

Shelley

I am currently a Journalism student at Edith Cowan University. There’s something about getting to know the inner workings of someone during an interview that is compelling, and the same goes for fiction.

Tim

I have a Bachelors in Mass Communication from Redeemer’s University and I am currently a first year Postgraduate student of Marketing and Innovation Management at Edith Cowan University. I am a lover of poems and great speeches, “Let a Hundred flowers Blossom” by Mao Zedong seems to be my all-time favourite. I also love star gazing.

Underground has always run on the generosity of passionate creatives, and now we are asking for a different kind of generosity: monetary generosity!

Basically, we need the dough. Firstly we need to take care of some boring bills, but we've also decided to start commissioning artwork and illustrations for the zine. Supporting local and independent illustrators and artists has been a long-time dream of the Undergrounders, and with your help we can make that happen!

The first $1,400 will go towards tightening up our Term & Conditions, ensuring our copyright practice is sound, and other bits and pieces that need to be solid for us to grow as a conduit for creativity.

The next $2,100 will go towards commissioning artwork and illustrations for the issues of Underground produced in 2017, paying our writers for issue 17, due out February, and paying for a limited number of issues to be printed.

And everything raised after that will go directly into making the zine bigger, brighter and better! 

To be honest, Underground has always operated on no money. So even if we are completely unsuccessful in this campaign, we will not stop existing, we will simply remain small and unnoticed, unable to help hundreds or even thousands of budding writers, poets, novelists and reviewers, unable to support them in their already fiscally terrible career choice, constantly crippled by doubts and yearning for the days when they wanted to be a footy player or a construction worker and earn a living wage. It doesn't take much to boost a writer's confidence, but it takes a lot to bring us down, and unfortunately there aren't enough resources and opportunities to go around as it is.

In short: the main challenge to this project, and to this campaign, is what has always challenged us; indifference to the importance of creative writing. 

But with your help, we can reach more creatives in more ways and offer more of the support that we have always given.