Solomiya at Indiecon

I was away in Hamburg last weekend for the 10th annual Indiecon – the independent publishing festival that brings together magazine makers, book publishers, printers, illustrators, artists and more. Stack curated the ‘Indie Magazines Planet’, and it was brilliant to meet so many new people and catch up with old friends, and of course we had our own stall there too, selling magazines and signing up new subscribers to our surprise magazine club.

On the Friday evening I also had the opportunity to interview the team from Solomiya magazine live on stage, and the audio from that night is now available as the first episode in a new season of our podcast. I was joined on stage by editors Sebastian Wells and Ivanna Kozachenko, and art directors and designers Peter Bünnagel and Anne-Lene Proff from design studio Kollektiv Scrollan. We’d also hoped to have editors Andrii Ushytskyi and Vsevolod Kazarin there too, but unfortunately after lots of efforts their visa applications were turned down by the authorities in Ukraine, so instead I recorded an interview with them in advance and we played the video as part of the evening.

I’m a huge fan of what the team are doing with this magazine – I note in my introduction that I’ve never seen a magazine like this being made by people who are at war, and that’s a large part of what makes it so extraordinary. But it’s also skilfully made, thrillingly creative and often painfully honest, making it an absolute must-read.

We haven’t had a proper weekly podcast for nearly two years now and I’m really excited to bring it back (and a little bit nervous – these episodes take a lot of time!) The aim is to keep on releasing a new episode every Friday, and next week’s will be another episode recorded at Indiecon, so I hope you enjoy this one, and if you’re not already doing so, please follow us wherever you get your podcasts so we can deliver our new episodes to you as soon as they’re ready.