Paraphase #1
145 x 207 mm, 90 pages
Sydney, Australia
First published 2024
Editor: Kasumi Borczyk
Design: Lora Ward
A new, paperback-esque literary title from Australia, Paraphase describes itself as ‘an international journal of poetry, prose and art’ but offers little else, as editor Kasumi Borczyk writes in a short note at the beginning:
‘This journal has no mission statement. It has no brand identity, corporate image, nor company ethos... If the artist is nothing more than the 'dregs of his work', then our journal, when pressed to explain itself, is nothing more than its spittoon bucket: positioned to collect some of the greatest cultural backwash of its generation. Do I mission statement myself? Very well then, I've mission statemented myself.’
Expect more of the same wryness in the texts that follow, which are risograph printed in a pleasant blue on soft bookish paper, interspersed with the occasional photograph or illustration. This first issue features 17 writers and artists, including Jen Craig, Steve Tomasula, Russell Persson, Robert S. Stickley, Gerald Murnane, Carole Maso, David Ohle and more.