The Story #1
180 x 240 mm, 172 pages
Melbourne, Australia
First published 2025
Publisher: Ben Hart
Editor-in-chief: Chris Harrigan
Creative director: Lara Burke
Publishing director: Louise Bannister
Beginning life as an Australian-based website in 2021, The Story has since made the leap to print, carrying with it some familiar faces—namely publishing director Louise Bannister and creative director Lara Burke, the duo behind the much-loved family and food magazine Lunch Lady (which ceased publishing in 2023). Positioned as a magazine about writing that’s determined not to be ‘another stuffy literary journal’, this debut issue pairs sharp, accessible prose with artistic photography, playful illustration and unmistakably bold typography.
In its inaugural issue, discover a range of articles from the ‘golden era’ of print and life as a journalist in the 1990s, to an exploration of the small indie print press decolonising the publishing industry one translated text at a time, as well as Christopher Blackwell’s recollections from his time in solitary confinement. Elsewhere, these denser pieces are leavened by a healthy dose of humour: profiles of an American poet who left behind over a million words in Amazon reviews, the strange ephemera discovered in second-hand books, and a tongue-in-cheek ‘Day in the Life of a Writer’ (writer’s block edition). And at the back, a library card for the reader to fill out and share.