Reflections on Writers Group and my First Zine and Launch

Wednesday night’s launch of Southpaw Grammar #1, the self-titled debut zine of Southpaw Grammar Writer’s Group was a very exciting first experience for me, a public display of our group and us as writers and will probably rest with me as one of the first memories of me really feeling like a ‘real’ writer.

Our group has been working together since August, sharing experiences, workshopping each other’s work, commenting on other writer’s work, and the end result was going to be a zine, a kind of DIY publication to get our work out there and as a way for people to support us.

My experience of the group has been overwhelmingly positive, even if in the beginning I had some hesitations about the ‘legitimacy’ of a zine.

The group contributed a lot to refining my short story, ‘My Boss Sucks’, and made me confident enough to submit it to Voiceworks, the youth creative writing magazine. I think this was the best thing I got out of the group.

The zine experience was totally new to me, and I was amazed and inspired after we produced the zine and finally launched it on Wednesday night.

I was impressed by the quality of the publication, and it has inspired me to work with the medium again.

Like I alluded to a couple of months ago, I was really keen to find a way for me to be publically supported as a writer in a similar way that friend’s in bands are supported, and I think the launch and giving a reading was kind of like that and I want to try it again.

Unfortunately, it looks like the group will not be continuing but it has inspired me to move on and I’m excited about experimenting with new projects.

Copies of Southpaw Grammar # 1 can be bought by emailing me at benjamin [at] benjaminsolah [dot] com.