ScratchThat Magazine: Exploring lore, myth & magic

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My name is Rae, I use they/them pronouns, and welcome to Trans Mission on 4ZZZ. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Ollie, who uses he/him pronouns, about the upcoming launch of Scratch That magazine, which is happening on the 23rd of October. This issue's theme is Lore, bringing together local writers and creatives to explore fantasy, myth, and magic. Ollie and I also chatted about the Writers Grove Festival, which is happening during the day on the 23rd of October, and also includes a zine workshop run by yours truly.

Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining me. Did you want to introduce your name, your pronouns, and a bit about yourself?

Oh yeah, so my name's Ollie, I go by he/him, and I am a 3rd-year creative writer from QUT, currently part of the editorial board at Scratch That magazine, and that's been pretty fun.

Excellent, I'm very excited for the next, uh, what's next for Scratch That. So yeah, tell me a bit about, uh, what is happening with the next issue of the magazine.

Our theme is lore. We're doing all things fairy tale, folklore, fantasy, all of the different ways of storytelling from past, present, and like, we're diving into urban legends and, um, like your creation stories and how stories are told through different methods. It's really, really fun. We've had so much fun making this zine and getting to see all of the writing and everybody's different ways of telling stories. It's been awesome.

I love that. I feel like it's a little bit Loch Ness, a little bit fairies, a little bit—

Yeah.

Are there any writers and creatives that you can reveal to me that you have in the zine?

Well, it's not technically announced just yet, but I assume it'll be announced by the time this comes out. Yeah, so we've got special guest speaker, author L.E. Daniels coming in, fantastic fantasy writer, um, who we know through QWC, and we're really excited to work with her. She's been super, super lovely, and she's hopefully going to be doing doing a little reading for us on the night.

Oh my God, that's so exciting! And yeah, so there's going to be a night, a night to remember. Um, tell me about the, the launch, um, of Lore that's going to be happening.

Launch night, October 23rd. We obviously, we're going to be launching the magazine, so you can come see the insane amount of work being put into this thing, but It's not just about launching the magazine. We want to make it, like, a fun evening. And so there's going to be— we're going to have some live readings of people who've written in the magazine. Obviously, we've got Ellie Daniel. We actually have a band coming in. I'm going to name-drop them because I'm assuming that it's fine. They're named Mannequin, and they're really, really cool. They're just They're, like, just starting out, kind of, like, folkish Fleetwood Mac style. It's gonna be awesome. And they're super lovely. And they may also be getting a violinist in. And so that's gonna— that's gonna be real pretty and nice. So the entire— the whole night's hopefully going to be kind of like you're stepping into a fairy tale with all of the music.

Mm-hmm.

There'll be We've got themed drinks that we've got going to be lovely. You will never get as nice mead as you will at the Scratch That launch event 2026. It's gonna be beautiful. We'll have a little scavenger hunt. We've got a tarot reader coming in, and it's just gonna be super fun, super nice. Meet people, spread your lore, and come for a drink and listen to some nice readings and music.

That sounds like an absolute delight. Uh, I think that everyone should also dress up. Uh, that's— oh yeah, that's what I would encourage people to do. Yeah.

Yes, we have not, um, touched on that just yet as much, but our plan is that we're all going to be dressed up.

Yeah, good, good.

And we are hoping that people come dressed up, and there may or may not be a costume competition.

I love that, 'cause I remember the last Scratch That launch that I was at, and there was a costume competition.

It's beautiful. That was really fun.

And so this is on the 23rd of October, and that's a Friday, and that's in the evening at QUT?

Yeah, so that'll be at Kelvin Grove Campus, Z9 Block, the Creative Industries Precinct. Room 130, but come around, you'll see signs. And so, yeah, doors open at 5:30. It'll start around 5:45, just a bit after the Writers Grove, our other project, finishes. Which conveniently also has a similar theme, that's Into the Woods as well, which is also, also the theme of the art exhibition happening between the two events at the same time.

I'm absolutely bamboozled. This is delightful. So tell me about the Writers Grove. So that's also happening on the 23rd?

Yeah, so the Writers Grove will be a day event which starts, I believe, around 9:00 AM. And that's like a mini writers festival that we're putting on for like QT students and writers and readers around, just anybody to enjoy. There's going to be Panels, Q&As, workshops. I know that you're doing one of the workshops, and I'm super excited to do that. It's going to be a really lovely space to be able to connect with the community and, like, explore writing and publishing and just everything around it that we have in our Brisbane literature community.

Yeah, that sounds really beautiful and nourishing. And I think, you know, a lot of what we need right now is that kind of atmosphere and that kind of space to take time out to write and nourish our creativity. So if people want to get along to the events, where should they go?

Any information for Scratch That's launch night will be on the Scratch That Dot Magazine Instagram account or other social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, everything. There is a link in the bio for tickets, and we've got all of our information about the night, and soon there'll be more information about exactly who's attending, all the fun things to be doing. So if you're interested, take a look at that. and stay tuned and there will be more.

Yeah.

And then similar for Writers Grove, similar for Writers Grove, um, they've got their QT Writers Festival Instagram account where they've been publishing, so it's been— they've been making some really cute, really pretty content. They've just announced all of their guest artists, and there will also be more to come from that. So yeah, stay tuned.

Yeah, I'm very excited to be part of the Writers Grove and to, yeah, to teach a zine workshop, which will be really fun. And I feel like when I say teach a zine workshop, it's kind of giving people the tools and permission to make a zine, and then kind of letting everyone just follow their heart. But yeah, I'm very excited about that. Thank you so much for chatting with me about those 2 events. So we've got Writers Grove and we've also got the Scratch That launch, both happening on the 23rd of October. Is there anything else you wanted to mention or chat about?

Yes, actually. Fun fact at— well, I'll start with this. At the Scratch That launch event, we have teamed up with Alan and Unwin And we'll be announcing the winner of the Alan and Unwin Prize. Oh my God, that's so cool! Yeah, it's awesome. I'm super, super excited. And we'll also be having the 3 shortlisters, their works published onto our website, which I can't say much about it, but I've read through them and they are lovely pieces of work. And the winner will be performing a reading at the event of part of their work, and it's going to be awesome, and I'm so excited.

That's such a stunning collaboration. I love that so much. Oh my goodness, so everyone has to get along to, to the Scratchpad launch. That's— I'm like, that's just the conclusion that I'm drawing right now.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

And The other fun fact also happening at Scratch That launch will be the announcement of the Kelly Van Meurs Memorial Scholarship.

Oh my God, this is basically a star-studded award night. What is going on?

Um, we kind of just went, hey guys, let's do a thing, and everyone was like, that would be sick, and now we're doing it. That's essentially it.

I love that. And so will you have— you'll be announcing that prize as well, and will there be speakers or attendees for that one as well?

I am not 100% sure whether that is going to be— whether that reading will happen at Scratch That or if it'll happen at the Writers Grove, but there will be a reading of that winner's work. And it's sure to be lovely. I haven't read that one yet, but I love how— that's gonna be awesome.

You have so much information, like, you know so much that we don't know, and that's— I'm like, that is amazing and deeply frustrating.

Yes, I'm the knowledge keeper. I'm not allowed to, they'll shoot me out back.

I was like, you're the knowledge keeper at the Writers Grove. That's very, that's very D&D of you. I love that. Oh my God, thank you so much for chatting with me. And if listeners want to get along to the Scratch That launch, then look for the Instagram. It's scratchthat.magazine.

.mag.

.mag. And find out more information and also our QUT Writers Festival for the Writers Grove. Thank you so much for chatting with me.

Thank you for having me on. It's been super lovely, and I can't wait to see you at the Writers' Grove. Definitely coming to your workshop. That's going to be awesome.

Yeah, I kind of want to dress up now for that as well.

Well, I mean, maybe you don't have to.

No one's stopping me.

I'm an adult. Yeah, nobody's stopping you. If anything, people will encourage it. They'll be like, wow, they're so cool. I'm definitely going to their workshop. They've got things to say.

They're so cool. This looks like a ren faire though. Yeah!

I love it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

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