The print magazine was founded in 1979 by Melbourne poets Kevin Brophy and Myron Lysenko, who wanted to provide a platform for underrepresented artists, progressive ideas and to encourage experimental thinking. The first cover featured a young Ned Kelly, the ultimate Australian shaker-upper, in his boxing stance: a gesture of defiance that underpins Going Down Swinging’s history and ambition. In 2
021, Going Down Swinging has remained true to those first guiding principles while evolving with its editorship and community. The work we produce has also evolved, taking all manner of shapes and forms across our audio, print and digital streams. We challenge writers and artists to experiment with everything from novellas to flash fiction, spoken word to digital animations, poetry to HTML and graphic novels to in-depth critical writing. Through this we have encouraged writers and artists at the precipice of new ideas: we published Andrew Denton’s first cartoon collection, we released podcasts featuring Benjamin Law and Anna Krien, and we’ve supported collaborations between The Dirty Three and Sean Whelan. Within this commitment to marginalised forms of literature, Going Down Swinging remains the only Australian literary publication to regularly support writers for performance. Since 2000 we’ve published audio albums alongside our print releases, and curated performance events of significance in the Australian cultural landscape. We release professionally recorded and mastered literary material online and in hard copy, and often these recordings are the key documentation of a performance artist’s body of work. We place great emphasis on capturing these ephemeral voices and stories, as part of our goal to connect artists with an audience worldwide. Going Down Swinging’s print publication is curated by Magenta Sheridan with support from online editors Hollen Singleton and Georgia Coldebella and marketing manager Wai Mun Mah. Each year we aim to produce a print production built from an open submission call. These productions focus on joining new voices and fresh perspectives, with a selected number of written and visual art pieces commissioned and closely developed for each edition. Our website is an active space: new work is published weekly and sourced through pitches, submissions, commissions, and collaborations with other publications around the world. All of our work is supported by a small team of volunteers and interns.
