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Rat World Magazine

RAT WORLD IS PUBLISHED BY SELCOUTHBIRD PRESS.

Welcome to Rat World, an independent quarterly publication that showcases the “underground” - artists, writers, creatives who are pursuing interesting independent work in the community.

24/02/2024

ANNOUNCING: RAT WORLD ISSUE 7 GUEST EDITOR

Kia ora! I’m Jean — and I’ll be guest editing the q***r takeover issue of Rat World (I guess “taking over”?). I’m Malaysian-Chinese, an Aries, born in the year of the rat (!) and, untypical of an Aries, very camera shy (hence the photo).

Submissions are still open for Issue Seven, and we are looking for any type of creative work — photo essays, short fiction, poems, interviews, criticism, features— that engages with q***r identities, experiences, spaces, histories, conversations, etc etc. An interview with a q***r artist? Cool! A submission debriefing on a show you staged or wrote? Nice! Thoughtful long-form criticism on something you watched during Pride? I’m into it! An exploration of q***r activism and a behind-the-scenes organisational breakdown? A photo shoot you did with a friend which features clothes from up-and-coming q***r designers? A still-life series featuring visual art work, ceramics, weird knick-knacks? An Interview mag-style kōrero between you and your collaborator, or you and your bestie? A body horror short story with a Spotify playlist to go with it? A manifesto on what you’d change about Auckland Pride?

Basically — open and encouraging of anything. Please note that while this is in collaboration with Auckland Pride, Rat World welcomes international submissions (as usual) and, obviously, submissions from all over Aotearoa. We’ll be editorially prioritising including diverse viewpoints that speaks to the range of q***r experiences and identities FYI; you get my gist.

(As to who I am — I was a writer and the Food Editor at Metro magazine for the last four years, and I love the print medium! Viva la print!)

Jean x

23/02/2024

Please put down your reading material and listen up: We have a BIG announcement later today! Keep your eyes and ears peeled…

19/02/2024

Want to be a cool rat? Support indie print! Buy local zines, read small press comics, fill your shelves with underground publications. Cool rats read cool magazines - grab yourself a copy of Rat World on our website or head to one of our stockists 🐀🌎

P.S We are still open for submissions to our Q***r Takeover issue! Send your queries or work to [email protected] 💌

17/02/2024

PRIDE REFLECTS: WEEK TWO 🐀🌎🏳️‍🌈 Reflect on the second week of Pride with two visual arts responses!

Sanjana Khusal heads to The Rawdag Gaysian Playwright Challenge - a chaotic performance where six writers are forced to write a play that is the opposite of their artistic taste. In solidarity, Sanjana responds to the night with a creative form she too dislikes: graphic design.

Cindy Walter reflects on the asexual improvised comedy Ungartered Territory with a video response, raving about this hilarious and honest performance.

Click the link in our bio or head to ratworldmag.com/read to check out Sanjana’s design reflection and Cindy’s video response from the second week of Pride!

10/02/2024

PRIDE REFLECTS: WEEK ONE

For the first week of Auckland Pride, Flora Xie heads to the hilarious sketch comedy r***e, Baby Gorgeous for a night of various characters, parodies, and slt trucks, while Liam Hansen reports on some of their highlights from Loud and Proud - a showcase of experimental and underground LGBTQIA+ musicians.

Click the link in our bio or head to ratworldmag.com/read to check out Flora and Liam’s reflections from the first week of Pride!

08/02/2024

As well as collaborating with Auckland Pride on a very special Q***r Takeover edition for the next issue (Submissions open now!), we’ll also be working together on Pride Reflects.

Pride Reflects is a way of documenting and celebrating the creative energy and output of the arts sector. Every week of Auckland Pride Month, two creatives will respond to their experiences of witnessing shows and events across the Auckland Pride Festival.

We’ve given the creatives agency to respond in any way they like, which might range from traditional reviews to photoessays to anything in between.

We can’t wait to reflect with you! Keep your eyes peeled for the first release of Pride Reflects… coming soon 🐀🌎🏳️‍🌈

07/02/2024

THEATRE REVIEW: This Room Is An Island

This Room Is An Island is an immersive performance work that uses “curated space, movement vocabularies, technologies, and visual influences” to explore the memory of Taiwan’s colonial past. A powerful and necessary performance that emphasises the importance of this art form to confront, challenge and remember suppressed or painful histories.

Jennifer Cheuk responds to the show from two perspectives - firstly as a seated guest on opening night, and secondly as an interactive audience member on closing night.

Read the full review at ratworldmag.com/read 🐀🌎🔗

01/02/2024

RAT WORLD x AUCKLAND PRIDE ISSUE SEVEN COLLABORATION

For this issue, we are working with Auckland Pride to bring you a very special Q***r Takeover edition of Rat World!

So, what does this mean? We are looking for creative work that explores q***r identities, experiences, spaces, histories, conversations, and anything in between. There is no limit to the style or type of work that you can submit as long as it fits into the ‘Q***r Takeover’ vibe - we wanted to keep the submissions parameters as open as possible so that we could platform and celebrate a range of work from our rainbow communities. Bonus points if it includes rats.

We can’t wait to see your work! Reach out to [email protected] with your submissions or queries🐀🌎

30/01/2024

Tomorrow we are not only opening our submissions for the first issue of 2024 BUT we are also revealing the Super Secret Extra Special collaborator we are working on Issue Seven with!

Keep your eyes peeled and get excited… Rat World is aboutta rock your world with this reveal 👀🐀🌎

13/01/2024

Let’s kick off 2024 with a cool new music Zine to check out!

There is an abundance of talent here in Auckland that, in Kiran Patel's opinion, does not get the recognition that it deserves. Over the years Kiran has had the pleasure of photographing artists, going to gigs, meeting & working with artists & bands, and now hosting them in Halfway Down's studio on Dominion Road.

These artists have captured his heart, and through his new Zine, My Musical Crushes, Kiran seeks to introduce you to them - and hopefully together, fall deeper in love with the Auckland music scene.

We sit down with Kiran to chat about the zine, his first gig, and why the Auckland music scene has such a unique energy.

Click the link in our bio to check out the full interview and make it your New Year’s resolution to read more local independent publications 📖📚

30/12/2023

2023 was the year of combatting burnout and taking it slow - we released two issues instead of four, we took longer breaks in between each issue, and Jenn learnt not to reply back to emails at 3am.

These moments of pause meant we could have fun again which led to a couple of our favourite memories of 2023:
⭐️ We released an R18 Rat World zine for Valentine’s Day
⭐️ We attended the inaugural Small Press Fest in Dunedin and talked about algorithms, social media, and print publishing
⭐️ Issue Five was stocked (and has almost sold out!) at one of the leading magazine stores in London
⭐️We went to the Melbourne Art Book Fair and bought too many cool books
⭐️We hosted our Issue Six Launch Party at Epolito’s Pizzeria and had a full on PIZZA PARTY

We don’t know what 2024 has in store for Rat World, but we know it’ll be cool, fun, ratty, and full of love for the underground creative scene 🐀🌎❤️

22/12/2023

PAWA x RAT WORLD: An Overview of the 2023 Performance Art Week Aotearoa Festival

Frances Pavletich refers to PAWA as one of her favourite weeks of the year: “it is both challenging and joyful, a chance to spend a week with a community that in many respects is the antithesis to ordinary life”.

This final piece delves into the form, politics and history of performance art, situating the 2023 PAWA festival within a larger context of artistic anarchy.

Click the link in our bio to read the full piece - I garuantee this article will change your perspective on performance art and illuminate the importance of this medium in Aotearoa.

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