Thursday 27th April, 2006 \u2013 5.30pm, Hobart Bookshop, Hobart.<\/p>\n
Island 104<\/em> was launched in Hobart this evening by Norman Reaburn, Chair of Island\u2019s Management Committee.<\/p>\n Norman spoke of the procedures followed for finding a new editor, how in the past the committee had met behind shut doors and scratched its collective head till coming up with a name. This time, they\u2019d decided to do things differently, instigating a national search for an editor by networking through friends and colleagues across the whole of the continent. And the response, said Reaburn, amazed and astounded, there was a significant number of people interested in the job.<\/p>\n Secretly, in its heart of hearts, the committee had hoped to be able to find an editor who lived in Tasmania. Gina Mercer\u2019s application had been one of the early ones, and in Reaburn\u2019s mind was the vague notion that even at this early stage of proceedings they\u2019d found their applicant. Gina possessed a strong academic background, had published a novel, a poetry collection, had acted as a judge for literary competitions and won critical and academic attention for her work. \u2018We took great pride and pleasure in offering her the editorship of Island, and took great delight when she accepted.\u2019<\/p>\n David Owen, retiring editor, spoke of Island<\/em> as \u2018an unpredictable magazine\u2019, but with so much communal support and goodwill \u2018it is impossible to see how it could fail\u2019. He named and thanked the work of previous editors who\u2019d brought good things to Island and made it a truly national magazine. \u2018I\u2019ve had a few handover sessions with Gina, the magazine is in very, very good hands, I\u2019m absolutely thrilled to be handing over to her.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018As for anecdotes,\u2019 David continued … ‘well there were the occasional difficulties, such as with the second issue I edited. A reference I made in the editorial was \u2013 I realised \u2013 basically a big mistake on my part. This was at eight o\u2019clock at night, just after we\u2019d taken the magazine to the printers. I rang them first thing next morning, “I hope you haven\u2019t started printing yet?” ‘<\/p>\n \u2018Yeah, just about finished\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018So I told them my problem, and they said don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll just cut the page out, do a cut and paste job & no one will notice, you might at most see a little join.\u2019<\/p>\n Owen said he lived with – and learned from – the experience.<\/p>\n \u2018And then there\u2019s Island<\/em>\u2019s letterhead masthead,\u2019 he continued, \u2018which on one side says “excellence\u2019 and on the other “variety”. I\u2019ve had quite a few letters just addressed to The Editor, Island<\/em> Excellence Variety. Or addressed to Rodney Croome; this will happen to you too Gina, so when they come your way, simply reply mentioning Rodney left about nine years ago\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n Owen went on to relate a wee mishap in a portaloo, remarking that \u2018if there\u2019s any writer who I felt worthy of pissing on my leg it was him: that\u2019s the way I\u2019ll remember Island!\u2019<\/p>\n Gina Mercer spoke of her vision for Island<\/em> as a \u2018national conversation\u2019, rooted and composted in Tasmania with writing diverse and rich. \u2018Tasmania has been a fantastic and welcoming place to come to, as has been the experience of coming to grips with editing the magazine. I\u2019ve always been a reader, but now I\u2019m reading Island six or seven times before publication \u2013 and it\u2019s David\u2019s turn to be able to relax and enjoy the magazine for what it is without the responsibility of editing it into print.\u2019<\/p>\n Gina wished David well and invited a half-dozen contributors to read from Island 104<\/em>. \u2018The next Island launch will be on Friday 23rd June\u2019, she continued, \u2018as part of The Tasmanian Writers Centre\u2019s Ice Cold Words Festival dealing with writing about the Antarctic.\u2019 Gina encouraged continued support for the magazine. \u2018All my family and friends know what they\u2019re getting for Christmas \u2026 Island<\/em> in their stockings. And if you ever feel the need to contact and converse with me, feel free \u2013 particularly if it\u2019s at the time I\u2019m stuffing Island magazine into envelopes to contributors and subscribers, I\u2019d love your help.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thursday 27th April, 2006 \u2013 5.30pm, Hobart Bookshop, Hobart. Island 104 was launched in Hobart this evening by Norman Reaburn, Chair of Island\u2019s Management Committee. Norman spoke of the procedures …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40,39,42,41,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island","category-mercer-gina","category-owen-david","category-reaburn-norman","category-uncategorized","entry entry-center"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walleahpress.com.au\/currajah\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}