Inspiring creativity at The Blade

The Blade interviewed TYPE! co-founder George Hamilton as part of a new partnership which includes magazine sponsorship and creative writing classes for Blade residents.

George, what is TYPE!?

TYPE! is both a bookmark magazine and a writing community. We launched the magazine in January 2021 with the idea that anyone could print, read, and fold an A4 sheet full of great new writing and literary inspiration from home. This free magazine really caught people’s attention, and soon we had hundreds of submissions of poetry, flash fiction and six-word stories coming in from across the world, as well as an expanding community of regular readers. We’ve been distributing copies of TYPE! in local independent stores from issue1 and have now expanded beyond a magazine to offer writing prompts via social media, writing tools on our website, and creative writing classes, both online and in-person.

What do you think of the local literary scene?

We have some incredible poets and writers nearby, some of whom we’ve been lucky enough to publish in TYPE! We featured Vic Pickup’s poem Our Bed, At Night in issue 4 which I would encourage everyone to read. Claire Dyer – another great local poet – featured in issue 1, and we’ve had many contributions from other local writers. We’re very fortunate to have so many local resources for writers too. There are regular Poets Café events, a monthly open-mic Dreading Slam, a Reading Playwrights group, and supportive venues like South Streets Arts Centre, The Purple Turtle and the Rising Sun Arts Centre, all within a short walk of the Blade.  

What have you been doing at The Blade?

The Blade has given us huge support, including sponsoring issue 8 and helping us to distribute the magazine. We recently hosted a creative writing session for Blade residents, which we loved and hope to do more of. I know the Blade has also sponsored RABBLE Theatre, which shows it’s a business that cares about creating a vibrant, arts-rich local environment.

What’s next for TYPE!?

We’ve just launched a new website at www.bookmarktype.com and a free weekly newsletter of writing prompts and tips at https://bookmarktype.substack.com.Our mission is to help people to write more, write better, write now! We’d like to grow our audience and our impact, including by attracting more sponsors so we can reinvest funds into creating more resources. I’d also like to help the writers we feature in TYPE! to develop their writing, and, ultimately, be published and successful elsewhere.

++ TYPE! issue 8, sponsored by The Blade, can be downloaded and read for free at www.bookmarktype.com/archive