41: Growing open literature (Sean Preston interview)

Sean Preston is the founder and editor of short-fiction platform Open Pen, whose self-titled magazine has been described as "More like a shot of absinthe than a boring pint of lager," and is making its first forays into book production. He's a proud East Londoner, an ex-pro wrestler, a full-time thing-maker at a South London record label, and an occasional short fiction writer. We talk about the deliberately analogue, hard-copy, zine approach that Sean took and the motivations behind that, and how that vision has continued over the years even as they grow into social media, a successful website and live events. In particular, the way that the physical constraints of a printed magazine affect how you publish and how your authors are perceived - and how the infinite digital space gives room to grow. Also, how Sean has kept a free print magazine going for a decade through advertising and sponsorship, and how that model is evolving with their expansion into live events and now books.

You can listen to 41: Growing open literature (Sean Preston interview) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

41: Growing open literature (Sean Preston interview) is an episode from Talking through my hat by John Pettigrew.

This episode is 33:33 long.

This episode was published on Feb 12, 2019.

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