'Fiend' / Odessa Mykytowycz [Interview]
Fiend shines a light on an assortment of unique and carefully curated zines, independent and small press publications from both emerging and established writers and artists.
The past (almost) two years of lockdowns have certainly been difficult. Finding ways to spend our excessive spare time and fill our vacant calendars, whilst simultaneously finding the motivation to do so, has been a major struggle for a lot of us. When Metropolitan Melbourne entered another snap lockdown at the beginning of the year, Odessa Mykytowycz looked to her bookshelf and came up with the bright idea of creating an online (and sometimes pop-up) bookstore Fiend.
This lockdown project has now turned into a very successful small business stocking over 100 rich and diverse publications from both local and international artists and publishers, including personal favourites of mine Nan Gouldin (Third volume of Lambert Collection Icon Series) , Worms, and local publication Empty Mind Plaza. According to Odessa, zines are sometimes left in the shadows and considered secondary to books and larger publications. Fiend aims to highlight these works and give them the attention that they truly deserve - and in the process, create a community for fellow zine lovers through pop-up bookstores.
“In a lot of ways zines and small press can be considered the finger food of the literary world, often a snack-sized accent to the main event.”
Hey Odessa! Thanks for chatting with Verve. Tell me about Fiend and what inspired you to start your own small business?
Hi! My pleasure, thanks for having me :-) Fiend definitely started on a whim. During 2020’s lockdowns I had produced work of my own that drew my attention to the way that small press and independently published work were publicised or presented in stores, and I felt that these kind of works didn’t really have a space where they were exclusively elevated and/or collected, and so because of that they sometimes got drowned out or overshadowed. In lockdown earlier this year I needed a project to fill all the time we all had, and Fiend kind of stepped into that space. It’s funny that when I began Fiend I didn’t really see it as starting a business - which is silly because that’s what it is -, I guess I saw it as more of a cool job/project I created for myself.
Odessa Mykytowycz, founder of Fiend
What in particular draws you to zines? What makes Fiend so special?
I wouldn’t say I necessarily favour zines or small press above other kinds of publications, but I was drawn to them with Fiend because I felt that there wasn’t a space where they were otherwise elevated. These kinds of publications (generally speaking) lay outside of mainstream or formal publishing parameters, and so I think it’s a really cool way for people to represent themselves and/or their community the way they want to, as well as making space for readers to hear those voices where they otherwise mightn’t have. I’m not saying this can’t necessarily be done through mainstream or formal publishing parameters either, but it’s definitely a more accessible means of doing so. I would like to think that Fiend plays a small part in contributing to that accessibility.
How did you find the process of starting your own business?
Pretty chill actually! Haha. I think maybe because Fiend was born on a relative whim it depressurised the process of launching a little bit - I don’t mean to say it was a thoughtless process because it wasn’t; I just think that maybe in treating Fiend like a project and something I wanted to do rather than meeting the expectations of what I thought a business needed to provide helped relax the process a bit. I’m definitely learning alongside the business though you know. Instagram was and is still also pretty fundamental to the growth of Fiend, doing something like Fiend would be significantly harder were Instagram not around so I reckon the platform is really cool in that way.
What process do you undertake in seeking out zines to stock at Fiend? What qualities do you look for in a zine?
Hmm each publication holds something different! It’s just me that does Fiend, so I try to keep conscious of how much personal taste drives the publications that are stocked, and also the ways in which I’m sourcing publications and what the product of that is. I want Fiend to provide a space for people and publishers who are representing themselves and/or their communities, and so when it comes to approaching publishers, creators or publications I try to find those that align with those values. As well, Fiend has an open submission policy (save a few terms on offensive material) which ensures that the publications that are stocked aren’t representing one group or one group’s taste and I’d like to think that having open submissions encourages the practice of publishers, writers etc.
What is your favourite zine you’re stocking at the moment?
Omg you can’t ask me that! Lol. It’s a hard question. If I have to narrow it down to specifically a zine then I think Meat Dreaming by Fiona Glen (pictured below) and A Vision of My Head Atop Another Body by Isobel Neviaszky probably take the cake…for now haha. Or In The Shadow of Forward Motion by David Wojnarowicz!
What are you reading right now?
I’m actually reading a book my Mum gave me that she said she couldn’t put down called Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz. It’s exploring trauma, the shared experiences of women and solidarity therein; I think it’s later meant to explore the media’s fixation on deceased women and girls too. I’m about 100 pages in so I’ve still got a bit to go but I’m enjoying it. Tilly Lawless’ book Nothing But My Body also came in the mail the other day and I’m really keen to read it after following her on Instagram for a while.
Stay up to date with Fiend on Instagram, and via their online store.
Written by Jasmine Rose @rasminejose
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