Dear Shorebirds and Waders,

 

Here’s a tiny slice of good news in an aching world – five years after we closed our doors, we’re releasing the eighth issue of Great Ocean Quarterly – the one that got away. The Lost Eighth, as we’re calling it, is a passion project, an itch we needed to scratch. We think you'll love what we have for you.

 

Here at Great Ocean Quarterly, we’ve passed the lock-down hours dusting off the hard drive that we unplugged back in 2015, when we were about to print our eighth issue. And we’ve re-discovered a wealth of sea stories: works by some of Australia’s favourite writers and artists, as well as international names. There’s a bird and a fish and a voyage, a tour under Sydney Harbour. There are poems and a song, and Greg Day’s Mislaid Books, Arturo, jellyfish and…Lego!

 

In fact, there’s so much wonderful material that we’re still trying to work out how to do this, but…

 

We want to bring you the long-awaited issue 2:3 of Great Ocean Quarterly, the volume we’re calling The Lost Eighth.

 

A one-off journal volume is a tricky thing, but we think we’ve found a way. And we’re asking for your support.

 

It’ll be a thumping-big 128 pages – more book than magazine - crammed with reading and thinking, and almost no ads. If we can find enough people to pre-order their copy, we can hit the print button and have GOQs pouring across the land like soldier crabs on a sandbank.

 

We want to showcase some brilliant ocean writing and art that didn’t get a run back then. (And eight is a more pleasing number. Who makes seven issues? Pah.)

 

Even better, for original subscribers, because you were supporting us when we closed the doors, we’re happy to send you an extra copy for free.

 

This release will be a break-even proposition. It’s not about the money (in truth, it never was). We want to honour some hard work from years ago, and bring something lovely into a riven world. There’s not much that can be guaranteed in print media, but this much stands: it’s the best issue we never made.

 

 

Jaws sincerely,

 

Jock Serong
Editor - Great Ocean Quarterly