what is this?

PALIMPSEST is an arts magazine designed to advance the traditional format of arts publications for both the reader and the artist.

Each issue will display pieces from a variety of creators (5-7) working in a range of mediums from visual art to short prose. These will be followed by a second piece from each artist made in response to another submission. The result will be that the works are presented both in isolation and in dialogue with another art piece, artist, and, often, art form. Our hope is that this process will draw out the duality of art as simultaneously a completed, self-contained object and as a malleable part of a fluid creative network, subject to interpretation and manipulation, influenced and influencing.

how does it work?

Each issue will be centred around a prompt and include two sections:

THE MAIN EVENT

~ Artists working in different mediums (any medium which can be printed on A4, from poetry to painting to sculpture) create a piece in response to the prompt.

~ The same artists create a second piece responding to another submission.

BACKCHAT

~ Articles and reviews on film, music, literature, TV, visual arts, or the arts in general centred around the issue’s prompt.

who are we?

PALIMPSEST is currently run by a small team but we’d love to make this magazine as collaborative as possible behind the scenes too.

If you:

~ Would like to be involved in editing

~ Are a graphic designer/web designer/illustrator

~ Just want to chat about what we’re doing

Email us at contact.palimpsestmag@gmail.com. Or, if you hate email, give us a message on Instagram!

Rhys Monaghan

Editor-in-Chief; Design and Marketing

Hi! I have stubbornly forced this magazine into existence (and every conversation with anyone for the last three months).

PALIMPSEST basically exists for two reasons:

  1. To provide another space for art, and one centred around community.

  2. As an experiment in what happens when the audience has a view into how art pieces influence each other, and how ideas evolve through that process.

It feels like there's a real trend of events and spaces centred around art and community at the moment, which is an incredible thing. But they are still not as common or long-lived as they could be and a trend only stays alive for as long as people keep it alive. So this is my contribution. I hope it can bring art to more people and more people to art.

Previously, I have co-organised a multi-media art exhibition BODY/CATHARTSIS at Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh; acted as a Senior Editor and Lead Graphic Designer for The Film Dispatch magazine; and written on film, arts, and poetry for a number of publications.

I am currently planning a second exhibition with my co-organiser from BODY/CATHARTSIS. We are also in the process of forming a community-focused art collective.

Rose Fox

Copy Editor: BACKCHAT and OVERLEAF (Substack)

My name is Rose Fox and I am in my final year studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. I have a great interest in the idea of palimpsestic writing and art and how it enables creatives to explore avenues which might otherwise have never come into being. I'm delighted to be joining the team at Palimpsest and am greatly looking forward to being involved with such a diverse body of work. 

Virginia Shorrock

Copy Editor: BACKCHAT and OVERLEAF (Substack)

Virginia has just completed her MSc in Literature and Modernity at the University of Edinburgh, having previously studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Cardiff University. During her academic career she honed her research around her interest in literary criticism and ways of understanding postcolonialism through untraditional lenses. She is the co-founder of alternative academic journal SHAGmag and hopes to pursue a career in academia.

Emily Huffcutt

Managing Editor; Art Editor

Emily is a recent graduate from the University of Edinburgh, where she studied English Literature and History. A Wisconsin implant, she is drawn to work that speaks to the intersection of love and grief. Though currently a mediocre barista, she is pursuing a career in publishing.