Our History

The literary magazine Visible Ink was established in 1989 by student Jane Leonard, because she thought RMIT University’s PWE course (Professional Writing and Editing) should have a student magazine. Her efforts earned her a Student of the Year award.

This student magazine continued as an annual co-curricula project for decades. Each year, staff initiated the committee and provided support if asked, but mostly students were left to run the show themselves. Visible Ink provided a wonderful opportunity to learn by doing. Students decided on a theme and title; selected contributions; edited and proofread pieces; liaised with authors, designers, typesetters and printers; organised the cover and internal design; wrote grant submissions and raised funds; and organised a launch and someone to write the foreword.

In 2009, Emma Kerin, Gabby Trifiletti, Cameron White and others compiled a 21st anniversary anthology. Steve Grimwade wrote the foreword and noted that:

In many ways Visible Ink is at the heart of what the Prof Writing program does. It provides the means to form an engagement with all parts of the publishing process ... to learn the ways of the (publishing) world and the wiles of the writers that inhabit it.

Unsurprisingly, many on the numerous editorial committees later embarked on a publishing career as writers, editors and publishers. Among these were Peter Barrett, Davina Bell, Julia Carlomagno, Bryget Chrisfield, Melissa Cranenburgh, George Dunford, Toni Jordan, Susan Paterson, Nina Rousseau, Emma Schwarz, Ian See, Jeff Sparrow, Sophie Splatt, Louisa Syme and Jacinda Woodhead.

High on Visible Ink success, some students went on to begin small publishing ventures of their own, such as Cardigan Street Press, Prolog, Platform, Casual Network Press, the poetry-focused Salt-link Quarterly, and the literary and art quarterly Harvest. Most ambitious of all was Zoe Dattner and Louise Swinn's independent small press, Sleepers Publishing. Operating for 13 years until 2016, Sleepers published many award-winning books, such as Steven Amsterdam's The Things We Didn't See Coming, and, through its internships, offered an excellent training ground for fledgling editors.

Visible Ink was an early casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the committee couldn't meet face-to-face and teachers were 'pivoting' to online learning.

— Penny Johnson, Former Programs Manager for the Professional Writing and Editing and Professional Screenwriting programs at RMIT University (2011−2021)