Soft Cover — Hard Copy is a radio show dedicated to the vivid world of independent publishing, with a particular focus on self-publishing practices and a special emphasis on analog publications, though not limited to them. Each episode will feature insightful conversations with authors, artists and makers, as well as distributors, activists, enthusiasts, and those passionate about the publishing landscape.
As your hosts, Maja Milić and Moritz Grünke, we aim to examine the multifaceted dimensions of publishing, shedding light on political, ethical, and economic aspects. We will discuss who is published, who doesn’t, and the reasons behind these dynamics.
Together with our guests, we will discuss the democratizing power of self-publishing, acknowledging its limitations, and celebrating its DIY spirit. We will highlight issues of accessibility, moments of solidarity, and the ethos of sharing and caring that, in our perspective, define the independent publishing community.
»What is deemed publishable shapes our cultural landscape, but only partially reflects it. What becomes visible are publishing projects that have succeeded in passing by the multiple financial, political and legal valves governed by market and state alike. Languages and formats that are deliberately or accidentally marginalized—the snubbed genres, the outlawed subjects, the troubling subjectivities, the excessive, the minimal, the unprofitable, and the unfathomable—are aborted, pushed underground, or stubbornly persist to find a place in the sun.
Maha Maamoun & Ala Younis »How to Maneuver« Kayfa ta, 2020
Independent publishing initiatives have long tended to the dismissed or underrepresented—that which is denied the public space of publication or desires it on different terms. […]
Despite the important role that these independent practices play—sometimes by their sheer existence—in questioning creative, professional and political boundaries, they remain little known, their publications hard to find, and the history of their struggles against restrictive publishing regimes scantily written. From the hand-drawn, self-promoting paper kite to the relatively established independent publishing house, alternative publishing practices show both the breadth of possibility, as well as the great strength, and vulnerability, of some of our most creative and daring civic propositions.«