Julianne Flynn| Staff writer
A confession is a dangerous thing.
It has the power to shock, excite and connect us. To borrow a line from fellow Trinity student, Oscar Wilde: ‘there is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.’ In the same vein, enter ‘Guts’ magazine- ‘a collection of personal stories and illustrations that seeks to tell confessional and visceral accounts of the city, compiled in a collectible print format.’
Confessional writing has got a bad rep recently. It’s been associated with a bunch of bored hipsters sipping on overpriced Americanos whilst complaining about their ‘artistic struggle’ (think Lena Denham’s character in ‘Girls’). People call it self-indulgent, solipsistic and boring. Frankly, who wants to hear about another twenty-something female having relationship difficulties or self-esteem issues? The formula has grown tired and desperate. ‘The renaissance in confessional writing came about through female bloggers where the private is political and I think it started to become a trendy way of writing. I don’t mind that but I want to apply it to a different context,’ says Agnew, ‘I think there hasn’t been a new wave of energy in writing and print in Dublin in a long time so there’s a real space and appetite for something like Guts.
Agnew is a 25 year old, Italian-Irish writer and journalist, currently working in the online newsdesk in ‘The Irish Times.’ She studied English and Drama in Trinity College Dublin and previously worked in ‘Totally Dublin’ and ‘Image’ magazine. With this experience, she is clearly the right person to undertake such a daring venture, but admits she had her doubts. ‘People kept telling me print isn’t commercially viable. It probably isn’t, but in order to try, you have to create a limited edition, high quality product combining literature, art and design and that’s exactly what Guts is all about’, says Agnew. ‘Writers have become undervalued. A lot of the time you become secondary to the photographer or illustrator. I don’t want to sound like a granny but people have also stopped reading. My feeling is that writing has lost its ‘cool-cache’. Anything that’s connected to writing in Ireland is an older generation. It’s grown stale. A lot of the people running literary events are not targeting our age group. It’s too intellectual and stuffy. I want ‘Guts’ to be something that people our age will want to read.’
If anything, Guts will act as an antidote to the PR-dominated magazines that litter our newsstands. It aims to play on our emotions but not in the manipulative ‘buy this product’ kind of way, rather with personal and daring confessions. It includes writers such as Nialler9, Eithne Shortall, Maggie Armstrong, Laurence Mackin and Maeve Higgins (to name a few.) But how honest are they really going to be? ‘Very.’ Agnew says with a cheeky grin. ‘People are going to be embarrassed. I think it was tough for the writers, especially the first issue ones. I think you want to be seductive in the way you confess things. You want to seduce the reader by telling them something that really captivates them, but you want to do so in an artful form.’
The first issue’s theme is taken from the cult book ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter’ by Carson McCuller. ‘There’s a lot of stories about ex’s, embarrassing events and people generally admitting to doing dickhead things. But then others are really sweet, Nialler9’s piece is about meeting his fiance is incredibly heartwarming. The artwork for the first issue is by Mick Minogue and the design is by Shane Kenna.’
“Anything that’s connected to writing in Ireland is an older generation. It’s grown stale. I want ‘Guts’ to be something that people our age will want to read.”
The second issue is entitled ‘I know you are, but what am I?’, taken from a Pee-Wee Herman quote, ‘it’s about trying to define yourself and comparing yourself to others and potentially not belonging’ says Agnew, ‘Aran Quinn is doing the art for that one.’ The third issue is called ‘Blow, Smoke and Hard Candy’ which will be our drug issue. Obviously they’re the names of different kinds of drugs- cocaine, dope and heroin. That theme came about as a reaction to Niall Harbison’s piece in ‘Lovin Dublin’ where he spoke about drug addicts in a deeply unsympathetic way. In that issue, we’re trying to take away the stigmatisation of drug addiction. We’ve got a few people writing who were once heroin addicts but we’ve also got personal accounts of people’s recreational drug use. Steve McCarthy is doing the artwork. The fourth issue is entitled ‘Kintsugi’ – a Japanese word meaning the process of putting gold into broken china. The beauty of it being that it’s broken. Fatti Burke is designing that one.’
2014 has been the year of confessions and a rise to the ‘show all’ culture. We ‘connect’ with friends through Facebook and Instagram, spending hours scrolling through perfectly filtered pictures. However, ‘Guts’ hopes to remove these filters, while still managing to fill our ‘pervy voyeuristic itches’ to know the utmost personal details about other people’s lives.
Agnew is certainly passionate and ambitious. There is a sparkle in her eye and a quiet confidence as she speaks about Guts. It is 100% a labour of love and run entirely through small donations, mainly to cover printing costs. It already has raised 4K in 11 days through its ‘Kickstarter’ campaign and has caused quite the stir among writers, designers and illustrators alike. Here at ‘Utzine’ we await with delirious excitement the prospect of a refreshing take on what has become everyone’s obsession- the bare-all confession. Watch this space.
Guts launches tonight in Tengu Bar where copies of the first issue ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’ are on sale. If you would like to support Guts Magazine, you can pledge a donation to their Kickstarter here.
