Inspired by the community they found in the punk scene, PEACHFUZZ journal founders Mads Gordon and Sophia Tone wanted to cultivate a similar scene for writers based in Georgia.
“It started with the Atlanta School of Poets,” Gordon, a writer from South Georgia, told Georgia Voice.
The pair wanted to prove the literary scene could offer an alternative to the pervasive culture of ivory tower academics often associated with literary spaces.
As young creative writing students graduating from their respective universities, they wanted to revitalize the creative outlet they found in their workshop classes.
“I realized I was graduating [from college],” Gordon said. “I wanted a space for community with writers. I kept going to all these DIY shows and punk shows. I saw how much community was being built in the music scene in Atlanta. The kids who go to these shows — that is their life. I wanted that for writers — to be out doing things and not just holed up in their bedrooms.”
“Sometimes you forget that good writing necessitates having a fun life,” Tone said.
The Atlanta School of Poets was a community of writers in the Atlanta creative scene looking for a non-university affiliated space to meet with other poets. Meetings were impromptu in parks, bars, concerts, over dinner, and in writers’ apartments. It’s a very “Frank O’Hara approach” according to Gordon, who was inspired by how O’Hara himself often met with his peers at Fire Island and gay clubs in New York. She describes her poetry as autobiographical and rooted in her family.
This writer’s experiment spawned the basis for the literary journal they debuted this year, PEACHFUZZ.
The goal was to make the journal an independent, accessible space for writers who may feel like they’re “floundering in Atlanta’s writing scene” or struggling to have their work published for an audience.
“We’re not spending money on big submission websites, we’re doing it all ourselves,” Gordon said.
No fee waivers, essays, or prior publications are required to enter a work into PEACHFUZZ.
“It gives us the flexibility and freedom to give people the benefit of the doubt and put people who haven’t officially submitted before in the journal,” Tone said. “I think because we’re not a part of an institution, people feel comfortable fully expressing themselves.”
The lack of institutional and financial barriers to the journal means writers feel empowered to send in submissions centered around queer love and erotica.
To promote the journal, and for their love of poetry, Tone and Gordon often do poems-on-the-spot on the Beltline. Armed with two vintage typewriters, a pack of cigarettes, and a stack of paper, the pair write poems upon request for pedestrians. Participants give them a prompt of just three words of their choice, and the poets hammer out a personalized poem accompanied by the chime of their typewriter keys.
Often, the requests will be as random as “cicadas/beam/blush,” or as sentimental as “can you write me a poem that reminds me of my girlfriend who loves tulips.” In the spirit of spreading the joy of performance poetry, poems are free — but tips are always accepted.
Tone started doing the poems-on-the-spot by herself on the Beltline a few years ago. She characterizes her writing as narrative-focused meditations on childhood.
“It’s something I saw this woman doing in Boston when I was ten, and it’s always been in the back of my mind that [poems-on-the-spot] is something I could be doing,” she said.
Tone documented her process on Instagram, where Gordon quickly reached out.
“I thought what she was doing was awesome and I wanted to be a part of it,” Gordon said. The pair were fast friends and have been doing poems-on-the-spot for six months now.
“We met at Joe’s coffee shop, and I was doing Atlanta School of Poets,” Gordon said. “Sophia wanted to start a journal, and I made an Instagram page to hold us accountable.”
Social media has often been the tool to connect them to eclectic writers and lovers of literature. PEACHFUZZ offered ten free submissions for Black, Indigenous, people of color and queer writers each during their inaugural application season. Submissions were sponsored by donations made in PEACHFUZZ’s Instagram DMs.
Their success is based in their grassroots mentality toward building a collective without the need for a creative authority, “It’s totally a bell hooks, queer way of living life to say, ‘I’m going to function outside of institutions as much as possible,’ because you don’t need [institutions] if you have community and you’re ready to connect with people,” Gordon said.
In the future, you can find Gordon and Tone at Market Hugs, a pop-up vendor show, doing poems-on-the-spot. You can also find them during the week busking poems on the Beltline or at the next DIY show near you.
The inaugural issue of PEACHFUZZ will be released on August 1. It will be available online via Instagram @peachfuzzjournal and in print at Market Hugs (@market_hugs) this fall.