The magazine was designed to give regional and rural women a voice in Australian publishing, and is completely authored and printed by said women. The three editors, Katherine Vella, Lauren Forner and Kimmy Skeers put together the magazine with the goal of providing a space for all regional women to have their voices and stories heard.

Ms Skeers said "We're coming from the background of wanting to encourage women to share their experiences and thoughts. Primarily, the motivation came because we felt women from outside the big cities were under-represented."

The journal started with a series of workshops in regional centres around the Riverina, with the trio creating spaces for women to talk freely and openly, and share their work.

The workshops got off to a huge success, and they noted the talent on display across the events.

"From the workshops, we launched a website and a blog, that was one of the things we wanted to do... The three of us have been learning a lot as we go, but we have very complementary skills which has helped tremendously," Ms Vella said.

She added that the journal doesn't run any advertising, being a passion project for all three of the staff. Funding was provided by the trio, along with two grants from Griffith City Council and Western Riverina Arts.

They are quick to mention that writing experience is not necessary to pitch and publish a story with Mona, with work being curated for the print edition or shared on the website.

Issue 1 of the magazine was delivered to subscribers over early September, after an original scheduled date of early August. The lockdown slowed production but the official launch will be heralded on September 11 with a zoom celebration for contributors.

READ MORE

Mona isn't slowing down though, and is still taking submissions for the site as well as making plans for a second edition.

"We also want to let people know it's all submission based, you can go on our blog and there's a tab where we open submissions," Ms Vella said.

Ms Forner added "I feel really proud of what we've been able to do, but I really want to say thank you to all the women."

Submissions can be made on the Mona Magazine website, which also has more information on the current issue.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: