The secrets, the hints, the sly references to comic content – we’ve been teasing you about early harvest for a while now. Since March, to be exact.
So we’re excited to announce:

Well, almost.

You didn’t think we’d give away all our secrets at once, did you? Especially since the Editorial Board has been working on it for months.

… from authors and illustrators, young and old, funny and not-funny, but they all had one thing in common. They were about SECRETS. The Editorial Board had heaps of information about editing, fonts, storyboarding and printing to digest, but …

Ta da!

Here it is folks, early harvest, a new kind of literary magazine bursting with fresh young writing, illustrations you’ll by dying to cut out and stick on your wall (have to buy a spare copy then, eh?) and a bunch of superstar children’s authors and illustrators, including Terry Denton, Sally Rippin, Sherryl Clark and Paul Collins.

Get yourself down to the Sun Theatre in Yarraville, on Saturday 12 November at 11am and find out why this is one literary mag that you won’t be able to keep secret for long.
If you can’t make it to the launch, pre-order your copy online here, or at one of these bookstores.

The early harvest comic was written by the Early Harvest editorial board and illustrated by Chris Downes.

Pigeons is honoured this year to be part of literary discussions as far away as Canada!
Audience members at The Ninth International Conference of the Book held in Toronto later this year will be captivated as Dr Marnee Watkins shares a paper co-written with Dr Pam Macintyre entitled “Aliens with Einstein Heads: Creative storytelling partnerships between child, author and artist.”

Pigeons has come a long way, and the paper discusses its development from an idea inspired by Jenna and Lachlann’s internships at 826 Valencia, to the far reaching project it is today, bringing together children, authors and artists, and collecting their shared stories.

Best of all, this is much more than an essay; the voices of the young people involved in our projects will be incorporated into the interactive presentation.

Stay tuned for more news from the conference.

Last week we welcomed the editorial board back after a well-deserved winter break, and introduced them to the inimitable Bernard Caleo: comic creator, performer, educator, and a very funny man to boot. With Bernard’s guidance, the young editors explored the deep and fascinating world of comics, before working together to create a collaborative comic piece that may or may not appear in the finished magazine (shh! The contents of this magazine are secret, see.)

Over the coming weeks, the young editors are going to get down to the tough but rewarding job of selecting and editing the works that will ultimately make up the content of Early Harvest. And with nine weeks of workshops with industry professionals under their belts, there is little doubt they will do a sterling job!