Hello Everyone! And welcome to DIMITRA: A 'Zine/Journal of Struggle, Synthesis, and What's Yet to Come!
Named for the Greco-Roman Goddess of agriculture and fertility, Demeter (Dimitra in Greek), DIMITRA is a new "'zine/journal" that takes a stab at being one-part 'zine, one-part theoretical journal, and in total, a brand new publication built for covering various topics in philosophy, politics, and life in-general from a materialist-dialectical perspective. The general idea of DIMITRA is to cover "dialectical materialism applied to [X]" where [X] can be anything that one could think to apply the philosophical laws of motion to.
Edited by M.R. Framboise, DIMITRA continues a writing practice that began with Colloquia Creolicae and The Starshine Essays — if you've followed either of those, welcome back; if not, consider this your entry point. Inside, you'll find more than dry theory: Issue No. 1 alone moves between personal essay on identity and transition, political critique of liberalism and queerness, reflections on self-doubt, and writing on television as a revolutionary form. DIMITRA doesn't shy away from the personal or the difficult, and we'd rather sit with a hard subject honestly than smooth it over.
DIMITRA is, as the GNU Project would put it, "free as in 'freedom.'" The compiled PDF version of each issue is available alongside all DIMITRA articles on www.dimitramag.org. We believe that freely accessible information is a human right, and as such, all DIMITRA content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). In plain terms: you're free to share and adapt anything we publish for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the original author, note any changes, and release your version under the same license. Commercial use requires the author's written permission, and guest contributors always retain full rights to their own individual work. This is a step further than "open-access" — it's a commitment to keeping this work reusable by the people who read it.
We're aiming for a new issue roughly every month, released simultaneously as a free PDF and, funding permitting, in print. Print copies will be announced as they become available; digital issues will always be free the moment they're published.
A principal goal of this publication is to be truly expressive and collaborative. In that vein, we are looking for people who would like to help contribute to and grow this project!
Collaboration isn't limited to writing. If you're interested in illustration, layout and design, translation, proofreading, or helping spread the word, we want to hear from you too — not just people with a finished essay in hand.
For submissions, reach us at submissions@dimitramag.org. For everything else — feedback, corrections, partnership ideas, or just to say hello — write to us at hello@dimitramag.org.
Overall, we're so excited that you've chosen to check out DIMITRA and we can't wait to see what's in store for this project!