Fiend Bookshop
Odessa is 26 years old and describes herself as someone who has their finger in many different pies. She fears leaving a stone unturned; in that sense, Fiend is a stone turned. Reading has always been very dear to her; “it’s exploratory for the self and the world, and a way of getting away when getting away isn’t possible – at once enhancing your present while giving you somewhere else to go. I think it’s powerful!” Fiend has allowed Odessa to extend that love of reading into something to be shared with others, even in the form of particular kinds of books. Day-to-day activities with Fiend usually involve sending emails, wrapping up orders, and, her favourite, browsing books to stock. Odessa states that she is lucky that the workload can more or less shift with the time she has to spend on it (leaving her with more time to dip her finger into another of her pies).
What is the inspiration behind your shop? How did its creation begin?
Fiend came about more or less as a remedy for boredom in lockdown…I know we all know that feeling. At the time, I’d self-published a couple of books and zines that had been stocked in several bookshops, and I’d seen heaps of cool little literary projects popping up locally. I found that in more traditional bookshops, small press publications were a little overshadowed. That, and I found myself buying (and/or wanting to buy) heaps of cool publications from overseas that weren’t available here, and it was a constant toss-up of whether I’d pay hefty international shipping stocks just for a $20 book. With all of that, I suppose the prevailing feeling was wishing there was a space for all of the cool publications I was seeing around and wishing they were more easily available in Australia. So I thought, why don’t I just create that space myself? It did kind of happen on a whim, and one day, I just made my mind up that that was where I could direct my time and energy to get through the lockdowns.
What were the books and zines you self-published? Are you considering publishing more things in the future?
The first book I published was called ‘Creak’ and was a collection of ghost stories/experiences gathered from friends (and including my own), followed by an exploration into why those experiences might come to be. I wasn’t trying to prove whether or not ghosts exist; rather, it was just an exploration. I’m fascinated by the esoteric and the not-knowing it can entail, and this was sort of an ode to that side of me. That book actually led to me meeting a medium and paranormal investigator later on, which is another (long-ish) story for another time. I’m still really proud of it, and I hope to republish it in a chic-er design sometime soon with some more stories. Following that, I made an A4 zine that housed a bunch of ads and articles from old magazines. I have the sequencing of the images was intentional yet loose, but this zine especially is kind of an extension of the interest I have in culture and the human psyche as well. Aside from potentially republishing these, as far as projects for the future go, my focus is now shifting to a music project I hope to release this year, but we’ll see…
The Fiend hoodie via @thefiendbookshop
What was the process in taking Fiend from how it was at it’s origin to the place it is now?
It has all happened very organically. There’s never been any formal business structure or anything like that that I’ve followed, so the process was very much one that flowed from one opportunity to another and grew steadily through that as more people found out about Fiend – it was very much the case of opportunity leading to opportunity. Working with others, like Montez Press, Greta Brown, Jacquie Meng, STUDIO MIMI, and stores like Error404 and RTTS.land has been one of the most fun parts of doing Fiend as well as something that has inevitably contributed to its growth, and I think that in working with others and having fun and doing what you want, people are attracted to that so it’s a win/win. Instagram has been pretty essential in growing Fiend too – it was an Instagram before a website, and it’s really hard to imagine how Fiend could have grown the way it has if social media wasn’t around.
How would you describe your curation in Fiend, especially the curation of both the aesthetic and organisation? Are there any rules you seem to follow when sourcing in your mind?
I’d describe the curation as playful, inquisitive, and flirty. There tends to be a focus on culture, but that’s quite incidental rather than intentional. There are no steadfast rules as such; really, I just try to make sure the books are being sourced from independent publishers, which is super broad as it is. Ultimately, I guess I try to keep it topical and relevant but balance it with a playfulness and fun touch, though this can ebb and flow with what books are available.
With a business rooted in selling books, I’d assume this comes with consuming a lot of literature yourself- do you have a favourite literary work (and why)?
You’re totally right, I love my reading and wouldn’t be who I am today without it. There’s a particular shelf on my bookshelf that is the *special shelf* where I keep all my favourite books. If I had to pick one particular favourite it’s probably The Devil in the Flesh (1923) by Raymond Radiguet. The writing is so beautiful and tender, and it offhandedly entwines a great deal of wisdom within it, especially considering that Raymond Radiguet wrote it when he was 16. When I read the book, it was just the right book at the right time for me. I think it was so impactful. I feel like he’s also been quite mystified as an author – he was sort of Jean Cocteau’s protégé and was rolling around with Picasso and Modigliani in Paris in the 20s, and the book caused quite a stir when it was published but also elevated Radiguet’s reputation to this kind of boy-genius status. Sadly, though, he died when he was 19 from typhoid after eating a bad oyster on holiday, and a volume of poetry and a draft of Count D’Orgel’s Ball (the book I mentioned earlier) was published posthumously. Also on the shelf are a bunch of women-in-music memoirs – Debbie Harry’s Face It is there, Edgewise: Cookie Mueller, and Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl is there now, too, after I finished it this week. I’m always very inspired by these kinds of memoirs. I also finished Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda recently, and it’s made it to the special shelf. It’s a series of linked short stories of women living in Mexico, and as the title might suggest, the word ‘bitch’ is used through the stories in both empowering and derogatory ways. A bitch being a female dog, the use of the word throughout the stories kind of alludes to the fact that the women exist in a dog-eat-dog world, and this context permeates their characters in that the women are just as capable of committing violence as they are living in it. With that duality, the stories are equally empowering, scathing, devastating and comedic, and I ate it up.
If you could, what would you tell your younger self when it comes to Fiend?
Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know that I’d tell my younger self anything particular in relation to Fiend. I always think I’d tell my younger self just to back yourself and give yourself a go, but Fiend is kind of one of the few times I just went for it. So I suppose I’d just continue to encourage my younger self in that way, maybe remind myself I don’t need to rush into it, and also remind myself to keep paying my invoices on time, haha.
When starting Fiend, were there people you leaned on for encouragement in fulfilling your passion, or did you know right from the start that you would do this?
At the time of thinking about starting Fiend, I had aired the idea to my six housemates at the time, who were all encouraging, but really, outside of that, it was quite an independently decided thing and something that I just felt my way through. It was sort of decided on a whim in lockdown, and once I’d made up my mind, I just spent a week or so figuring out how to make it happen.
What dreams do you hold for Fiend in the future?
I want a shop! I dream of having a beautiful custom physical shop for Fiend, but alas, without any investors or anything of the sort, I’m going to have to sell a lot more books before that is a feasible option. But it’s a dream nevertheless. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I think having a space to physically browse is especially important for the kinds of publications Fiend sells and something that online spaces just can’t replicate. You want to hold the book, flip through, let things come off the page at you and let others draw you in. Aside from having a physical space, there are lots of exciting plans in the works for this year at Fiend, but you’ll just have to stay tuned for those ;)
As a small business owner, do you have any favourite memories in your shop with your community?
Honestly the community that’s come from Fiend is the favourite memory in itself. Fiend has brought me so much – so many new books, so many new friends, many of them some of my best now, and I even met my partner at Semi Permanent in Sydney when he was on the stall next to mine. It really has expanded my world in a wonderful way, so that expansion of community in itself has gotta come out on top as the favourite memory. Community is so important, and it’s something we all need – a sense of community is an instant life upgrade. Smiling at people on the street, complimenting your neighbour on her roses, supporting local businesses, and sharing interests with your friends…it all contributes to a sense of belonging and connection.
Do you find there are many challenges when it comes to running a small business? What tips and tricks have you learned that are useful to overcome them?
Time is probably the biggest challenge of them all. As so many of us do, I work and study as well, and in one sense, I’m lucky because the structure of Fiend means it can ebb and flow with the time I have to put into it, but doing the all-important yet bland administrative jobs involved in running a small business is often the last thing you feel like doing after a day of work. I’ve found that consciously putting aside time to get those jobs done rather than trying to squeeze them in at random moments helps a heap. And also writing lists! I love lists, and I love my weekly diary, lol. Being able to externalise everything that needs to be done rather than keeping it all in my head helps me conceive of it all and works a treat for me.
Your store’s curation is insanely cool and interesting. How do you discover new books? Are there any you're sourcing to stock in the future?
Thank you! I’m in a nice rhythm with sourcing books now in that I know the distributors that are likely to have books that align with Fiend’s vibe, and I am familiar with publishers that do the same. That being said, though, there are quite a few streams of discovering new books – distributor websites, mailouts, Instagram, word of mouth, people approaching publishers, and people approaching Fiend themselves. I have several boxes of books on their way in the mail to me as we speak, and I’m so excited for them to arrive. I love receiving new books. There are some new ones exploring body image and some writing about the erotic, for example, as well as restocks of some favourites like Toby Mott’s Showboat and an archive of David Rappeneau’s work.
Via @fiendbookshop
I've been stalking your website. I've noticed that you source many interesting and rare books. Do you have any favourite finds?
I definitely do! My personal favourites of those I’ve stocked at Fiend are probably Nur Die Sehnsucht Bleibt (Only the Longing Remains) and Angry Women (Re/Search #13). I have copies of them both for myself at home. Only the Longing Remains is the one and only book from a German photographer called Sibylle Mallmann from 1981. She captures young women in the early 1980s in their spaces – be it bedrooms, studios, living rooms, venues, etc. – and I feel it captures the essence and identity of the women in a really beautiful way. Angry Women is a 1991 series of exclusive long-form interviews with an iconic feminist lineup - bell hooks, Kathy Acker, Annie Sprinkle and more. Women and AFAB people have a lot to be angry about, the expression of which is healthy, and reading this really motivates you to harness that. I also have a sort of twin version of this book coming in the mail right now, called Angry Women in Rock from 1996. The premise is the same, but the interviews are with artists like Kathleen Hanna, Joan Jett, Chrissie Hynde and more. It’s a personal copy that’s coming in the mail, but hopefully, I can get my hands on it for Fiend soon, too. From my personal collection, alongside these publications, I think one of my favourites is a first-edition copy of Chris Verene’s eponymous book (the photos are so tender) and a rare first-edition English translation from 1952 of Count D’Orgel’s Ball by Raymond Radiguet, one of my favourite authors. I found it in such a serendipitous way in an old secondhand bookstore, and it was so cheap. I’d been thinking about the book all week, then happened to see it on a shelf tucked up high behind the counter right as I was telling the shop assistant about it. I was like, ‘Wait, omg, that’s it!’ It felt like a very special, magic find.
Questions by Poppy Crompton, Words by Odessa Mykytowycz