Muse Magazine is a Sydney-based creative magazine publishing creatives aged 18-25. We’re entirely volunteer-run, with a team of 10 people in our demographic age-range – we’re a semi-anonymous collective by the people for the people. Our mission then, is to inspire and be inspired, be your Muses, and have you as our Muses in turn.

We held our first meeting on the 10th of September 2024, though I think it’s fair to say that we all were motivated to explore a shared creative pursuit before that. Through some impromptu trivia night conversations, university society meet-ups, and some more intentional scouting and interviewing, the Muse team as it stands today was formed.

Muse Magazine was born out of a want (or a need, depending on who you ask) for a creative outlet for young people not associated with an institution, whether that be a university, society, or corporation. We wanted something unhindered by the constraints of having to be a student or member, something that represented the whole young creative community, rather than a specific sect of it. We wanted something not beholden to a governing body, something that could just showcase creative excellence. When we couldn’t find something to match that want, we decided to make something to meet it. And the response we’ve received so far tells us we weren’t the only ones looking.

Why Muses then? We’ve already touched on the importance of inspiration to this collective, how we are inspired by the creatives that make up our community and act as our muses, and our hope to inspire them in turn, but it’s truthfully a triple entendre. We also want to catch all the little pieces of creativity we don’t necessarily think of as particularly insightful or meaningful. We want your notes app poetry, your sticky note sketches – we want your musings (wink wink). Having said that, we also want your huge bodies of work, your edited and re-edited manuscripts, anything you give us will receive close consideration and care. The Muses are also ancient Greek goddesses of the arts, literature and sciences. In some interpretations there are four, nine, or three muses, but we take them on as our namesake because we want to platform all creative work, no matter the form it takes. You’ll notice a nod to this meaning in our logo, with a ‘μ’ (mi) replacing the ‘u’ in Muse.

At the end of the day, this project isn’t about us. We’re semi-anonymous for that very reason. What we want you to focus on is the amazing community of creatives that share their work in each issue of this magazine. We want to foreground you and everything you create. Without people submitting, there would be no magazine, so thank you for your time, care and consideration. We look forward to seeing what you create!