THE ALTERNATIVE LITERARY JOURNAL BRINGING THE VOICE OF NEW ZEALAND TO THE WORLD

The Phantom Billstickers Cafe Reader is a quarterly literary magazine made and produced in Aotearoa. Started in 2013, this publication is now distributed to all corners of the globe. The Cafe Reader is a showcase of our home grown talent alongside acclaimed international writers and creatives. It features short stories, interviews, poetry, and artwork. Each issue is a heartfelt glimpse into family, community, and the more colourful aspects of the creative life in New Zealand and abroad. We publish work that is challenging to standard ideas in some way, work that is gritty or textured or earthy or vibrant or colourful. Above all, we endeavour to publish writing that subverts conventions and seeks to give readers an honest experience.

Kelly Wilson

Kelly Wilson

Business Development Manager

Kelly was raised on words. Her grandmother was one of the first female news writers in America writing for KXOK Radio in St. Louis, Missouri starting in 1938. Her father was an award winning ‘Ad Man’. Kelly began using her own voice in 1982 as a feature writer for The Red And The Blue, a political commentary broadsheet, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kelly followed in her father’s footsteps and spent 25 years in advertising working in New York City and Philadelphia. She moved to New Zealand with her Kiwi husband, Jim Wilson, in 2011 and is loving every minute working at Phantom Billstickers and promoting the voice of the writers, musicians, and artists in New Zealand.

Jim Wilson

Jim Wilson

Founding Director

Jim Wilson, founder of Phantom Billstickers was born in Dunedin in 1951. Jim founded Phantom Billstickers to help spread the word for bands and creatives back in 1982. As a lifelong reader and writer Jim sought to support those endeavouring to make their mark. He considers supporting the voice of New Zealand artists to be a mission and started the Phantom Billstickers Poems on Posters Project on 2006 and The Cafe Reader in 2013. Now coming up to its 13th issue the Phantom Billstickers Cafe Reader is a showcase for homegrown and international talent. As he says “our core function is to enable kiwis to express themselves”.

Lydia Veltman

Lydia Veltman

Editorial assistant

Always a precisian, Lydia worked as a copy editor while studying at The University of Auckland (English, History). Now onboard at Phantom’s Auckland HQ, she works with David Eggleton and Kelvyn MacDonnell to bring the Phantom Billstickers Cafe Reader to life. When she’s not getting the Reader to print or facilitating Phantom’s Poetry project, she coordinates the company’s sales bookings. Currently expanding her journalistic repertoire, she’s proud to be part of the team taking local content to the wider reading public.

Kelvyn McDonnell

Kelvyn McDonnell

I’m a freelance designer and photographer based in Christchurch, and have a DipFA (Hons) from Canterbury University of Fine Art 1973. Commenced work in Wellington for NZIDC on ‘Designscape’ magazine in the ’70’s, winning a National Geographic Design Award for Illustration in 1976 (see photo). I then buried myself as a journeyman artist / designer in local Christchurch Agency for several decades, bringing home the bacon, until woken from slumber and returned to more artistic endeavours as Christchurch trembled. Have always loved (and collected) music and films. Life strategy maybe based on the kids game of hide-and-seek…I’m good at being invisible.

David Eggleton

David Eggleton

David Eggleton is a poet, writer and editor who lives in Dunedin/Ōtepoti. He has written a number of books, and many poems, stories, and articles, some of which have won awards. His collection of poems, The Conch Trumpet, won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Poetry.