Mattoid-Grange Publishing had its origins in Mattoid, a refereed Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies based at Deakin University in Geelong, beginning in the eighties and continuing through the nineties and primarily under the editorship of Dr Brian J. Edwards, writer and academic and an Associate Professor of Literary Studies at Deakin University for over 25 years. The journal operated during the nineties with the co-editorship of Robyn Gardner (University of Melbourne, in Cultural Studies) and with a new international consulting editorial panel and in association with a Canadian journal, as well as with the support of various societies and academic centres. It was sometimes guest edited to facilitate creative and intellectual exchange and produced a series of thematic issues edited or with contributions from writers and scholars from Australia and overseas. It maintained a strong reviewing commitment, presented interviews and essays, and continued to publish short fiction, extracts and poetry as well as artwork.
With time, the journal demonstrated a widening cultural studies focus, with investments in postcolonial studies and literary theory, depending upon its shifting editorial panels but Mattoid always maintained a strong commitment to literature, to reviewing books and producing work from Australian and other writers, established and new. Mattoid had a very long tenure as a literary journal in Australian publishing and was based at Deakin University for two decades, publishing reviews, fiction, essays and poetry, producing strong and innovative thematic issues and generally fostering academic and writerly exchange with Canada, the U.S and Europe. Whilst reviewing and interviewing many well-known writers it also, and significantly, offered valuable opportunities to generations of students and young writers, as well as ‘in house’ experience at all levels of production and provided a strong mentoring culture mostly under the aegis of Brian Edwards and the long running literary society DLS (Deakin Literary Society), which brought together students and staff, and then others across Australia and from elsewhere, published anthologies of work in progress and generally supported a writing and reading culture, based at Deakin University in Geelong and then in Melbourne and Ballarat in Victoria and brought members together through an annual conference and published anthology. Over many years, Mattoid, the journal, published the work, and sometimes the first publishing, of important Australian writers and was responsible for introducing essays and interviews of the highest calibre from elsewhere, in literary theory and criticism, in feminist studies and postcolonial studies and of experimental as well as classical kind. It watched fashions change, from kinds of literary theory and with various political and ideological investments that come and go (and often return again, by other names) and continued to maintain a core base of interest in, firstly, quality of writing and an integrity in appreciation, and with a sense of equality of access without consideration for commercial viability, or ‘fame’ or university careerism. Mattoid-Grange Publishing grew from this matrix and with the waning of adequate funding from university culture and lessening Arts grants in Australia into an independent publishing house with a continued non profit agenda and largely through a commitment still, from its editors and workers, it has continued to publish monographs, in fiction, poetry and criticism, as well as essays and memoirs and to produce and re-issue essays and anthologies, interviews and memoirs from its valuable stable and with commitment to this history. It exists via grants, and the donations and support of private individuals and with the support of those bookshops and outlets and subscriptions which have evolved over many years under the directorship of Dr Brian Edwards and co-editor Robyn Gardner.
Mattoid-Grange 