Interview with Olivia Spring
the founder & editor of SICK magazine
While the last Wednesday of the month is usually reserved for Q&A posts, I have an extra special and timely newsletter to share with you today! I’ll be back next week with some answers to a question about juggling multiple ongoing projects.
If you’re listening to an audio recording of today’s newsletter, please note that I’m reading both my questions and Olivia’s answers. I hope you enjoy!
When my chronic health journey began in 2017, I turned to the internet to find support. I discovered a powerful community online where women from around the world shared what they were going through. I practiced listening, validating, checking in with others, and reaching out when I felt lost, too. Though I didn’t know a single one of those people offline, I felt intimately connected to them. In the years since then, I’ve discovered a larger community of people sharing their real lived experience with chronic illness and disability, both one-on-one and in reading publications like SICK magazine. Today I’m thrilled to share an interview with Olivia Spring, the founder and editor of SICK, a magazine by sick and disabled people that explores illness and disability.
SICK is currently accepting submissions for Issue 6 through March 10, 2024. If you’d like to submit, please read the full submission instructions and criteria here.
Olivia Spring is the founder and editor of SICK magazine. She writes about illness, disability, and trauma from her home in Maine, where she lives with her dog, Black Bean.
Kate: When I first discovered SICK magazine, I was overjoyed. When asked to describe SICK in three words, you chose “A celebratory resistance,” which I feel resonates through your arrangement of writing and art pieces and through Kaiya Waerea’s beautiful design. One of the things I most appreciate about SICK is witnessing others share their lived experience on their own terms—not just their grief or challenges, but also the mundane pleasures and joys of life. Could you talk a bit about the ways you see SICK as both celebratory and as resistant?
Olivia: The idea for SICK came to me in a moment of frustration; the root of which was a feeling that my body would never be able to conform to expected standards. (Waking up early; maintaining a job; working for several hours a day; commuting; caring for oneself after enduring all of the above) For so long, I tried to fit into this mold, despite my body trying to tell me otherwise. When I started SICK, I was finally able to see beyond these limits, and focus on resisting instead of conforming. When I told myself that my sick body in bed was an anti-capitalist protest instead of a failure, it helped me cope a little bit more. That’s not to say being sick in bed is enjoyable by any means — but if that’s where I’m going to be, I want to see my body for what it is, rather than what it isn’t. I kind of see SICK as a bunch of other sick folks who are resisting in one way or another, and when I gather them all together into a beautiful little magazine, it feels celebratory — look at what we are doing from our sick beds; at all that we are still capable of.
Kate: Who do you perceive as the audience (or audiences) for SICK? I’d be curious to hear what kinds of responses you’ve heard from non-disabled allies who read the magazine, too.
Olivia: I definitely think our biggest audience is other sick & disabled folks, and it’s important to me that they (we) feel seen and find solidarity in the magazine. It’s also important to me that this magazine pushes disabled folks to broaden their own definition of disabled, be able to see something in a new light, or understand someone’s experience who they might not otherwise cross paths with. However, I always wanted SICK to be something non-disabled people could enjoy and learn from, too. I have received a lot of feedback from folks who have said it made them understand things about the disabled experience that they didn’t before or helped them learn how to be a better ally. A lot of people have a disabled loved one in their life, and will express to me that they are always looking for ways to learn about how to best support that person. We also have a lot of readers who work in healthcare settings, which I think is a really important environment for SICK to be in. I would love to have copies across hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Kate: A challenge I encountered and have witnessed many others experience is the exhausting, expensive pursuit of seeking a medical diagnosis for symptoms. I’d love to hear more about your approach to setting up SICK to feature art and writing from people with and without “official” medical diagnoses.
Olivia: I don’t ask anyone who submits to share their diagnosis with me, but a lot of people chose to, and I think this for a couple of reasons. First, a diagnosis can really shape people’s identity, be something they are passionate about raising awareness for, or be used to find community. A lot of people who submit have lived with their illness/disability for a long time and are more comfortable being upfront about that. Second, I think I have provided a safe space for folks who don’t necessarily talk about their illness/disability to do so. I receive a lot of submissions with notes along the lines of ‘I’ve been reading the magazine for a while but I’ve never written or shared anything related to my illness before.’ It makes me really happy that SICK is able to be that outlet for people — even if we can only publish a small amount of submissions we receive. As an editor, I don’t associate contributors with a certain illness/disability, especially because many people have multiple — and they may just be writing about one. In my mind, I just see everyone as being under the umbrella of ‘sick’ in some way — I wouldn’t be able to tell you what diagnosis or non-diagnosis every contributor has. I know how challenging and complex seeking a diagnosis often is, and I would never want to replicate that in my publishing process. All sick & disabled folks — diagnosed, undiagnosed, self-diagnosed, mis-diagnosed — are welcome.
Kate: I read on your website that you’ve been co-facilitating some zine workshops! I love zines, but my own experience with zines has been limited to buying them at book and art fairs or researching them as archival objects. What do you hope newbies take away from your zine workshops?
Olivia: I want people to enjoy making things for fun and for themselves. Forgetting the restraints of a classroom or lecture hall, what is possible when we simply let ourselves overflow onto the page? So many people are interested in writing and making zines, but don’t know where to start or feel intimidated. What I love about zines is that there is no right or wrong; there are no rules. It’s fun to see people pick up a zine and fall in love with it, or see something put together in a way that they hadn’t thought of. My hope and aim for these workshops is that they are a gateway to making more, a kind of permission and push forward. In my own experience, starting something new in a guided group setting has always made it more possible to continue this in my day-to-day life, so I try to offer folks the resources and encouragement to keep making.
Kate: My final question is what question do you wish more folks asked you about your work as a writer, editor, or teacher? I’d love to hear that question and how you’d answer it if I had asked you.
Olivia: I’m not sure if there’s anything I wish people asked, but something I’m surprised I haven’t been asked more about is the challenges of running SICK. As much as I love doing this, it can be very difficult and there are (brief) times I have struggled to see the point of it all. I think a lot of people don’t realize that it is just me doing most things, with the help of a couple others, and that we are not an organization or a larger, well-funded project. SICK truly feels like my baby, and it’s been both exciting and challenging to watch it grow to something a bit beyond me and create a life of its own.
Thanks so much to Olivia for taking the time and energy to answer my questions!
You can learn more about Olivia and her work at her website, OliviaLeoraSpring.com.
SICK is currently accepting submissions for Issue 6 through March 10, 2024.