It’s Latin for “from the pen”. Dig? I think it’s a smart name.
Ex Calamus is a publishing collective powered by RMIT Creative Writing students. We were looking for a way to keep ourselves writing and get in practise for actual publication, and so Ex Calamus was born.
The Ex Calamus webzine is a weekly publication. On Thursday night, all Ex Calamus writers are emailed a theme. The deadline is 6am Sunday morning. So Ex Calamus is a high-pressure quick-turn-around project.
In its third week now, the Ex Calamus webzine’s past themes – “Gold”, “So don’t close the blinds”, and “This Space Intentionally Left Blank”. A different writer from the group nominates the theme each week.
I submitted a short story called “Johnno in the Easement”, about a kid who is forced to grow up in the blank space between his parents’ garage and the fence.
The webzine is available for download as a PDF document, and is uploaded on Monday afternoons. Keep your eyes on it!
Sam van Zweden 
08/06/2010 at 7:10 am
Sam, you should put something like this on the Facebook page – I made you an admin. I wasn’t really sure what to write, so my description’s a bit bland.
08/06/2010 at 11:13 am
This sounds like a really good idea.
A similar thing you might be interested in is the twitter meme #FridayFlash where we post a flash fiction piece on our blog each Friday.
08/06/2010 at 4:05 pm
Hey! Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been reading yours, but wasn’t sure if it as an open-to-all type meme, or if it was an organised thing. That sounds great though, I’ll get onto it! 🙂
08/06/2010 at 4:08 pm
Definitely open. It’s a really welcoming community and usually people offer supportive comments when they read your pieces.