Sophie's Paper Castle Press

Sophie Ward’s mellifluous prose has been a regular visitor on my RSS feed this past year. She writes like no one else I know – madly, with poetry and enthusiasm immediately apparent. Yes, she is Gemma’s sister, and a model in her own right – but more importantly, she is the driving force behind the Paper Castle Press – an imprint that publishes her own work and others. We talked to her about New York, Henry Miller and Hells Angels.

UHH — What has been keeping you busy lately?
Sophie — The dirty work of publishing my own book! The dreaded V word is also in my vocab a lot: the visa. I've been figuring out how to be an artist, live in NYC, and stay legal. It's like doing the macarena, whilst in limbo, on a tightrope.

UHH — How did you come to be doing what you do?
Sophie — I grew up in Perth, studied English and Philosophy at an ancient university two blocks from my house, was published by Mark Vassallo and Justin Smith in Mark Magazine with Tim Winton, realised I was a writer, became a full time student and full time model straddling opposite Australian coasts, graduated, moved to Sydney to model, loved it, adventured, catapulted myself to Europe, found myself emptier still. Wrote a book about it. Went back to Sydney. Fell into film and costume as well as more modeling and writing.

Then I went to support my sister when Heath Ledger died, and decided I never needed to go back to Australia. NYC was my home. I started Paper Castle Press one blustery spring evening in an apartment opposite Hells Angels HQ, whilst also falling in love with the man of my dreams (not a biker). Now we're working on my book together, and collaborating with other writers and creatives to bring great stories to life. He has a film and art direction background and plays bass and guitar in an amazing band here in NYC.

Rainoff Make Nice Books

Rainoff Books publish and distribute beautiful, bound things. Books, periodicals and the like. Ink on paper, words and pictures. We liked their temporary bookstore that graced Darlinghurst earlier this year very much, and we adore the titles that they make real – the artist monographs of photographers Sam Ash and Samuel Hodge; DADDY magazine; the wonderful Mountainfold Music Journal. We asked Rob and Sinisa a few questions and they responded with song lyrics. Mostly.

UHH — What's been keeping you busy lately?
RAINOFF — At the moment we are just enjoying the transition into honk honk bonk/springtime.

UHH — Tell me a little about your background, and how you came to do what you do with Rainoff.
RAINOFF — Inspired by Magellan, we set out to circumnavigate the globe. In addition, Brunei boasted tame elephants and armament of 62 cannons, more than 5 times the armament of our ships, and Brunei disdained cloves, which were to prove more valuable than gold, upon the return to Spain. And thus, Rainoff was born.