Gritlicker is a Columbus-based creative zine curated by co-founders HJ Stasiuk and Daisy Muller.
According to Stasiuk, the zine started as an idea in December of 2025 because they wanted to have a project to connect with the community in a more tangible way each month.
“I had the New Year’s goal of like I want to make a monthly project,” Stasiuk explained. “Daisy kind of had an idea of doing like community based. Then it just kind of worked out where we like merged them together. It was a very quick start to like we had the thought in early December and then our first issue was out January.”
Stasiuk said the intention with each issue is to give local creatives a platform to release their art through whether that is just the physical zine or an event.
“A lot of the focus for us with Gritlicker has been outlets for other artist and creatives to have a place to get their art out even if it’s just a casual zine,” Stasiuk said. “Another big focus of Gritlicker has been the physical side of it. We do very minimal online. We have an Instagram and we got our email but that’s pretty much it.”
Muller explained the process of coming up with the name Gritlicker and the road map for how it was released was very fun.
“Basically, we kind of went back and forth on finding words that appealed to us sonically and texturally. We kind of it wanted it to be something like dirty or grimy,” Muller explained. “We wanted it to be like also kind of silly but something that you wouldn’t feel ridiculous saying out loud. It’s definitely a little silly but like the double ‘I’ sound in it’s really fun to say. And I think it’s easy to get both sides of what we were looking for in it.”
Both Stasiuk and Muller are creatives outside of their work on Gritlicker. Stasiuk said they enjoy the mediums of poetry and physical art.
They are currently working on projects that preserve animal bones and are working on a chapbook with a similar naturalist theme.
“For me it’s all about decency of life and respect for that,” Stasiuk explained. “I just find that it’s one way I feel very connected. I’m actually working on my next chapbook that is all roadkill themed.”
Muller’s work is more music and narrative focused. She explained considers herself more of a musician than a writer because it feels natural.
“I consider myself a musician first even though I have been writing longer. I think music is just like that comes very naturally to me and it’s like what I’ve spent more time in my life doing,” Muller said. “I graduated from Miami U in 2022 with a Music comp degree. Alongside that I also got a minor in creative writing with an emphasis on poetry because creative writing has always been one of my huge passions too.”
According to Muller, she has been getting more involved in the poetry scene and hardcore music scene of Columbus. She also is in the process of making an album with her sister.
Gritlicker announced a recent post, an event called “Baker’s Dozen” will be on December 12, 2026 at The Pothole from 6-10p.m. The event will host a variety of musicians, venders, poets and other creatives as a celebration of the 13 total issues.
For more information on Gritlicker follow the zine on Instagram and if you are interested in submitting art, poetry, essays and photographs the next issues you can email them at gritlickerzine@gmail.com.
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