#that's why i submit stuff to zines and publishers now and then

[deadman-suggestions]

Thinking of making a little survey asking some questions abt my writing cause I’m like. Trying to think abt how it’s gonna fit into my future. I’ll rb this post w the survey when I make it

[maireadralph]

Entrapdak Zine a Go-Go baby!

~~~~~

Edit July 2nd 2021:

The deadline has now past in every time zone and the Zine is now being processed with final checks being made. The first issue will be ready by the latest Monday 5th July.

~~~~

Oh hello again Everyone, sorry about the delay on getting back to this, don’t worry I’ve not forgotten about this project!!

Without further delay here’s the rough layout for our Entrapdak Zine:

A Digital Zine containing content created by the fans for the fans

A 100% Free Zine

Preferred Language is English

Age Rating:

This Zine will contain content rated Y7 and PG13 rated

There WILL BE NO NSFW or 18+ content

I forgot to share earlier that I compile the Viewtiful Joe Fanzine every year, I will be adapting VJ Zine’s Issue 4 layout which I think is nice and clear with full credit for everyone who makes a Submission for this Zine.

Theme:

Keeping in the spirit of Entrapdak the theme if you wish to use it is:

“Imperfectly Perfect”

This theme is a suggestion so if you’d rather make an Entrapdak piece without this them please feel free to do so.  I want you to have fun!

Allowed Characters:

As long as both Entrapta and Hordak are the main focus and the piece follows Age Rating it will be allowed.

Other allowed characters in the Entrapdak family include Emily, Imp and the Clones (also known as Spacebats)...yes weirdly this also  includes Horde Prime.

Other She-Ra characters will be allowed but Entrapdak is to be the core element.

Okay so Submissions! What’s sort of stuff is allowed?

Sex Swap AU, Species Swap AU, Furry AU, Toony AU, Anime AU, Fankid AU, Coffee Shop AU, married AU, just besties AU just to name the few that pop into my head! Oh yeah Canon lab partners Entrapdak too...hehe nearly forgot about that one XD. Make something Entrapdak related and have fun!!

Fan Art guidelines:

Fan art can include rough sketches, screencap redraws, comics (appox 1-10 length), coloured sketches or full colour pieces. Fan art can be in the digital or traditional medium.  Traditional fan art can either be submitted as a photo or scanned, which ever you prefer.

Preferred sizing for Digital art:

Height 2048px by 1536pm DPI 132 

Portrait layout is preferred

PNG is preferred but I will understand if you only wish to send a workable JPEG

HERE’S A PREPARED PSD FILE IF YOU’D LIKE TO USE IT 

Larger images may end up with a white border on the edges due to the PDF publishing settings.  I’ll try my best to avoid this if I can!

Fan Writing guidelines:

This includes fan fiction, analysis eassys, poetry or whatever else you’d like to write about.  I would ask this content to be between 1k-10k words in length. If you have a favourite font please let me know and I’ll try my best to print your writing in that font.

How to Apply:

Make your content and email it to entrapdakzineisluvd[at]gmail.com by JULY 1ST.  

Please make sure to include your Social Media contacts and which name or username you wish to be identified by.

I will reply to confirm I have received the content and that’s it I take care of the rest!

FAQs:

Why no Application form?

I don’t want anyone to feel like they are applying for a job here, this is supposed to be fun.

Will there be Guest Artists or Guest Writers?

If they apply sure, I’m not advertising who applies to be a part of this ZIne until it’s ready to be published.  I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated just because a certain person has chosen to participate.

Can I submit more than one piece?

If you’d like to certainly!  If you’d like to submit up to three pieces, sure go for it!

Unless you are submitting a 10k piece or writing or a full 10 page comic I will recommend you just submit that and take a break cos THAT’S a lot of work!

May I post a preview of my work to my Followers?

Sure! Bonus points if you link them to this post so that they can take part if they wish

May I post my work online?

I would ask if you could please wait until the issue featuring your work is published. Of course this does not apply if you are chosen to submit and older work - in this case may I ask that you edit or add to said post to mention the work was also used in the Zine?

Is this only for people with a [insert certain social media account here]?

Nope, this is for anyone who wants to take part.  I only ask for a social media contact so that others who like you work for the ZIne may follow you on your preferred social media platform.

I want to submit but I don’t want to share my email address or social media accounts

Sure I’m happy to offer this solution to anyone who wishes to remain anonymous for whatever reason

simply upload work to a file sharing website (Google Drive or Dropbox is preferred) 

Send the link via the Tumblr Anon Ask feature on my Tumblr (this will NOT be published publicly).  

If you feel up to it please state a colour, number and choose to be a Clone or an EKS - this will be your ONLY identifier.  Failure to state any will result in a random combination chosen

Ah I can’t get this done before the deadline - it’s almost ready!!!  I need another day!!!!

Contact me, either through the submitting email over via my Tumblr or Twitter DMs. I might be able to work something out.  Worse comes to worse it’ll just have to go in the next issue...

More Entrapdak Zines??

Sure why not? If the community still wants them I’ll keep compiling them ever three or so months.  I’ve seen what us nerds can do!

Where can I find the finished Zine?

All finished Zines will be hosted on a shared Google Drive link.  Please share it with your other Entrapdak friends when it is ready.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

I’d go so far as to say that the nomination probably saved the site, in fact. For those who need a little background: despite being a small voluntary project the site was nominated for the 2014 Publication of the Year award by Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGBT charity, just nine months after its inception. This was a landmark step in Stonewall’s positive new direction on bi issues. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time Stonewall had specifically nominated a specifically bi publication or organisation for an award. At this point my co-founder, who was taking care of the business side of things, had recently jumped ship and I was seriously considering packing the whole thing in. I won’t lie, I was astonished to read the email.

I’d worked on a publication which won the award under my editorship a few years previously. Unlike Biscuit, however, g3 magazine – at the time one of the two leading print mags for lesbian and bi women in the UK – had an estimated readership of 140,000, had been going for eight years and boasted full-time paid office staff and regular paid freelancers. Biscuit, by contrast, was being dragged along by one weary unpaid editor and a bunch of unpaid writers who understandably, for the most part, couldn’t commit to regularly submitting work.

Little Biscuit’s enormous competition for the award consisted of Buzzfeed, Attitude.co.uk, iNewspaper and Property Week. We didn’t win – that accolade went to iNewspaper – but the nomination was nevertheless, as I say, a huge catalyst to continue with the site. I launched a crowdfunder, which finished way off target. I sold one ad space, for two months. Then nothing. I attempted in vain to recruit a sales manager but nobody wanted to work on commission. Some wonderful writers came and went. There were periods of tumbleweed when I frantically had to fill the site with my own writing, thereby completely defeating the object of providing a platform for a wide range of bi voices.

The Stonewall Award nomination persuaded me to keep going with the site

The departure of the webmaster was another blow. Thankfully by this point I had a co-editor on board – the amazing Libby – so I was persuaded to stick with it. And here we are now. I don’t actually know where the next article is coming from. That’s not a good feeling. But, apart from for Biscuit, I try not to write for free anymore myself, so I understand exactly why that is. As a freelance journo trying to make a living I’ve had to be strict with myself about that. I regularly post on the “Stop Working For Free” Facebook group and often feel a pang of misplaced guilt because I ask my writers to write for free, even though I’m working on the site for free myself, and losing valuable time I could be spending on looking for paid work.

Biscuit hasn’t exactly been a stranger to controversy, in addition to its financial and staffing issues. Its original tagline – “for girls who like girls and boys” – was considered cis-centric by some, leading to accusations that the site had some kind of trans/genderqueer*-phobic agenda. Which was amusing, as at the height of this a) we’d just had two articles about non-binary issues published and b) I was actually engaged to a genderqueer partner, a fact they were clearly unaware of. Now the site is under fire from various pansexual activists who object to the term “bisexual”. To clarify – “girl and boys” was supposed to imply a spectrum and, no, we don’t think “bi” applies only to an attraction to binary folk. The site aims the main part of its content at female-spectrum readers attracted to more than one gender because this group does have specific needs. But there is something here for EVERYONE bisexual. Anyway, it’s a shame all of this gossip was relayed secondhand, and the people in question didn’t think to confront me about it (which at least the pan activists have bothered to do). We damage our community immeasurably with these kinds of Chinese whispers.

Biscuit ed Libby, being amazing

Whilst trying to keep the site afloat, I’ve also been building on the work I started right back when I edited g3, and trying to improve bi visibility in other media outlets. I’ve recently had articles published by Cosmopolitan, SheWired, The F-Word, GayStar News and Women Make Waves and I’m constantly emailing other sites which I’ve not yet written for with bi pitches. Unfortunately, although I am over the moon to be writing for mainstream outlets such as Cosmo about bi issues, it’s been an uphill struggle trying to persuade some editors out there that they have more readers to whom bi-interest stories apply than they might think. It’s an incredibly exhausting and frustrating process.

Libby and I are doing our best with Biscuit. I can’t guarantee that I would be doing anything at all with it if Libby hadn’t arrived on the scene, so once again I would like to mention how fabulous she is. But we desperately need more writers. We need some help with site design and tech issues. We need a hand with the business and sales side of things. We can’t do it without you. And if you know any rich bisexual heiresses who read Biscuit, please do send them our way. 😉

Grant Denkinson’s story

denkinsonpanel

Grant speaks on a panel chaired by Biscuit’s Lottie at a Bi Visibility Day event

So first of all, explain a little about the activism you’re involved/have been involved in. 


“I’ve been involved with bisexual community organising for a bit over 20 years. Some has been within community: writing for and editing our national newsletter, organising events for bisexuals and helping others with their events by running workshop sessions or offering services such as 1st aid. I’ve spoken to the media about bisexuality and organised bi contingents at LGBT Pride events (sometimes just me in a bi T-shirt!). I’ve helped organise and participated in bi activist weekends and trainings. I’ve help train professionals about bisexuality. I’ve also piped up about bisexuality a lot when organising within wider LGBT and gender and sexuality and relationship diversity umbrellas. I’ve been a supportive bi person on-line and in person for other bi folks. I’ve been out and visibly bi for some time. I’ve helped fund bi activists to meet, publish and travel. I’ve funded advertising for bi events. I’ve set up companies and charities for or including bi people. I’ve personally supported other bi activists.”


What made you get involved?

“
In some ways I was looking for a way to be outside the norm and to make a difference and coming out as bi gave me something to push against. I’ve been less down on myself when feeling attacked. I’ve also found the bi community very welcoming and where I can be myself and so wanted to organise with friends and to give others a similar experience. There weren’t too many others already doing everything better than I could.”

How do you feel about the state of bi activism worldwide (esp UK and USA) at the moment?

“There have been great changes for same-sex attracted people legally and socially and these have happened quickly. Bi people have been involved with making that happen and benefit from it. We can also be hidden by gay advances or actively erased. We still have bi people not knowing many or any other local bi people, not seeing other bisexuals in the mainstream or LGT worlds and not knowing or being able to access community things with other bis. We are little represented in books or the media and people don’t know about the books and zines and magazines already available. The internet has made it easy to find like-minded people but also limited privacy and I think is really fragmented and siloed. It is hard to find bisexuals who aren’t women actors, harmful or fucked up men or women in pornography designed for straight men. We have persistent and high quality bi events but they are sparse and small.”

What’s causing you to feel disillusioned?

“I’m fed up of bi things just not happening if I don’t do them. Not everything should be in my style and voice and I shouldn’t be doing it all. I and other activists campaign for bi people to be more OK and don’t take care of ourselves enough while doing so. People are so convinced we don’t exist they don’t bother with a simple search that would find us. We have little resources while having some of the worst outcomes of any group. I don’t want to spend my entire life being the one person who reminds people about bisexuals, including our so-called allies. I’m not impressed with the problem resolution skills in our communities and while we talk about being welcoming I’m not sure we’re very effective at it. I’m fed up with mouthing the very basics and never getting into depth about bi lives and being one who supports but who is not supported. I’m all for lowering barriers but at a certain point if people don’t actively want to do bi community volunteering it won’t happen. Some people are great critics but build little.”

What do you want to say to other activists about this?

“Why are we doing this personally? I’m not sure we know. How long will we hope rather than do? Honestly, are there so few who care? Alternatively should we stop the trying to do bi stuff and either do some self-analysis, be happy to accept being what we are now as a community, chill out and just let stuff happen or give up and go and do something else instead.”

Patrick Richards-Fink’s story

085d4de So first of all, explain a little about the activism you’re involved/have been involved in.

“Mostly internet – I am a Label Warrior, a theorist and educator. Here’s how I described it on my blog: “One of the reasons that I am a bisexual activist rather than a more general queer activist is because I see every day people just like me being told they don’t belong. It doesn’t mean I don’t work on the basic issues that we all struggle against — homophobia, heterosexism, classism, out-of-control oligarchy, racism, misogyny, this list in in no particular order and is by no means comprehensive. But I have found that I can be most effective if I focus, work towards understanding the deep issues that drive the problems that affect people who identify the same way that I have ever since I started to understand who I am. I find that I’m not a community organizer type of activist or a storm the capitol with a petition in one hand and a bullhorn in the other activist — I’m much better at poring over studies and writing long wall-o’-text articles and occasionally presenting what I’ve gleaned to groups of students until my voice is so hoarse that I can barely do more than croak.” So internet, and when I was still in school, a lot of on-campus stuff. Now I’m moving into a new phase where my activism is more subtle – I’m working as a therapist, and so my social justice lens informs my treatment, especially of bi and trans people.”

What made you get involved?

“I can’t not be.”

How do you feel about the state of bi activism worldwide (esp UK and USA) at the moment?

“I feel like we made a couple strides, and every time that happens the attacks renewed. I hionestly think the constant attempts to divide the bisexual community into ‘good pansexuals’ and ‘bad bisexuals’ and ‘holy no-labels’ is the thing that’s most likely to screw us.”

What’s causing you to feel disillusioned?



“It is literally everywhere I turn – colleges redefining bisexuality on their LGBT Center pages, news articles quoting how ‘Bi=2 and pan=all therefore pan=better’, everybloodywhere I turn I see it every day. The word bi is being taken out of the names of organisations now, by the next group of up-and-comers who haven’t bothered to learn their history and understand that if you erase our past, you take away our present. Celebrities come out as No Label, wtf is that. Don’t they make kids read 1984 anymore? It’s gotten to the point now that even seeing the word pansexual in print triggers me. I’m reaching the point now that if someone really wants to be offended when all I am trying to do is welcome them on board, then I don’t have time for it.”

What do you want to say to other activists about this?

“Stay strong, and don’t give them a goddamned inch. I honestly think that the bi organizations – even, truth be told, the one I am with – are enabling this level of bullshit by attempting to be conciliatory, saying things that end up reinforcing the idea that bi and pan are separate communities. We try to be too careful not to offend anyone. Like the thing about Freddie Mercury. Gay people say ‘He was gay.’ Bi people say ‘Um, begging your pardon, good sirs and madams and gentlefolk of other genders, but Freddie was bi.’ And they respond ‘DON’T GIVE HIM A LABEL HE DIDN’T CLAIM WAAHHH WAAHHH!’ And yet… Freddie Mercury never used the label ‘gay’, but it’s OK when they do it. And he WAS bisexual by any measure you want to use. But we back down. And 2.5% of the bisexual population decides pansexual is a better word, and instead of educating them, we add ‘pan’ to our organisation names and descriptions. Now, this is clearly a dissenting view – I will always be part of a united front where my organization is concerned. But everyone knows how I feel, and I think it’s totally valid to be loyal and in dissent at the same time. Not exactly a typically American viewpoint, but everyone says I’d be a lot more at home in Britain than I am here anyway.”

[queenlua]

salty hugo nominee 2020 reviews: short stories

under a cut because long, etc

ranked roughly from “shit that made me the most annoyed” to “shit that made me the least annoyed”:

A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde

God did this ever not work for me.  It must’ve worked for someone, I guess?  To be nominated?  But, what?

Look, the story was already on thin fucking ice when I was halfway through and I noticed the narrative wasn’t going much of anywhere.  Then the storms started getting names like A Leaving and A Grieving and A Loss That’s Probably Your Fault and I rolled my eyes so far back into my skull that I had to wait a while for them to re-correct themselves so I could finish reading the damn thing.  AN OVERWROUGHT AND NOT-EVEN-THAT-EVOCATIVE METAPHOR IS NOT A STORY, I want to nail on the office door of A Certain Subset Of Acquisitions Editors.

Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen

Sigh.

Look, I know why everyone wants metafiction to be good.  I’m a sucker for the meta and the contrary and the self-referential and the circuitous.  In college I convinced some poor sucker of a professor to let me submit some horrifying 80-page metafictional thing about Andrew Johnson being a piece of shit, told via (among other things) histograms, MSN Messenger group chats, excerpts from a 2100 reactionary Civil War novel that does not exist, strangely erotically-charged letters between Johnson and various southern governors, excerpts from an anthropology textbook published in 2400 that also does not exist, and so on and so forth.  That shit was delightful to write, so I get it, I do.

But I also don’t ask anyone to read my 80-page metafictional thing (except that poor professor, bless their soul), because when I reread it later, it wasn’t a story.  Parts of it were an excuse to show off my own cleverness.  Parts of it were almost a story—but I either couldn’t be assed to fill the full thing out, or I didn’t quite know how to full the thing out, or I just didn’t have the ballsiness to do so.  Alas.

So, okay.  In waltzes this particular story, a metafictional thingy told via excerpts from various books and websites.

And while this one didn’t enrage me with its mediocrity the way, say, STET did last year (an angry Facebook post that was only barely pretending to be a story), it also just isn’t much of a story.  Weird spooky cannibal shit happens.  Feminists be fightin’ with each other about intersectionality.  Sure.  But I feel like that’s just Tuesday afternoon on my Tumblr feed, not a proper story.

(I would be delighted to read a metafiction-y story that does manage to work for me, by the way.  Hit me up with your best quirky metafiction-y shit.  But this one wasn’t it.)

And Now His Lordship is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas

It’s like, fine.  The prose is good.  The right motions are made, mechanics-wise.  There’s just not that much to the story.

This is actually a problem with most of the stuff I’m reading in SF/F zines these days.  The prose is good, the prose is always reasonably good, and sometimes it’s so good I’d chop off my left pinky to be able to write some of the phrases they do.  But the story part, too often, ends up being a nothingburger with nothingsauce.  It’s obvious from the start that the colonial government is going to be horrid; it’s obvious from the start that Apa’s going to use some trick to get her vengeance; the only question is how.  And the how wasn’t especially evocative or thrilling, to me.

Blood is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon

Y’know, this one is weird.  You get a lot of points for being weird.  It’s not quite Philip K. Dick levels of weird, and it could’ve benefitted from that level of weird.  Like, if Sully’s gonna give birth to a bunch of previously-dead folks, I’d expect them to do some kinda weird shit, rather than just some amicable homesteading and then some Sully-planned murder, right?

What’s here is reasonably fun but I ache thinking about how much weirder and cooler it could’ve been.

Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix. E Harrow

This one was actually pretty solid adventure fantasy.  Actually, it sort of gets me in a mindset of wondering—do I ask too much of SF/F short fiction?  Like, I look at the Hugo nominees each year, and I’m always hoping to have my mind blown, my world rocked, and so on.  But I dunno, the English-speaking SF/F world is only so big, my mind can only be blown so many times, and maybe something can just be a good romp & that’s perfectly deserving of an award on its own.

It does some stuff with gender, sure, and that bit’s pretty fun, but mostly it’s a cool story.  Recommended if you’re into warrior chicks and/or healer chicks and/or those dating each other.

(BCS, as a venue, seems to select for a lot of this sort of thing.  It’s not always revolutionary but it’s also always a story and I appreciate the shit out of that.)

As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang

So we have a blatant ethics-of-nuclear-war metaphor going on.  Lil’ trite and/or unsexy now that the Cold War’s over, but, well, the horrible threat of nuclear war never really went away, right?  We just decided to ignore it in favor of other looming apocalypses.  So sure, let’s ride.

I liked Tej in this story; I liked Otto Han; I liked how full a sense of their characters was evoked in such a small space.  Something about Nyma didn’t quite land for me, though, and I can’t put a finger on why.  I get why she’s relatively non-agenic, I understand the concerns and fears that drive her, but I just wanted something... more?

I dunno.  Maybe I’m nitpicking.  It was alright; I wanted more than alright.

Also, an ending like this is like when pop songs do that radio-edit lazy-fade-into-silence ending.  C’mon, commit!  The only time you get to do an ~ambiguous~ ending like this is when you’re writing “The Lady or the Tiger” and you want some middle school English class and/or some book club to argue ferociously over it.  But endings are what elevate things from thought experiments to real stories; it’s the moment you gotta say, yeah, this is a thing about the world that I know and believe to be true.

[magsjell]

50 zines/publications

1.     How To Stay Afloat by Tara Booth

a.      https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/53664

b.     Paperback, 28 x 21 cm, sewn bound

c.      illustrations about how people deal with anxiety, depression, heartbreak, and insecurity

d.     made to relate to a millennial audience

2.     Paper Tigers!!! Smash Media Myths!!! By Paper Tiger Television

a.      https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/50020

b.     Paper pamphlets were originally printed, now pdf is available to download for free

c.      Talks about many social justice issues all within one pamphlet

3.     Lessonomics by Bread and Puppet Theater

a.      https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/50012

b.     Part of the same pamphlet series as Paper Tigers!!!

c.      Really cool, messy illustrations

4.     The Femmenstruation Rites Rag

a.      https://archive.org/details/TheFemmenstruationRitesRag/mode/2up

b.     All about menstruation!! Lots of information and cute illustrations

5.     Herbal Abortion: The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge by Uni M. Tiamat

a.      https://archive.org/details/HerbalAbortionTheFruitOfTheTreeOfKnowledge/page/n33/mode/2up

b.     Information about abortive herbs in North America along with how they work and additional resources related to herbal abortion

6.     The Bitch

a.      https://archive.org/details/TheBitch/page/n1/mode/2up

b.     Feminist zine discussing religion, revolution, and self-defense!

c.      Was made in Lawrence, not to be confused with the quarterly magazine published by Bitch Media in Portland

7.     So You Want To Make A Stencil

a.      https://archive.org/details/SoYouWantToMakeAStencil/page/n3/mode/2up

b.     Stencil art and how to make a stencil and use it when making street art (and how to run from the cops if you get caught)

8.     Girls Are Not Chicks by Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak

a.      https://archive.org/details/GirlsAreNotChicks/mode/2up

b.     Coloring book with illustrations complimented by feminist text

9.     Fertility Awareness for Non-Invasive Birth Control

a.      https://archive.org/details/FertilityAwarenessForNon-invasiveBirthControl/page/n1/mode/2up

b.     Discusses fertility and contraceptives, photocopies of text with handwritten notes in the margins for the reader, really dope illustrations

10.  Punks Before Profits #10

a.      https://archive.org/details/PunksBeforeProfits10/page/n13/mode/2up

b.     Talks about what punk is beyond just music, how profit shouldn’t be the goal, personal testimonies about experiences in the punk scene

11.  Zulu-An Indigenous Anti-Capitalist Analysis by Zig-Zag

a.      https://archive.org/details/Zulu-anIndigenousAnti-capitalistAnalysis/page/n1/mode/2up

b.     Short graphic novel format, about joining together to save the earth and fight against capitalism

12.  Dear Motorist…

a.      https://archive.org/details/DearMotorist/mode/2up

b.     The writings are by Kudna Majestic and the zine was produced by The Institute of Social Disengineering in Oxford

c.      This zine’s all about why cars are bad, but not in a “technology is bad Thomas Edison was a witch” sense, rather in a “eat the rich” sense

13.  Outpunk #3

a.      https://archive.org/details/Outpunk3/page/n1/mode/2up

b.     About queer punk revolution

c.      “this is what if anything, I am saying to straight people who are interested in queer punk”

14.  Away with all Cars by Mr. Social Control

a.      https://archive.org/details/AwayWithAllCars/page/n7/mode/2up

b.     Similar in topic to “Dear Motorist…” but focuses more on the environmental impact of cars

  15.  Psycho Motor Disorder

a.      https://archive.org/details/PsychoMotorDisorder/page/n11/mode/2up

b.     Thought this was gonna be another anti-car zine. Just stuff about punk rock :)

16.  A Practical Guide to Prisoner Support

a.      https://archive.org/details/APracticalGuideToPrisonerSupport/page/n3/mode/2up

b.     A guide on what to know when writing to prisoners

17.  First Moon: Celebrating the Onset of Menstruation

a.      Written by Anke Mai and illustrated by Lorye Keats Hopper

b.     https://archive.org/details/FirstMoonCelebratingTheOnsetOfMenstruation/page/n11/mode/2up

c.      About the event of a person’s first period—written for both mothers and daughters

18.  Guinea Pig Zero #8

a.      https://archive.org/details/GuineaPigZero8/page/n7/mode/2up

b.     Written for people who have been human medical or pharmaceutical research subjects

19.  Rad Dad #20 by Microcosm

a.      https://archive.org/details/RadDad20/page/n1/mode/2up

b.     Zine about fatherhood

20.  Cuntry Living

a.      https://issuu.com/cuntryliving/docs/cl_mt19_pdf

b.     Collaged feminist zine

21.  Loser

a.      https://issuu.com/loserzine/docs/loser_10_final2

b.     “by young people for people”

c.      Features photography and poems

22.  Versus Skatezine & Plus by Jeremy Durand

a.      https://issuu.com/versus/docs/versus133_issuu

b.     zine about skateboarding

23.  Subjectively Objective Mini Monograph series by Noah Waldeck

a.      https://subjectivelyobjective.com/product-category/mini-monographs/

b.     Landscape photography

24.  Conveyor Magazine

a.      https://conveyor.studio/shop/timetravel

b.     spiral bound

c.      linked issue is about time travel

25.  Create Zine

a.      https://www.create-zine.com/the-zine

b.     Founded by Jules Beazley and Alicja McCarthy

c.      Artists submit their work to be featured in this zine, which is then printed and sent to creative directors, publishers, designers, and art buyers/producers

26.  Cool Brother

a.      https://www.coolbrother.co.uk/print

b.     perfect bound

c.      made by different young creatives, bands, illustrators  

27.  Pink Mince

a.      http://www.pinkmince.com/2019/11/pink-mince-16.html

b.     gay zine!

28.  Migrant

a.      https://migrantjournal.com/

b.     Six issue publication about how people, plants, goods, and information have circulated around the world and the effects of this circulation

29.  Voortuin

a.      https://www.behance.net/gallery/75065275/Voortuin-1-Self-published-independent-magazine

b.     https://voortu.in/

c.      Self-published art magazine

30.  Floating Head

a.      https://www.floating-head.com/

b.     Sci-fi art

31.  Friend by Higu Rose

a.      http://higu.cool/

b.     http://www.swamp-monster.net/

32.  I Dream of Ching by Jacob Canyon

a.      https://www.jacobcanyon.com/store-1/idream

b.     An art book of post-modern poetry and experimental design inspired by the I Ching. For those interested in typography, the Book of Changes, or poetry for the page.

33.  Spooks by Kels Choo

a.      https://kelschoo.com/comics/#/spooks/

b.     Cute illustrated Halloween comic

34.  Kau Kau Time  by Kels Choo

a.      https://kelschoo.com/comics#/kau-kau-time/

b.     Food illustrations

35.  Fake A$$ Rappers

a.      http://kpolly.com/fake-a-rappers

b.     Illustrations of rappers that don’t actually exist

36.  Whalefall by Alicia Chen

a.      https://www.alicia-chen.com/bookszines

b.     Accordion bound, hardcover

c.      About whale decomposition

37.  Bad Jacket

a.      https://issuu.com/badjacket/docs/bad_jacket_12_proto

b.     art, photography, and writing

c.      Bad Jacket is a creative collective dedicated to the publication and promotion of artists and writers in St. Louis and beyond

38.  Yes Plz Weekly

a.      https://www.yesplz.coffee/weekly/issue-060/

b.     Subscribe and you’ll get coffee beans + a print zine delivered to your door. Very tempting in these times of quarantine

39.  Dizzy Magazine

a.      https://dizzymagazine.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-dizzy-magazine-issue-5

b.     “accessible archive” of art

40.  Fem Zine

a.      https://www.femzinelondon.com/fem-iii-1

b.     Founded/produced by Mia Maxwell, edited by Georgia Mitchell and Krystle Amoo

c.      “aim to support unpublished and under represented talent and to create an inclusive space to diversify media”

d.     First two issues are print, and the third (linked above) is available online

41.  Sabat Magazine

a.      http://www.sabatmagazine.com/shop/maiden

b.     Magazine about witchcraft

42.  Pipette

a.      https://pipettemagazine.com/

b.     Magazine about natural wines

43.  The Earth Issue

a.      https://issuu.com/theearthissue/docs/issue_003_digital/8

b.     https://www.theearthissue.com/

c.      About the intersection of art and environmentalism

44.  Considered Magazine

a.      https://www.consideredmag.co/shop/considered-magazine-volume-2

b.     sustainable and mindful lifestyle and travel articles

45.  Loved Clothes Last

a.      Fashion Revolution fanzine

b.     https://www.fashionrevolution.org/resources/fanzine2/

c.      explores the issue of waste and mass-consumption in the fashion industry

46.  More or Less

a.      https://www.antennebooks.com/product/more-or-less-issue-03/

b.     https://www.moreorlessmag.com/

c.      About sustainable fashion

47.  No Time For Love by Chloë Sevigny

a.      http://www.innenzines.com/index.php?/zines/chloe-sevigny/

b.     13 x 19 cm

c.      Photography zine

48.  Stop Asking Me About Amy I Only Spent One Day with Her by Valerie Phillips

a.      http://www.pogobooks.de/content/phillips.html

b.     Photos taken of Amy Winehouse by Valerie Phillips

c.      People wanted Phillips to talk about her time with Winehouse, but Phillips didn’t actually know her at all, she had just photographed her. She published this zine of the photographs in response

49.  Mushrooms and Friends by Phyllis Ma

a.      https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/56037

b.     Colorful photographs of mushrooms

c.      28 x 22 cm, staple bound

50.  Sleepless by Melek Zertal

a.      https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/56020

b.     Small illustrated story featuring X-Files’ Dana Scully

c.      25 x 17.5 cm, staple bound

d.     Riso print

[smashingalaxies]

some people need to just mind their own fUCKING BUSINESS IF I WANT HELP I’LL FUCKING ASK FOR IT THANKS STOP SHOVING YOUR NOSE WHERE IT DOESN’T BELONG AND TRYING TO WEED YOUR WAY INTO MY BUSINESS I CAN HANDLE ALL ISSUES WITH MY PROJECTS BY MYSELF

IF I NEED HELP WITH SOMETHING I’M GOING TO FUCKING ASK FOR HELP I DON’T NEED TO FEEL OBLIGATED TO PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO A KIND THING FOR ME

MY ART PROJECTS ARE LIKE MY CHILDREN OKAY I DON’T WANT OR NEED OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE LIKE I GET IF YOU WANNA POINT OUT TYPOS OR SOMETHING THAT’S FINE “hey your kid has food stuck to his face/hey your kid’s shoe is untied” “oh wow thanks for telling me” BUT DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE GOING TO KEEP A FUCKING LOG OF WHAT’S CONFUSING IN MY STORIES BECAUSE HONESTLY IT’S JUST GOING TO MAKE ME HATE WORKING ON THEM

[bookenders]

WIP Tag Game

Big thank to @ofvisitorsthefairest for the tag! Congrats on the soon-to-be-released chapter 10 of Splitsville! WOO!

1. When starting something new, how much do you know about the story before you start writing?

Compared to people who outline, not a whole lot! I’ll have an idea of a scene, or a feeling/atmosphere, or a character and their arc, and then I start planning a little bit (like, an emotional arc) before I start keysmashing. With short stories I start writing immediately. Longer things like my current WIP, I had to learn how to outline, so... I now know the general direction, most of the character arcs, the theme, the tone, and the narrative style. My most dangerous writing method was when I’d have the first sentence in mind, nothing else, and just write until I stopped.

2. What draws you to your WIP(s)? Why did you choose to write that/those over anything else?

Originally, I saw a call for queer disabled shapeshifter manuscripts right after an app for a fantasy-themed zine got rejected. I decided to combine the two ideas and out came Heart to Heart. But, spoiler alert, there are no shapeshifters in it. 

Once I got started with planning and writing, and once I knew the actual story, I was drawn to it by my intent, if that makes sense. I’m typically a very angsty writer, and I wanted to challenge myself to give my lonely short story characters the endings they deserved. And out popped Gemma. And Mel. And their town. And I felt that these characters were perfect for a well-deserved happy ending.

3. Favourite writing spot? Why?

I’m not particular when it comes to writing spots. Anywhere where my arms aren’t in a weird position is fine with me. I sit weird in chairs, too, so I have to be able to wiggle around every once in a while. My desk is my happy spot right now. If it’s late at night and I’m sleepy, I write in bed for maximum comfort. 

I used to get a lot of writing done in class, too. Sorry, professors.

4. Share your favourite line of what you’ve written so far!

Hm. It’s tough because there isn’t a whole lot that’s share-able for H2H, since my outlines are written in my own voice and then I go and fill it in later with all that good good prose. So I’ve got a bunch of lines sitting around that I have yet to plug in to their scenes. And a lot of my favorite lines have so much context that they’re not as impactful by themselves.

Here’s a couple rando lines that I like:

“She was left standing there in the doorway, her heart gone all topsy-turvy.”

“It’s the ultimate trick. To disappear.” (In context this is heavy and I love it). 

“She wants to run away. But this is a chance. She sees that. She just doesn’t know what to do with it.” 

“Gemma and the Ladies were in high spirits, their orange soda glasses half empty, condensation drip-sliding down into tiny table puddles.“ I like the rhythm in this one. 

5. If you had to choose one OC to bring to life as an actual person, which one would it be and why?

Oh, man. Of the H2H cast? I’d love to see what Treena would do to academia. Especially PhD candidate Treena. She was intense. I think she’d have the most fun. 

6. Are you looking to get published? If so, do you hope to make it a career?

I am! I’ve been submitting short stories to magazines for about a year now. My college literary magazine published a few of my works, but I’d like to get something in a bigger mag. I’d love to make it my career, but I’m about to go study something that isn’t writing, so it’s gonna become a side-hustle. 

7. What’s something you would read but would never write (or the other way around)? Any reason?

Hard sci-fi, high fantasy, and magical realism. I seriously admire “world from scratch” writers. Like, that’s amazing. I can’t really do that very well, partly because I like my stories to be grounded in this world so I can play with existing power structures, and partly because it’s a lot of work that I don’t wanna do. Conlangs? Endlessly impressive. That stuff’s hard, yo.

Magical realism is amazing and my brain just doesn’t work that way. I’ve tried, but I can’t really grasp the “how different do I make this” or the “what one thing can I change” because I like changing multiple things. Love reading it, though.

8. What’s something you are most proud of about your work so far?

Mostly, I’m proud of myself for taking on a novel-length project. I’m a short story writer, it’s where I’m comfortable, it’s what I know how to do best. Scenes, fine. I can do those. Just a bunch of shorts in a row like a story cycle but with the same characters. But call it a novel and I get nervous. That’s a lot of words. Where do they come from? How do you maintain the pacing for that long? Well. Guess I’ll find out.

9. Badly describe your WIP(s) in one sentence

H2H: Cap’n Crunch Oops! All Magic

AOPC: Sticks and stones may break my bones and words will always hurt me if you keep telling me stories that make me feel marginalized and like I don’t belong because of who I am.

10. Why did you want to be a writer?

I didn’t start wanting to be a writer until, like, late high school. It was my thing for so long it felt like it was a part of me, not a thing that I did for a reason. I was always the kid who wrote stories and was good at essays. So when it came time to pick my major, I felt like there was one thing that I was good at and could do consistently with confidence. And I really don’t like math (stats is okay though).

And I really like telling stories and making things up that make people feel things. It’s like magic.

Bilbo Taggins: @katekyo-bitch-reborn, @therainsoakedwriter, @quilloftheclouds, @henry-writes, @elliswriting, @piratequeenofpixies and anyone else who sees this and feels the urge to do it! Tag me so I can see!

[woolf-pack]

WOOLF PACK IS OPENING SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR NINTH ISSUE (TO BE RELEASED IN AUGUST 2017). ARE YOU A FEMME OR NON-BINARY WRITER/ARTIST IN AUSTRALIA? SEND YOUR COOL SHIT TO WOOLFPACKBRISBANE@GMAIL.COM BY 2nd JULY 2017

TRUE FAQS:

What kind of stuff should we send you?

Essays! Rants! Fiction! Illustrations! Photo Essays! Comics! Recipes! Mixed Media! Collage! Poetry! How-tos! Anything realistically printable in a zine! If you haven’t seen the zine before, you can get at all the old issues in the sidebar and check out what we do.

Can I send you something I’ve already put on my tumblr/blog/own zine/an assignment etc?

You sure can! Basically anything that’s your original work, but make sure any previous publications sign off on it (we do not have lawyers)

How big/long/what size/what format should submissions be in?

When you submit, please give your name as you’d like it published and a title for your piece!

Text stuff: Please send submissions of any kind, preferably under 3000 words. We take .doc files, and we edit using track changes.

Image goodness: We prefer 300dpi - 1748 x 2480px for A5, 2480 x 3508px for A4. We print in full colour, but this is a print-at-home zine meaning that colour quality is mid-fidelity, so please keep this in mind.

.png or .tiff preferred and .jpg is cool too. If you don’t know what any of this means that’s fine too, we’ll try our best to help you figure it out, there’s lots of space to negotiate so don’t let the above deter you!

Is anything off-limits?

Things that are fine:

Language! Nudity! Adult themes! General insurrection! Discussions of Real Shit! Being completely independent means we can publish pretty much whatevs we want.

Things to keep in mind:

If your piece involves the use of slurs, we may asterisk them up. If you’re commenting on the slurs meaningfully and in good faith, that’s probably going to be fine. If you’re using slurs to be totes edgy and rustle jimmies, we’ll probably be bored with it.

We may ask you to put content warnings in text pieces (we’ve generally used them in-text if something super gnarly is coming up), or insert our own. Content warnings are important because they’re the very definition of classification over censorship, and we want the freedom to discuss anything that affects us, like assault or mental illness, and give people the heads up they need when going into a topic that’s tough for them. We will not publish pieces about how content warnings are wimpy and indulgent and are ruining academia, because… they’re not.

I have an idea, but I’m not sure what to do with it!

Shoot us an email, and one of the editors can talk it over with you. But give yourself lots of time!

What happens if you’d like to publish my thing?

Hooray! One of us will be in touch (Talia for visual pieces, Rebecca for anything with words) to edit your piece and make sure we’re both happy with it. We edit/give feedback on/workshop all of our stuff until both we and the artist are happy with it, so get ready to furiously draft. We will definitely be using track changes in Word for text pieces.

We also work with a tight set of deadlines, as we are all doomed students and this is our version of taking a vacation; so be ready to edit like the wind!

Why didn’t I make it into this issue?

Like we said, this is a fly-by-night self-printing operation, so we can only publish so much. Everyone will hear back individually from us either way, so you may get some feedback, notification that I’m holding the piece over for the next issue (with your permission), or a friendly ‘submit next issue!’

Do you pay for content?

We now actually do: we pay $20 per piece. We’re self-funded, but we do charge for the zines- and our artists work hard. A ‘piece’ for the purposes of payment will be anything that would come under a single heading in our contents page, and will probably be negotiated individually; it’ll be paid shortly after we launch.

DEADLINE

WHEN – 2ND JULY 2017

WHERE -  WOOLFPACKBRISBANE@GMAIL.COM

[peripherada]

I lied! I’m posting about the Oops! Zine, myself, instead of waiting to reblog it from one of the submission sites I sent it to. This will be the apex-of-information-post. lol this is a submission because I’m still only logged on with my tablet and that keyboard is the worst so I opened ye olde submissions page to make my life easier.

Help this fancy violin and me make a zine that was created because of my personal angst! If you’ve ever been in a situation where your significant other made you feel like you weren’t good enough, that they thought you were different than how you actually are, or anything similar, this prompt is for you! Sidenote: I’m also up for considering situations in which the roles are flipped.

There are no regulations for the kind of submission you send in, and there are currently no limits to length or size. The zine will most likely be the size of a half-sheet or smaller, but I am all for including fold-outs if that means you get to express yourself without holding anything back. If you have an idea that seems crazy, please reach out! I’d love to figure out how to make it happen with you. In a similar vein, audio and video files will be included via QR codes and whatever supplements you/we can come up with.

Submissions are due Thursday, September 7, 2017 (that’s the day after my birthday! 🐙♍️🎉).

Graphic description: a rectangular flyer with a black background. Half of a (considerably fancy) dark brown violin comes from the leftmost edge and extends the height of the flyer. A violin bow extends from above the top of the picture to the bottom, and is situated to the right of the violin. There is text in varying sizes and of different formats (2 fonts; some are italicized). The text is in white, a lighter yellow, and a darker yellow. There is a dark yellow line separating the bottom third of the picture. Included below the dark yellow line are examples of submissions, some regulatory notes, and the due date.

The call based on the text in the picture is as follows:

Peripherada Publishing is now accepting submissions for a romantic-relationship zine: The “Oops! I’m Not What You Signed Up For!” Zine.

Send to: peripherada@gmail.com. Subject: “oops!zine”.

Please consider including your name, pronouns, + any contextual information about the relationship.

Submissions should be about “buyer’s remorse” in a romantic relationship. Subs based on personal experience are preferred, but absolutely not mandatory.

Special thanks to… my personal experience of mentally throwing my hands up and screaming, “WHY ARE YOU SO WRONG????”, and miscommunication and assumptions that ruin lives.

[the following is below the dark yellow line]

…please donate:

poems, stories, rants, audio files of pure screaming, crappy doodles, any art, artsy collages of passive aggressive social media posts, less-screamy audio files, personal playlists, pictures of them (or you) ugly crying, etc. **Please send well-lit pictures, instead of “sorry for the low quality because I couldn’t do better” pictures… Please send literary stuff in a PDF file (no word limit)… SUBMIT BY September 7, 2017**

[long-arm-stapler]

Episode 4: ABO Comix

[0:14]

Maira: Yeah, this is episode 4 of Long Arm Stapler, which is a podcast about zines! And I am joined by the fine folks from ABO Comix. And they can introduce themselves. Yeah! You want to talk about your project?

Io: Yeah, I’m Io, I do comics, and um, but more importantly, I am a member of the ABO Collective. We publish comics by prisoners, um, hoping to just get them some money, because prison is some bullshit. And if we can show some solidarity with them by giving them some Cup of Noodles or whatever they might need in their commissary, then that is a victory for us. And hopefully getting more prison abolition consciousness in the comic book community, how about you?

Casper: Oh, uh, I’m Casper and I’m also part of the ABO Collective. Io did a pretty good job of explaining kind of what that is. I’m a prison abolitionist, I’m involved with um, Black and Pink in the Bay Area, our local chapter is called Flying Over Walls. And we are uh, a prisoner advocacy group. Yeah, so this project is basically just trying to get some funds into uh, queer prisoners’ commissaries. And to raise awareness for prison abolition.

Io: How long have we been doing this?

Casper: Like 7 or 8 months?

Io: Yeah.

Maira: So, you’ve been doing this for 7 or 8 months, but this weekend you’re having a party.

Io: Yeah! Get hyped.

[all laugh]

Io: We’re having a party! It’s a birthday party, it’s your birthday. Happy birthday, darling. We’re very, very, very… you get it. We’re um, yeah we’re throwing a party at Hella Vegan Eats, um in Oakland on Saturday.

Casper: Saturday, March 24th, from 7 to 11.

Io: Yeah, we, I mean the point of this project was like I said, trying to get some money to queer prisoners, and anyone could have submitted a comic to ABO and we wanted to put it in our anthology in a sort of DIY sort of capacity. Yeah we wanted to, like I said, make some money for queer prisoners on the inside, and donate it to their commissary. But we let everybody who was involved know that comics is um, not a money-making industry, which is why I live in my van. And to donate any money to a prisoner’s commissary, you have to go through a service called J-Pay.

Casper: We’re a collective of some people who like comics, and some people who are abolitionists, and um, we just kind of wanted to bridge those two things. And help queer prisoners express themselves through an artistic medium, and also raise money for uh, their commissary accounts, and their families, and um if they’re getting released soon, have them have a little bit of money to get back on their feet.

Io: Yeah! And the comic is done surprisingly well, I was kind of, I’m the token pessimist about things just because nobody likes my comics, but everyone liked this pretty okay. Dividing royalties between all these artists that we had contribute to this thing was slicing a lot of stuff very thin. We wanted to throw a party before the first royalty period so that we could get everyone like, all the more money in their accounts to pay for a Cup of Noodles or whatever they want in their commissary, or like Casper said, just donate it to their family, which is great because we don’t have to pay the fucking prison fees just to send somebody money, which-

Maira: I didn’t know there were fees. I guess it makes sense though because prisons are awful.

Io: Yeah, they’re bad all around.

Casper: Yeah, there are fees to send um, prisoners money for their commissaries. Basically, every state is different, but in a lot of states, prisoners have a trust fund account that you can put money directly into, or you can also buy them items from a commissary list. Um, and in order to do so, you have to go through several middle men websites, some of which are J-Pay, some of which are operated by the prison, um, and each one tends to charge a certain fee, whether that be a percentage of how much you’re paying or a flat rate, usually like 8 to 10 bucks. Um, so, it costs a lot of money just to send somebody money, unfortunately.

Io: Which is, which is a good way of um, kind of seeing how broken reformist bullshit about getting private prisons out of the market goes, because you know, you’re giving $9 to this weird third party called J-Pay or whatever, versus you’re giving $9 just to send somebody $20, which goes directly to the prison. It’s just going to go in the guard’s pocket, and fuck the guards.

[Casper laughs]

Casper: Right. So needless to say, even though abo, I mean ABO Comics has um-

Io: Abo, ABO, no one in Australia knows how this thing is pronounced.

Casper: Has done relatively well, we’ve broken even on our finances and stuff, unfortunately we don’t have a whole lot of money leftover right now to actually send to our contributors, so we are having this party on March 24th. It will be a queer dance party, um, slash fundraiser and um-

Io: [singsong] There’s going to be a kissing booth.

Casper: A kissing booth. And um, a makeup booth.

Io: A makeup booth, they’re the same booth.

[Casper laughs]

Casper: You have to go to the same booth to kiss somebody and get your makeup done.

[all laugh]

Maira: You’ve got to kiss the makeup.

Casper: There will be a raffle, a lot of raffle prizes.

Io: Yeah. We’re giving away baseball bats and pornography and-

[Casper laughs]

Casper: Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit?

Io: We’re giving away a free month to CrashPad, because Jizz Lee is an angel and gave us a free month to CrashPadpresents dot… org?

Casper: I believe so. Google CrashPad and you will find the website…

[Casper laughs]

Io: Yeah. We’re also giving away-

Casper: From Degenderettes.

Io: Oh yeah, the bat is by our buddy Scout in the Degenderettes, um, we’re giving away a skateboard from-

Casper: We will be raffling off a sixty minute intro to pilates session from Alex Richie, who is an Oakland-based, awesome, queer pilates teacher. And we have a bunch of other cool stuff to raffle off. Free coffee from Perch, gift certificates to The New Parkway.

Io: Um, I don’t know, come to the fucking party and see! I’m not your maid, I’m not here to tell you things.

[Casper laughs]

Io: So, let me tell you some more things about the party.

[Casper and Io laugh]

Io: So, we’re going to have a bunch of bands and I don’t know, I feel like the times when I have felt the most supported, sort of queer community in the weird scorched hellscape that is the Bay Area sometimes, is at things that have a specific purpose that kind of bring everyone together, and being… my friend was just yelling about those “Queers Hate Techies” stickers, which I do like, because yes, but also like, queers are techies. None of this goes together. I want to hang out with queers who want all the prisons to be on fire, and I want them all in the same room, and I want to have a big group hug and see what we can do to just try and provide some solidarity to people who are going through the hell that is American or any sort of prison system.

Casper: Correct, hence the title of this ball being the “Queer Prison-Haters Ball,” so.

Io: Mhm, all prison-haters.

Casper: All prison-haters, whether y’all be queer or not.

Io: Come on down!

Casper: Come hang out with us.

Io: It will be a real hoot. That’s all I’ve got about the event.

Maira: If you want to talk about like, the comics themselves?

Io: Yeah!

Casper: Okay, so now ABO Comix has put out a comic anthology with over twenty LGBT and HIV-positive prisoner contributions.

Maira: Are those from all over?

Casper: They are from all over the United States.

Maira: Oh, cool.

Casper: Yeah, um, like I mentioned before, I am a member of the Bay Area chapter of Black and Pink called Flying Over Walls, um, and Black and Pink puts out a monthly or pretty much monthly newspaper that goes to queer prisoners all over the states. Um, so we took out an ad about 8 months ago, a call for submissions ad, and asked folks if they were interested in making a comic for this anthology to write into our PO box. And we got about, I don’t even know, two hundred letters over the course of the next 4 months or so.

Maira: Woah!

Casper: Yeah, and we uh, narrow-

Io: Only a few of those wound up sending us art, we wanted to publish everyone who sent us a thing as long as they did not make a comic that was especially transphobic or racist in a way that wasn’t contextual to the story at all. And uh, there wasn’t that many, there was a few. We got a lot of people really interested in it, but in the end we only got, what was it, twenty maybe twenty six comics.

Casper: Um, it’s less than that, probably twenty four.

Io: And-

Casper: Yeah, we ended up with a lot of letters, a lot of people that we are still in correspondence with, who we’ve started to consider really good friends. Um, and who are sending us art on the regular. Um, so yeah after about 6 months of corresponding regularly with people and helping people refine their comics, we put out an anthology in December of 2017, and it’s real cool.

Maira: Did that premiere at EBABZ? I remember-

Io: That was, yeah that was the first place that-

Casper: We had the comic on the road.

Io: Yeah. We had an opening party for it at 1234 Go! in Oakland that went really well, I wind up at a lot of zine fests and comic fests and I’m really, I’m more proud of this even though it has nothing that I have created in it, than any of my personal comics. And I’m really excited to like, bring something like this to the um, zine fests like SPX, and CAKE and Portland Zine Symposium and so on.

Maira: Bay Area Queer Zine Fest!

Io: Bay Area Queer Zine Fest!

Maira: Happening eventually.

Io: Um, but also to bring this to like, Slam Diego Comic Con and stuff, it will not sell that many, I assume, I hope I’m wrong, but just bringing a prison abolition element into the comics book community, which… the zine community especially has always leaned left. And the comic book community seems to for the most part, but I’m, I don’t want to have a lot of comics solidarity with some liberal bullshit anymore. I want to lay a lot of things out on the table about how I think all the prisons should be turned into a fine paste and how all the prisoners should be freed and stuff. And I think that reminding people that the prison system is designed to disappear people, peoples’ stories, and bringing those stories into the Captain America-loving like, big comics events, is going to be um, something. I was going to say fun, but it’s not going to be. But I’m going to enjoy it. And that’s my story. What were we talking about, dragons?

Maira: Do y’all have any, are there other queer prisoner anthologies like, out there? Are y’all… I just did a cool motion that is… paving the way, that’s the word I was looking for. Yeah.

Io: That was a very good “paving the way.”

Casper: I definitely, I know there are other um, publications that work with queer prisoners, um I know the Austin Anarchist Black Cross, um publishes I believe a monthly um, sort of zine that’s poetry and art, um and Black and Pink also uh, does that as well. They have a publication called “Hot Pink,” which publishes prisoner erotica. By prisoners. So, I know there are publications doing that, I don’t know of any comic book ones.

Io: I, I haven’t seen any either. I’ve definitely seen, um prisoner comic books out in the world that have gotten out, with the help of friends. None of their names come to mind now unfortunately, but I have never seen a prisoners’ comics anthology. Nor a queer prisoners’ anthology. Um, and that’s exciting and I’m really glad that so many people have been stoked about this. And a couple of people have mentioned that they also, you know, “Oh I would have loved to have thought of that idea.” And I hope that they do that, they’re not ripping us off, this isn’t an original idea. Um-

Casper: Yeah, to my knowledge there is not another anthology. I would love for there to be more.

Io: Yeah, I remember my friend Ben Passmore saying, who has a really, really, really great comic everyone should check out called “Your Black Friend,” that’s getting a lot of well-deserved attention right now. Um, Ben was talking about trying to maybe do something like this someday, and I really hope he does, because I am really proud of what we did, and I know that other people can do it just as well if not better. And get more of these stories out there. The stories that we wound up, we didn’t want to limit these to people who had made comics before, and then went to prison and thought that their comics career was effectively over. And we did have a few people who had stories like that, we had some professional comic book artists, used to be newspapers and things before the state tried to disappear them, but we also wanted to bring the sort of DIY zine element into it, and made sure to let people know like, the only thing you actually need is a desire to tell your story. And well, frankly it’s obvious that some people haven’t made comics before, their stories are really dope and stuff that I’m really glad people are hearing.

Maira: I know this is a stupid question, but how does correspondence work? And how are you able, or are they able, like to put everything together and send it to you, I guess is my question?

Casper: Mainly, we’ve just been going through my PO Box, which I had established for my own sort of pen pals I’ve been in correspondence with over the last couple years. Um, and, like I said earlier, we just took out an ad in the Black and Pink newspaper which I think, I could be completely wrong on this number, but I think it’s about 9 thousand currently incarcerated queer prisoners. Um, just asking for submissions and a lot of people wrote in, um, and basically the process has just been uh, scanning in letters and then sitting down and answering them individually. And I think you can imagine, if you’re getting stacks and stacks of mail every week, and you’ve got 3 people in a collective, that kind of starts to take over your entire life.

Io: Yeah! It’s a nightmare.

[Casper laughs]

Casper: But it’s a beautiful nightmare.

Io: Yeah. This is hell, I’m in hell. Oh god.

Casper: But I love being in hell.

Io: I love dying and being dead.

[Casper laughs]

Casper: I mean yeah, it’s tough because you, you have a stack of forty letters in front of you at any one time, um and it’s overwhelming and it’s scary but then you open up those letters and you see sort of like-

Io: It’s a fucking emotional rollercoaster.

Casper: Yeah, raw, emotional, beautiful letters that are being sent to us, where people open up their hearts and are just so, almost brutally honest. And um, you hear about peoples’ experiences on the inside, and peoples’ experiences prior to coming to prison, and you just kind of end up falling in love with like, every single person who writes to you. It gets like, it’s hard and it’s overwhelming and there are times where I’m like, I just don’t want to anymore, like I’m thinking about giving up on doing this project. And then you open up a new letter and um, it’s somebody telling you about how this project has literally saved their life and taken their mind off of the horrible things that are happening in prison. And given them hope and something to do in prison, um which apparently is a big deal. And it’s just very affirming.

Io: Rewarding.

Casper: Very rewarding.

Io: It’s, yeah, for all the things I’ve tried to do to fulfill my activism quota or whatever, sort of goals that I set for myself, this is the first one with a real like, material return is not the right word that I’m looking for, but I can see the difference that it’s making, and-

Maira: It’s like tangible.

Io: It’s yeah, it’s something I can, something that people are not shy about letting us know matters to them and is a just like, our status as people who are not in jail, it’s like able to provide this vehicle for other people to stay connected to the outside world and that is the kind of like, probably the best form of solidarity I’ve been able to find. Um, so far. Yeah, I’m really glad we decided to do this, and with the medium that I love most, which is comic books, because I’m a fucking nerd-ass idiot who also is not a big fan of the state. So, I needed to smash those interests together.

Maira: How did you both get into abolition work?

Io: Um, Casper’s the big, aboli- the bigger big shot of that, so…

[Casper laughs]

Io: Casper has the number of some Texas prison warden to call, so if anyone wants to crank call.

[indecipherable]

Casper: Oh yeah, the Texas speed dial.

Io: Texas governor on speed dial just to yell at his stupid ass.

Casper: Just to yell at him. I got started in prison abolition work um, probably about 5 or 6 years ago. Um, I just started writing to prisoners because I was a uh, sad and lonely queer slash trans kid in San Diego, and I didn’t like to go outside, was introverted, and scared of the world. Um, so writing with pen pals seemed to be like a good way to socialize or whatever. Um, and most of the people who like to kind of write other letters are, you know, in their 70’s, white, straight women, who like to knit and talk about their cats. And we had nothing in common. So, I came across this website to write prisoners, um and, I did a little search and found the one and only queer person on that site, and I started writing to them. Um, and this was 9 years ago, and we’ve developed a very solid, strong friendship, and through writing to this person, I became aware of all of the injustices with the state and the prison industrial complex. And just how, how much it kind of takes away agency from folks, and so this kind of started my path towards being an abolitionist. Just sort of seeing the injustice that was happening to this one person I was writing with. So, I found this affinity group in San Diego, um and I started doing activism work with them, and when I moved up to Oakland, I teamed up with the Black and Pink chapter up here, and we’ve done a lot of solidarity work with Critical Resistance, and the Anarchist Black Cross, and just other abolitionist groups. So that’s kind of my background on it.

Io: [stuttering] I have nowhere near as um, impressive a pedigree as Casper.

[Casper scoffs]

Casper: We all start somewhere.

Io: Yeah. A lot of my activism has taken the form of a lot of people who were, who are assigned male at birth, white people, uh, compulsive anarchy playtime when Nazis show up or something like that. And that sure is fun for me, but not especially useful in the grand scheme. I’ve written with prisoners off and on, and mostly tried to whenever I have the free time, try and provide some sort of material support for people, usually through some sort of music, event-based, or comics medium. Being in a lot of regrettable bands in my life, and sort of, embezzling isn’t the right word, but close enough, the money that came from those things towards more abolitionist or, if not abolitionist, straight up anti-cop causes has been kind of my biggest project in the last um, I don’t know, 7 to 10 years. And, I’ve finally found like, something that feels like it’s consistent and makes more of a difference than just kind of giving to it when I have the time, um, activism that I’ve gotten up to in the past with ABO.

Maira: We’ve been joined by a dog.

Io: Greetings, dog. Oh, you’re so wet, I don’t want to touch you ever again.

Maira: That old shibe.

Io: What a loaf.

Maira: That’s awesome! That’s, I didn’t know much about the project before this, so it’s really cool to like, get all that background.

Io: Yeah, Casper kind of fills the role of like, person who’s affected the most actual material change amongst us, and I kind of like, handled the like, comics-y bullshit end of things. It’s never… since I’ve kind of, since being a lower-class idiot who’s just like, squatting and lived in vans forever and writes comics about that bullshit, and anarchism blue-blah-blah, that’s just kind of me making money off that lifestyle. And it’s good to not have the weird, neurotic, Catholic guilt of, “Oh, I’m making money off of this cause that I care about,” anymore by putting my efforts into something that actually contributes to causes I truly believe in, rather than it being sort of a playtime affair.

Casper: Also, just to clarify, we don’t make any money off these comics.

Io: Oh, yeah.

Casper: One hundred percent of profits go back to abolitionist organizing or the commissaries of prisoners.

Io: I’ve got an idea, let’s cut that last part out.

[all laugh]

Maira: The whole thing?

[indecipherable]

Io: Just cut the whole thing, let’s start over. Hello!

Maira: Let’s talk about The Joker some more.

Io: So, who’s your favorite Joker?

Maira: Oh.

Io: Mine is the comic book.

[Casper laughs]

Maira: I like the one on the playing cards.

Io: Oh…

Maira: I’ve never read a comic in my entire life. Um-

Io: What’s a comic book?

Maira: I don’t know. This dog doesn’t know. Do y’all have anything else you want to plug or talk about? I’m going to post links for like the event page for the party, and I can link any websites or emails or whatever.

Io: Mention that all the profits from the book go to people, if that wasn’t clarified before, what do you think? I think we kind of mentioned that this is a project just trying to get some money for prisoners.

Casper: Yeah.

Io: We got a lot of support when we were making, when we had the idea, and we’re in too deep to quit. Uh, to of making the comic. We got a lot of support from too many people to list. Um, including some people who helped us buy a thermal binder, so that we could make the first round of books ourselves.

Casper: Yes, thank you to Sun Beaver and Alex Richie at Mr. Beaver’s Paws and Claws, which is a local Bay Area vet tech and animal care company.

Io: Yeah, thanks babies.

Casper: Slash also I work for.

Io: Oh, are we doing plugs already?

Casper: I don’t know, I just wanted to credit them.

Io: No, that’s-

Maira: Yeah, plug whatever.

Io: The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Now out on Blu-Ray.

[all laugh]

Io: But yeah, we got a lot of support for it because all of us are poor and without a lot of people we, we have some of our own money into this. But it wouldn’t have been possible without, you know, a lot of people believing in it. Um, and throwing some money down for it. And that’s great because we don’t have to think as hard about the bottom line, or making our money back or anything like, because all the money we want that to just go directly to the prisoners, and if we can avoid even having to you know, spend money on paper, I’ve shoplifted reams and reams-

Casper: Don’t incriminate yourself.

Io: [high-pitched] I didn’t say where I stole it from! [normal pitch] Statute of limitations! Etcetera, look at my suit. Um, shoplifting is cool and will get you into heaven. Do it, all the time.

Casper: Agreed, just don’t say it on a podcast.

[Casper laughs]

Io: Whatever, I’m not fucking afraid of them. Yeah, all the money goes to the prisoners. And done, we did it, high five.

[Casper and Io high five]

Maira: Cool, um-

[all laugh]

Maira: This was episode 4 of Long Arm Stapler, I’m Maira, if you have any questions, longarmstapler@gmail.com, I’m going to post all the links for the ABO stuff, and we will see you at the Queer Prison-Haters’ Ball on Saturday, March 24th. Which is in 4 days, so get your dancing shoes ready. And with that, no more talking from me.

[outro music 30:30]

Io: Farewell!

Maira: Alright, bye!

[limejuicer1862]

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Michael H. Brownstein

has had his work appear in The Café Review, American Letters and Commentary, Skidrow Penthouse, Xavier Review, Hotel Amerika, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review, Poetrysuperhighway.com and others. In addition, he has nine poetry chapbooks including A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004), Firestorm: A Rendering of Torah (Camel Saloon Press, 2012), The Possibility of Sky and Hell: From My Suicide Book (White Knuckle Press, 2013) and The Katy Trail, Mid-Missouri, 100 Degrees Outside and Other Poems (Kind of Hurricane Press, 2013). He is the editor of First Poems from Viet Nam (2011). His book, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else: A Poet’s Journey To The Borderlands Of Dementia, is published by Cholla Needles Press (2018). He presently resides in Jefferson City, Missouri where he lives with enough animals to open a shelter.

The Interview

1. What inspired you to write poetry?

In elementary school, I began writing silly rhymes for no reason at all—mostly around the holidays, but in high school a Ms. Perkins—my history teacher—encouraged me to write because she liked the way I experimented with the essay form. At one point every sentence in any essay I handed in could not be more than five words. She thought it would be interesting to see if I could write poetry. I did, thought my stuff was OK—it really wasn’t—but I found I actually liked writing—so I kept on and on and now it’s many years later and I’m still writing.

Who introduced you to poetry?

I don’t remember, but I do remember Ms. Perkins and Archie Lieberman who thought I was creative enough with my short stories—in retrospect were not very creative or very good—to write poetry—and he liked my work enough to take them around with him when he was doing high profile photojournalism stories for magazines such as Look, Life, and Playboy. Of course, those editors knew my work was not that good, but I kept on writing mostly for myself until I fell playing hockey in my thirties, found myself in traction and then in bed rest bored out of my mind. That’s when I became serious, started writing better and began sending stuff out. FactSheet 5, (a magazine that listed hundreds and hundreds of zines, journals, and books with simple one to two paragraph reviews) was around back then and I used it as my go to reference to submit work.

How aware were you of the dominating presence of older poets?

I always liked Mary Oliver. Read everything she wrote. Rita Dove is another poet I admire very much. Carolyn Forche because, well, because she’s Carolyn Forche. I always admired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Louis Stevenson.

What is your daily writing routine?

I write every day for about an hour, usually in the morning, and then come back to poems I wrote earlier in the day, months, even years, and make revisions in the evening.

What motivates you to write?

I feel I have something to offer. Sometimes I write just to write, other times I have a particular audience in mind, other times I feel I have something important to say and so I say it with poetry. I have a series coming out, for example, on the blog of Moristotle (https://moristotle.blogspot.com/), for example on reparations. I wrote it for African-American history month. Here’s a sample stanza:

If we go another thirty miles over, we arrive in Columbia, a lynching–there were more in Missouri, many more– and this one was no different–James Scott was lynched as more than a thousand white bystanders looked on– and he was innocent–the real rapist discovered after the fact– too late again–and no whites paid for the crime– Do we not owe Scott’s family reparations? A sincere apology?

What is your work ethic?

I submit to a publication every other day throughout the year. I never miss a day. I go to two poetry programs to workshop my poetry—and I am the co-host of the local library’s poetry program.

I spend every day with some writing exercise. No exceptions. I also carry around a notebook if an image hits my fancy.

Here’s an image that came to me when I saw the sunlight come out behind gray clouds and light up a field along the highway: We knew each other by the spotlight on wild flowers,

the bath of prairie sage and the colors blue and green,

Later, I turned it into a longer poem utilizing the first line at the beginning of each stanza.

How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

I don’t rhyme too often, but when I do I look back to the work of Longfellow. He is still stuck in my mind. I even have one of his volumes in one of my boxes in the attic to this day—along with more than a hundred other poets—but he’s the one I remember.

Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

Safia Elhillo. She writes with a power that is incredible. Her poem “Girls That Never Die” is so brilliant, when I reread it—and I do reread it—I have to take deep breaths because this poem, for example, is that deep.

Martin Espada is another contemporary poet. When he wrote about the hurricane that took out Puerto Rico, you were there. You felt the pain of the people. You became one of them. He has a way with line and image that is just magnificent.

Then there’s June Jordan whose political poetry is made of magic.

Then there’s Carolyn Forche who’s book, Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness, inspired me to write an e-book, Firestorm: A Rendering of Torah (http://booksonblog35.blogspot.com/).

And, of course, Mary Oliver who recently passed away and Rita Dove.

Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

I write because it makes me happy; it’s the most satisfying thing I do now. I used to teach in the inner city of Chicago. That was the most satisfying thing I did. I’m retired now. Writing has taken its place as most satisfying.

What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Write. Write what you know. Write what you want to know. Just write.

Put it in a drawer. Take it out days, weeks, even months later and read it again.

Revise. Revise. Revise.

I tell individuals who want to become writers to worry about audience and publication after you have what you feel is a completed work. Even then I invite them to workshop it with one of the groups I am in.

I also tell them it doesn’t hurt to read a lot of poetry.

Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

I’m working on a book of prose poems and poems, The Tattoo Garden of Capella. So far I’ve revised it twenty times or more, but I keep coming back to it. It’s about a place that is magical and safe, a place full of color and love. At one point, dangerous people enter the garden only to have poetry destroy their weapons.

I’m also hard at work on a prose poem that’s rather long. In it, a poet with writer’s block gets help from a very eccentric man who sounds more like as tuba than a human being:

The odd looking man looked at him as if he had never seen him before—and perhaps he had not—and answered with soft moans, climatic yelps, silence, the sound of a tuba, and then an oomph. Ahh, he said, and then ohh. He paused. The rent is paid up, you know, but a long time ago I lost my way in…

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Michael H. Brownstein Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

[thejustinmarshall]

Interview: Writer, Cyclist, Producer, and Artist Anna Brones

NOTE: In 2018, I started recording interviews with creatives (writers, filmmakers, podcasters, photographers, editors, etc.) in the adventure world. I’m publishing the highlights of those interviews monthly in 2019.

When she’s filling out a form that leaves one line for “occupation,” Anna Brones types “writer.” But if you want the long version of her resume, you might see things like “film producer,” “artist,” “publisher,” and even ��culinary creator” (which I think is accurate, but I’m not sure is actually a job title). She’s based in Washington state, is a cyclist, runner, and backpacker, and speaks three languages.

Anna has written six books, including Hello Bicycle: An Inspired Guide to the Two-Wheeled Life, The Culinary Cyclist, and Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. She curated, edited, and published Comestible, a quarterly journal devoted to real food, for three years starting in 2016, and has worked as a producer on several films that screened at film festivals around the world: Voyageurs Without Trace, Ian McCluskey’s journey to retrace the 1,000-mile first kayak descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1938, Mending the Line, the story of 90-year-old veteran and angler Frank Moore’s return to Normandy to fish the terrain he saw as a soldier in World War II, and most recently, Afghan Cycles, a documentary feature about young women in Afghanistan who use the bicycle as a revolutionary tool.

In 2018, Anna began her Women’s Wisdom Project, a collection of 100 different papercut portraits of inspiring women, which she creates by hand using quotes from historical figures and contemporary inspiring women. And in 2019, she’s started a monthly newsletter, Creative Fuel, a creative kick in the pants for subscribers.

I first met Anna in 2011, and have always been impressed with her creative output—in quality, quantity, and authenticity. A few years ago, she told me in a conversation that “I feel like most of what I do is hustle.” So I wanted to record one of our conversations and ask a little bit about how she makes it all work.

ON BEING A WRITER When someone says, “I want to be a writer,” there are so many ways that you can be a writer. Do you want to write poetry? It’s a little bit different than writing cookbooks, right? Those are two different ball games. And there’s so many types of writing. I do non-fiction-related stuff, and some of it is a little bit journalistic in nature, some of it’s a little bit lifestyle in nature, so I have a pretty specific thing that I do.

I think no matter what you’re doing, you just have to do it. There’s no easy way into anything. People have very different paths of coming to the places that they’re at. Talk to anyone in any industry that they’re in. I love hearing what people do for a living, mostly because it’s always a reminder that there’s so many weird jobs out there that you didn’t even know existed. And if you want to write, the best thing that you can do is write.

ON THE POWER OF DIY BOOKS I do a lot of self-published stuff, and I’m such a big fan of the ‘zine revival—producing small, super-low budget publications in the 80s, kind of this punk scene, that that’s coming back—is so cool. Because it’s this platform where you can write something, print it on a piece of paper, and then photocopy it, and pass it out to your friends. It’s why I like writing books. It’s why I like making work that’s tangible, because there’s a value to that, an emotion that comes with that that is really amazing.

ON SELF PUBLISHING, EDITING AND ENTITLEMENT If you want to do stuff [like be a writer], you start doing it. Now that’s not to say that if you decide that you’re going to start writing and self-publishing, that you’re going be an overnight success. There’s a lot of hard work, and both you and I know that when we’ve done self-published stuff, it also requires some input from other people to help you get it to shine, right? So it’s not to say that you just get to vomit your work all over the place and it’s automatically going be successful.

Platforms that are available nowadays make that a lot easier than before. Even though that does mean that the market then has more people in it. It can be very oversaturated sometimes. But yeah, there’s really no trick besides doing the work.

ON THE MYTH OF BOOKS AND MONEY I think non-writers, or people who haven’t published books, are like, “Oh, you got a book contract?” And sort of immediately see dollar signs in their eyes, but I just don’t want anybody to be under an illusion that having a book contract means that you’re rolling in tons of money.

ON INTERVIEWING “NORMAL” PEOPLE Every story is important. Everybody has something to tell. It doesn’t mean that you had to live through the most horrendous accident—everybody experiences things, and I like the projects that focus on the shared human experience. The second you talk to people, you’re reminded of your similarities and not your differences. I think it’s almost easier to relate to those types of people, because they’re quote/unquote “normal” people.

I’ve thought a lot about the wisdom we have to offer each other. Because often we turn to famous people for wisdom, or famous writers, for that kind of thing. But I actually think there’s so much wisdom to be drawn from our counterparts, if we just sit down and have a conversation. So now I’m shifting to doing short interviews with friends or acquaintances in various industries to get their perspectives on things.

ON CALLING YOURSELF AN “ARTIST” It’s interesting, what we allow ourselves to call ourselves. The license that we give ourselves to say, “I’m a writer,” or “I’m an artist.” Or, “I’m a producer,” “I’m a filmmaker.” What is the point that we have to get to to feel comfortable saying that? So many people say, “I would never call myself an artist.” I ask them, “Why?” “Well, I’ve never sold anything.” “Well, does money justify you calling yourself a thing? Do you do the thing?”

There’s a great Virginia Woolf quote—”Money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for.” It’s so interesting, in our culture, that if you sell something, people will be like, “Yeah, good job.”

I think the important part about creative work is the fact that you did the work.

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ON A CREATIVE CHILDHOOD I grew up in a fairly, we’ll call it “alternative” home. You know, we weren’t living in a commune, totally off the grid or anything like that. But my parents built our house. It’s still not 100 percent built, because that’s what happens when you build your own house.

I grew up in the forest and ran around barefoot most of the time, and didn’t have any siblings, and had this different type of experience than a lot of kids do. I ate a lot of healthy food. Definitely wasn’t able to trade my sandwiches at school for lunch.

I wasn’t allowed to watch “Sesame Street,” because my mom thought that they yelled too much. So I only watched “Mr. Rogers,” and “Captain Kangaroo.” And I was only allowed to watch public television.

My mom is an artist, and she’s a weaver and does a lot of other stuff. So I grew up in a household with a pretty modest income—we were a single-income family, but the one thing that I did have growing up was all kinds of art supplies. Until I was 13 or 14, I just thought it was normal to have all those things at home. And then I would go to friends’ houses and be like, “Why do you only have five crayons?” I guess I was always doing those creative activities—that was such a part of the normal experience. And then I guess I always wrote.

ON GETTING STARTED AS A WRITER After college, I went and taught English in the Caribbean, in Guadeloupe, and that was the point where I started writing. It was a hard experience, and I started writing as a way to sort of work through some of those emotions, with feeling like I was in a different culture, and that was kind of at the beginning of the internet becoming a hot spot for travel writing and that kind of a thing. So that’s when I start submitting articles. I did some stuff for Matador Network, I found them on Craigslist or something. I actually think the first couple pieces weren’t paid, but then there were a few that were like $10 or $15. About a year after that I started writing for a travel blog called Gadling. I wrote for them for a long time. It was like 10 bucks a post or something.

I also did an essay that was published in a book called, “A Women’s World Again.” It was a compilation of travel essays. So this was in like 2008, 2007. I wrote this article called, “Pineapple Tuesday,” and it was all about living in this small town in Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a French overseas department, so it’s like France except it’s in the Caribbean. It was hard because the living situation was bad, the work situation was bad and the friend situation was bad. I often feel those are the three things that, if one of those is bad but the other two are pretty decent, you’re good to go. But if the three of them suck, then it’s a hard time.

So every Tuesday, after I taught, there was a market, and I would go. There was this lady who would sell pineapples. She came from a totally different background than I did. Born and raised on this island and was a farmer, and from totally different experiences, but it just became this social exchange that every Tuesday I’d go and buy these pineapples from her. So I wrote this essay about it. It was this sort of thing that felt was a grounding experience in the midst of what didn’t feel like a great experience. And so that was that first essay that I had published in a book.

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ON THE LINE BETWEEN CAREER AND LIFE I read this Cheryl Strayed quote the other day, as I was prepping to interview her, and it was something along the lines of, “Don’t spend so much time focusing on your career. You don’t have a career, you have a life.” And I thought that was such a good point. Culturally, we put a lot of value on career, and I think it’s a little bit different for people who do creative things, because, obviously, there’s a lot of crossover between personal interests and professional interests. Those lines become kind of blurry sometimes. And often, the things that you do for fun can sometimes turn into work.

ON THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A CREATIVE CAREER I sometimes feel like I’ve been very bad about creating a sustainable career path for myself. I sometimes look at my bank account and think, “Well, this is all well and good, as long as you’re healthy and able to keep doing stuff.”

And that can often feel like a failure. One day you’re like, “Fuck yeah, I got this, I’m so stoked on what I’m doing and I’m so excited about this project and feel great about the thing I did.” And then the next day, you’re practically curled up in the fetal position on the couch, just bawling. Like, just talking about how terrible you are and … you know, that’s a reality.

I struggle a lot with imposter syndrome, which a lot of people do. And I’ve been trying really hard not to. Or to acknowledge it and then kick it in the pants and tell it I don’t have time for that that day. Because that ends up holding us back sometimes.

ON GROWTH THROUGH CREATIVITY Something important to keep in mind is that the dollar amount you make off of something is not the end-all, be-all. Now, of course we need to pay rent and eat, and if you’re working in a creative field, and that’s how you pay rent and eat, you do need to think about making money. However, if there’s a work that you feel needs to be in the world, you just do that work.

And it’s important, particularly in personal work, to try to separate ourselves from the end result. Because often we give so much value to the end product, and usually it’s the process that is the important part. You’re doing the work because the work itself makes you feel a certain way, and you get energized by it, even in the moments where it’s hard. There’s so much that’s in that process that’s important, and we often forget that because we’re so focused on the end result.

ON THE VALUE OF WORK There’s a lot of pressure to have all this value to the work that you do. Often, I’m like, “I want to do a thing that’s meaningful and impactful.” But what does that even mean? And where are the areas that you can have impact in your everyday life? Impact happens in very small ways, usually.

A few times in the last year, I’ve had people that I don’t know reach out to me and say, “I love your work,” or, “You’ve brought so much lightness to me this week,” or, “Yeah, I had totally not thought about that thing that you talked about, thank you for bringing it up.” I mean, I realize, that doesn’t pay my rent, but those are the kind of comments that make me continue to do what I do. And I’m under no illusion that I’m going to change the world. But I think having a positive impact on the people around me is really important.

The post Interview: Writer, Cyclist, Producer, and Artist Anna Brones appeared first on semi-rad.com.

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[olivereliott]

Interview: Writer, Cyclist, Producer, and Artist Anna Brones

NOTE: In 2018, I started recording interviews with creatives (writers, filmmakers, podcasters, photographers, editors, etc.) in the adventure world. I’m publishing the highlights of those interviews monthly in 2019.

When she’s filling out a form that leaves one line for “occupation,” Anna Brones types “writer.” But if you want the long version of her resume, you might see things like “film producer,” “artist,” “publisher,” and even “culinary creator” (which I think is accurate, but I’m not sure is actually a job title). She’s based in Washington state, is a cyclist, runner, and backpacker, and speaks three languages.

Anna has written six books, including Hello Bicycle: An Inspired Guide to the Two-Wheeled Life, The Culinary Cyclist, and Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. She curated, edited, and published Comestible, a quarterly journal devoted to real food, for three years starting in 2016, and has worked as a producer on several films that screened at film festivals around the world: Voyageurs Without Trace, Ian McCluskey’s journey to retrace the 1,000-mile first kayak descent of the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1938, Mending the Line, the story of 90-year-old veteran and angler Frank Moore’s return to Normandy to fish the terrain he saw as a soldier in World War II, and most recently, Afghan Cycles, a documentary feature about young women in Afghanistan who use the bicycle as a revolutionary tool.

In 2018, Anna began her Women’s Wisdom Project, a collection of 100 different papercut portraits of inspiring women, which she creates by hand using quotes from historical figures and contemporary inspiring women. And in 2019, she’s started a monthly newsletter, Creative Fuel, a creative kick in the pants for subscribers.

I first met Anna in 2011, and have always been impressed with her creative output—in quality, quantity, and authenticity. A few years ago, she told me in a conversation that “I feel like most of what I do is hustle.” So I wanted to record one of our conversations and ask a little bit about how she makes it all work.

ON BEING A WRITER When someone says, “I want to be a writer,” there are so many ways that you can be a writer. Do you want to write poetry? It’s a little bit different than writing cookbooks, right? Those are two different ball games. And there’s so many types of writing. I do non-fiction-related stuff, and some of it is a little bit journalistic in nature, some of it’s a little bit lifestyle in nature, so I have a pretty specific thing that I do.

I think no matter what you’re doing, you just have to do it. There’s no easy way into anything. People have very different paths of coming to the places that they’re at. Talk to anyone in any industry that they’re in. I love hearing what people do for a living, mostly because it’s always a reminder that there’s so many weird jobs out there that you didn’t even know existed. And if you want to write, the best thing that you can do is write.

ON THE POWER OF DIY BOOKS I do a lot of self-published stuff, and I’m such a big fan of the ‘zine revival—producing small, super-low budget publications in the 80s, kind of this punk scene, that that’s coming back—is so cool. Because it’s this platform where you can write something, print it on a piece of paper, and then photocopy it, and pass it out to your friends. It’s why I like writing books. It’s why I like making work that’s tangible, because there’s a value to that, an emotion that comes with that that is really amazing.

ON SELF PUBLISHING, EDITING AND ENTITLEMENT If you want to do stuff [like be a writer], you start doing it. Now that’s not to say that if you decide that you’re going to start writing and self-publishing, that you’re going be an overnight success. There’s a lot of hard work, and both you and I know that when we’ve done self-published stuff, it also requires some input from other people to help you get it to shine, right? So it’s not to say that you just get to vomit your work all over the place and it’s automatically going be successful.

Platforms that are available nowadays make that a lot easier than before. Even though that does mean that the market then has more people in it. It can be very oversaturated sometimes. But yeah, there’s really no trick besides doing the work.

ON THE MYTH OF BOOKS AND MONEY I think non-writers, or people who haven’t published books, are like, “Oh, you got a book contract?” And sort of immediately see dollar signs in their eyes, but I just don’t want anybody to be under an illusion that having a book contract means that you’re rolling in tons of money.

ON INTERVIEWING “NORMAL” PEOPLE Every story is important. Everybody has something to tell. It doesn’t mean that you had to live through the most horrendous accident—everybody experiences things, and I like the projects that focus on the shared human experience. The second you talk to people, you’re reminded of your similarities and not your differences. I think it’s almost easier to relate to those types of people, because they’re quote/unquote “normal” people.

I’ve thought a lot about the wisdom we have to offer each other. Because often we turn to famous people for wisdom, or famous writers, for that kind of thing. But I actually think there’s so much wisdom to be drawn from our counterparts, if we just sit down and have a conversation. So now I’m shifting to doing short interviews with friends or acquaintances in various industries to get their perspectives on things.

ON CALLING YOURSELF AN “ARTIST” It’s interesting, what we allow ourselves to call ourselves. The license that we give ourselves to say, “I’m a writer,” or “I’m an artist.” Or, “I’m a producer,” “I’m a filmmaker.” What is the point that we have to get to to feel comfortable saying that? So many people say, “I would never call myself an artist.” I ask them, “Why?” “Well, I’ve never sold anything.” “Well, does money justify you calling yourself a thing? Do you do the thing?”

There’s a great Virginia Woolf quote—”Money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for.” It’s so interesting, in our culture, that if you sell something, people will be like, “Yeah, good job.”

I think the important part about creative work is the fact that you did the work.

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Anna Brones (@annabrones) on Oct 17, 2018 at 11:55am PDT

ON A CREATIVE CHILDHOOD I grew up in a fairly, we’ll call it “alternative” home. You know, we weren’t living in a commune, totally off the grid or anything like that. But my parents built our house. It’s still not 100 percent built, because that’s what happens when you build your own house.

I grew up in the forest and ran around barefoot most of the time, and didn’t have any siblings, and had this different type of experience than a lot of kids do. I ate a lot of healthy food. Definitely wasn’t able to trade my sandwiches at school for lunch.

I wasn’t allowed to watch “Sesame Street,” because my mom thought that they yelled too much. So I only watched “Mr. Rogers,” and “Captain Kangaroo.” And I was only allowed to watch public television.

My mom is an artist, and she’s a weaver and does a lot of other stuff. So I grew up in a household with a pretty modest income—we were a single-income family, but the one thing that I did have growing up was all kinds of art supplies. Until I was 13 or 14, I just thought it was normal to have all those things at home. And then I would go to friends’ houses and be like, “Why do you only have five crayons?” I guess I was always doing those creative activities—that was such a part of the normal experience. And then I guess I always wrote.

ON GETTING STARTED AS A WRITER After college, I went and taught English in the Caribbean, in Guadeloupe, and that was the point where I started writing. It was a hard experience, and I started writing as a way to sort of work through some of those emotions, with feeling like I was in a different culture, and that was kind of at the beginning of the internet becoming a hot spot for travel writing and that kind of a thing. So that’s when I start submitting articles. I did some stuff for Matador Network, I found them on Craigslist or something. I actually think the first couple pieces weren’t paid, but then there were a few that were like $10 or $15. About a year after that I started writing for a travel blog called Gadling. I wrote for them for a long time. It was like 10 bucks a post or something.

I also did an essay that was published in a book called, “A Women’s World Again.” It was a compilation of travel essays. So this was in like 2008, 2007. I wrote this article called, “Pineapple Tuesday,” and it was all about living in this small town in Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a French overseas department, so it’s like France except it’s in the Caribbean. It was hard because the living situation was bad, the work situation was bad and the friend situation was bad. I often feel those are the three things that, if one of those is bad but the other two are pretty decent, you’re good to go. But if the three of them suck, then it’s a hard time.

So every Tuesday, after I taught, there was a market, and I would go. There was this lady who would sell pineapples. She came from a totally different background than I did. Born and raised on this island and was a farmer, and from totally different experiences, but it just became this social exchange that every Tuesday I’d go and buy these pineapples from her. So I wrote this essay about it. It was this sort of thing that felt was a grounding experience in the midst of what didn’t feel like a great experience. And so that was that first essay that I had published in a book.

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Anna Brones (@annabrones) on Sep 17, 2018 at 9:22am PDT

ON THE LINE BETWEEN CAREER AND LIFE I read this Cheryl Strayed quote the other day, as I was prepping to interview her, and it was something along the lines of, “Don’t spend so much time focusing on your career. You don’t have a career, you have a life.” And I thought that was such a good point. Culturally, we put a lot of value on career, and I think it’s a little bit different for people who do creative things, because, obviously, there’s a lot of crossover between personal interests and professional interests. Those lines become kind of blurry sometimes. And often, the things that you do for fun can sometimes turn into work.

ON THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A CREATIVE CAREER I sometimes feel like I’ve been very bad about creating a sustainable career path for myself. I sometimes look at my bank account and think, “Well, this is all well and good, as long as you’re healthy and able to keep doing stuff.”

And that can often feel like a failure. One day you’re like, “Fuck yeah, I got this, I’m so stoked on what I’m doing and I’m so excited about this project and feel great about the thing I did.” And then the next day, you’re practically curled up in the fetal position on the couch, just bawling. Like, just talking about how terrible you are and … you know, that’s a reality.

I struggle a lot with imposter syndrome, which a lot of people do. And I’ve been trying really hard not to. Or to acknowledge it and then kick it in the pants and tell it I don’t have time for that that day. Because that ends up holding us back sometimes.

ON GROWTH THROUGH CREATIVITY Something important to keep in mind is that the dollar amount you make off of something is not the end-all, be-all. Now, of course we need to pay rent and eat, and if you’re working in a creative field, and that’s how you pay rent and eat, you do need to think about making money. However, if there’s a work that you feel needs to be in the world, you just do that work.

And it’s important, particularly in personal work, to try to separate ourselves from the end result. Because often we give so much value to the end product, and usually it’s the process that is the important part. You’re doing the work because the work itself makes you feel a certain way, and you get energized by it, even in the moments where it’s hard. There’s so much that’s in that process that’s important, and we often forget that because we’re so focused on the end result.

ON THE VALUE OF WORK There’s a lot of pressure to have all this value to the work that you do. Often, I’m like, “I want to do a thing that’s meaningful and impactful.” But what does that even mean? And where are the areas that you can have impact in your everyday life? Impact happens in very small ways, usually.

A few times in the last year, I’ve had people that I don’t know reach out to me and say, “I love your work,” or, “You’ve brought so much lightness to me this week,” or, “Yeah, I had totally not thought about that thing that you talked about, thank you for bringing it up.” I mean, I realize, that doesn’t pay my rent, but those are the kind of comments that make me continue to do what I do. And I’m under no illusion that I’m going to change the world. But I think having a positive impact on the people around me is really important.

The post Interview: Writer, Cyclist, Producer, and Artist Anna Brones appeared first on semi-rad.com.

[dawnajaynes32]

The Write Stuff: Boost Your Brand by Blogging

EARLY BIRD DEADLINE: AUGUST 13, 2018

Churning out one design after another isn’t the only way to prove to your current clients & prospective clients that you know what you’re doing. Writing can be a boon to business. But where should you start? How much should you write? And most importantly, what’s stopping you from writing right now? There’s nothing to be afraid of.

Write Away

A bevy of platforms exist for you to hit the ground running and share your writing quickly and easily. WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr, Squarespace, Wix, and other content management systems have built-in blogging tools. Medium is another option. Lea Alcantara, partner and lead designer at Bright Umbrella, suggests independent systems such as Statamic and Craft CMS for blogging. “Both of them are made for people who focus on branding, design, and user experience. Instead of designing for the platform, the platform conforms to your design. This avoids cookie-cutter designs for your site—which, as a designer, you prioritize, right?”

If it all seems daunting and you don’t know where to start, then begin anywhere. Matthew Manos, founder and managing director of verynice and author of How to Give Half of Your Work Away for Free and Toward a Preemptive Social Enterprise, sees writing as valuable, no matter where you choose to share your words. “By taking the time to write our ideas and motivations down in the form of various books, toolkits, articles, tweets, etc., my team and I have been able to clarify our own purpose while also motivating others along the way to figure out their own.” Yes, tweets count too, and Manos says that “the forced brevity” can help any designer with their communication skills. “I’d challenge them to explain each of their projects in the form of a tweet.”

You can push your words out there through tweets, a.k.a. microblogging, and you can also write short- or long-form articles online, a.k.a. blogging. Manos sees blogging as a relevant practice, but to him the blog environment is not relevant. “I say this because the place in which online readers spend their time is becoming much harder to control in regard to how/when/where your content is being read. Also, there are a lot more people fighting for the same users now than ever before. Put simply, if you go and launch a new blog today, you essentially are in competition with Facebook because the amount of time people have on the Internet is limited! As a result, I’d say that a good blog is responsive to multiple reading environments, is platform-agnostic, has a strong understanding of its users, and is (obviously) well-written!” In short, promotion matters. You’ve got to push your writing out there. Your stories, ideas, and concepts can be great, but if they are not reaching people, as Bright Umbrella’s Alcantara says, then “all that is moot.”

Write Now

Eric Karjaluoto, smashLAB creative director, has been writing and publishing through his own blog over the years. Prior to erickarjaluoto.com, he published at ideasonideas.com. “I write because I love the practice of it. Writing helps me think through arguments and form stronger opinions. It also gives me a way to connect with others (which is nice, because I’m an introvert).” Since he began writing, Karjaluoto says that he’s learned three lessons:

Know your purpose. I used to just start writing, without choosing what I wanted to say. This resulted in meandering articles. In time, I learned to use outlines to focus my writing. Now, I first write a TL;DR, which keeps me on topic. Say one thing; save the rest for another time.

Use plain language. In the past, I used a lot of big words. I’m embarrassed when I re-read those articles. I only wrote that way to seem smarter than I was. Doing so was a mistake. Writing isn’t about the writer’s ego. It’s about conveying information. Be clear and succinct.

Tell your own stories. When I try to write like someone else, it falls flat. (I’d love to tell stories like Malcolm Gladwell does, but I’m not him.) That said, I have stories to tell, and my own unique way of telling them. Readers often reach out, noting that they found these articles useful. There’s only one of you; use this to your advantage.

Not only does Karjaluoto write because it’s enjoyable, but writing has proven to be beneficial for his day-to-day studio work because it’s “a persuasive means of communication,” he says. “For example, if I write a good design brief, the client tends to be more receptive to the visual solution I later present.” When asked about publishing, and actually getting your writing out there, Karjaluoto has some words of encouragement and caution. “It isn’t important for designers to publish. (For many, it’s a distraction.) That said, all designers should write, and practice writing. Doing so will help you explain your reasoning—and get buy-in on projects.”

Write-Minded

Writing can improve the way you work with and communicate with existing clients. But what about landing new clients? “Blogging can be a path to establishing yourself as an expert in your field,” says Emily Lewis, partner and lead developer at Bright Umbrella. Her blog led to her first book deal, and then her first speaking engagement. Her colleague Lea Alcantara, says that blogging led to her first paid speaking event in New York—even though she lived in Alberta, Canada at the time. “Blogging has the potential not only to establish yourself as an expert, but to erase borders,” says Alcantara.

BOLTGROUP’s How Do You Transform a Brand? Start Here.

When you’re an expert in your field, you have to stay current, always learning, and always sharing your knowledge. Writing and publishing is a great way to share that knowledge, something that founders of BOLTGROUP, a Charlotte-based brand, product, and experience design studio, have been doing for years. Jamey Boiter, principal of brand strategy, design and experience, has written for Fast Company, and his colleague Monty Montague, principal of product design and innovation, has written for IDSA. When BOLTGROUP redesigned their website two years ago, they included a blogging platform to share articles. Content strategy and promotion are instrumental to the success of their Brand Insights and Product Insights. The work seeds the ground according to Boiter, and it’s even resulted in new business because of something someone read there.

  Ideate, embody, articulate—the key ingredients to product innovation success. Learn more in the insights section of boltgroup.com! #BOLTblogs #BOLTproduct . . . https://boltgroup.com/ideate-embody-articulate #productinnovation #customillustration #contentwriting #strategy #designlife #charlotte #charlottesgotalot #nc #clt #cltnc #ideate #embody #articulate

A post shared by BOLTGROUP (@boltgroup) on Jul 20, 2017 at 9:11am PDT

BOLTGROUP promotes their Brand Insights and Product Insights through social media, posting artwork on Instagram, with links to the articles and hashtags to augment the post. And they also maintain an email list, pushing out a digest twice a month to subscribers—promotion that pays off. Bree Basham, vice president of creative at BOLTGROUP, says that some older clients have come back to them because of an Insights email they received. “Emails are a reminder that we’re still here.” Creating one new post after another also has the added benefit of showing Google that they’re still here, constantly updating their site. This positively impacts search engine optimization (SEO), according to Basham, which in turn, helps them get found via Google searches. In fact, if you want to learn more about SEO, they have an Insight about that.

Just Write

Content strategy, marketing, promotion, and SEO are definitely important when it comes to getting your writing out there, especially if you house it at your personal, studio, or company website. But if those technical matters are outside of your wheelhouse—or outside of your interest—then don’t fret. Write anywhere, about anything. Write about what you know, what you enjoy, and what keeps you invested. Or write about something that’s a lot of fun, which is what RIT assistant professor of design Mitch Goldstein did when he was Angry Paul Rand on Twitter. He created—or inhabited—a personality that, to this day, many designers still talk about. Angry Paul Rand is gone, but Goldstein is still on Twitter. “While I do think there are many, many caveats to using Twitter as a place for real discourse, it does provide a framework for me to distill my ideas down into clearly written chunks that help me understand what I am thinking about.” In terms of long-form writing, Goldstein recently launched The First Five Years at 99u, a monthly column about transitioning from design school into the design profession.

Fellow academic Amy Papaelias, associate professor of graphic design at SUNY New Paltz, is also a prolific writer and co-founder of Alphabettes.org. ”Writing has always been important to me. I was writing/designing/producing my own zine in high school way before I knew that an actual profession existed where people get paid to design publications. Writing about design allows me to process the process, to articulate the reason something looks or performs the way it does. It’s flexing the part of my brain that is always asking why.” Alphabettes.org, which Papaelias started with Indra Kupferschmid, has done extremely well and is still going strong. New voices are always welcome, she says, and you can submit online. “We’re always thrilled when someone reaches out with an article idea. Writing and publishing as a collective is a lot of work, but the goal has always been to maintain a space that is supportive and welcoming to new contributors.” When you’re ready to write, keep the words of Amy Papaelias in mind, “Everyone has something interesting to say.”

Write On

As soon as you have something to say, you’ve just got to get started. But so many publishing platforms exist that it might be intimidating. For some advice, consider what Bright Umbrella’s Emily Lewis shared in Choosing a CMS? Don’t Skip These Conversations! If you’re considering WordPress as a blogging CMS, read Emily’s We Don’t Build WordPress Sites before committing to it. And remember, you don’t necessarily have to build it all yourself—launching your own blog, laying out the CMS—you can submit and pitch to existing blogs, including but not limited to trade publications, professional organizations, and other online media.

You have something to say, but can’t get started? Afraid of writing? Pshaw! Did that fear originate in school, when you were told by a teacher that You can’t write or You write dreadfully? You didn’t earn the grades you wanted on your essays, research papers, poems, or haikus? Put those memories behind you. Just dive in. But don’t expect perfection, which can also lead to fear, preventing you from starting or finishing. Face it, you might not get your written work 100% right, nor 100% the way you want it. Truth is: you probably won’t get it right—that’s what rewrites are for.

IDEATE, EMBODY, ARTICULATE feature image courtesy of BOLTGROUP.

The post The Write Stuff: Boost Your Brand by Blogging appeared first on HOW Design.

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[abqzfexhibitors]

ABQZF7 Interview: Amy Louise Bogen

WHAT'S YOUR NAME AND WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR ZINE?

 Amy Louise Bogen ("AmyLou") zine: Lost Projects Zine

PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE ZINES YOU'LL BE TABLING AT ABQZF7! 

WHY DID YOU CREATE THEM? WHAT ARE THEY ABOUT?

I am tabling the first 3 issues of Lost Projects Zine and issue #4 will be debuting at this fest! Lost Projects is a community “tell-all” perzine rag! A safe place to tell your woes to and let ‘em go, this zine is dedicated to lost projects and the art of staying found… I have started, created, and never finished SOO many projects (zines included) over the years that I started this zine to exorcise all of those past projects, get me working on new stuff and inspire others to do the same.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MAKING/WRITING ZINES? HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

Zines and I have had an on again off again relationship since we met and fell in love at first sight. I had read about them in my beloved “Sassy” magazine, and ordered some “Deep Girl” comics promptly after reading a review on its glossy pages. I wrote my first zine in the mid-1990’s- the 2000’s but only recently began publishing, this past year again. I have made many comics and zines over the years… “YUM!,” “Lunatics, Idiots, and Women,” and now “Lost Projects”…

WHAT MAKES A ZINE A ZINE TO YOU? DEFINE "ZINE," IN YOUR WAY.

I’m really into the physical existence of the printing itself, being a paper hound. I’m into color, texture, ink…I also am attracted to the size of the “average/ 5.5x 8.5” zine. It just fits. (When I was a kid, before I could even write I would craft duplicate copies of Readers Digest and National Geographic’s, on the same size paper.) The D.I.Y. ethos is a real draw for me. There is something about a matte page as opposed to a glossy one (even though there are exceptions to “rules.”) I don't run ads in my zines, its "ALL ME" (save for the fantastic floating ½ dozen or so awesome artistic and literary contributors from the community featured in each issue.)

HOW DO ZINES CONTRIBUTE TO LITERARY CULTURE? 

I am just now getting around to publishing in my thirties. There were a lot of things that I let keep me from writing, even though I knew at a very early age that it was for me. Things like class, access to education, mental health and more. There are so many people connected now, world over via the medium of zines that you cannot deny its rightful place within the literary community. Zines are literary. Saying this certainly broadens the definition of the word by including/ showcasing/ celebrating/ highlighting/ exploring those marginalized voices not present in the (white/male/norm) literary past!

DO YOU HAVE A ZINE CRUSH?! IF SO, ARE YOU WILLING TO REVEAL THE OBJECT OF YOUR ZINE AFFECTION? 

In high-school I had a crush on a person that crafted zines, a rarity in my small mid-western suburban town. These days I am most impressed with craft-person-ship of many zines. I get crushes on zinesters font choice, paper weight choice and a creative layouts. I don't crush like back in high-school, yet sometimes feel "crushed" when folks still need to be told what a zine is.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT MAKING ZINES? WHAT DO YOU FIND TO BE MOST FRUSTRATING ABOUT THE PROCESS? 

I love the whole process… writing, illustrating, editing are some of the best parts. I’d also add community to that list of favorite parts of the process… folks who come thru and submit or share. The costs to print can frustrate… (Underemployed full-time student here.) Sometimes at the printer shop, a new or differently skilled employee can turn a 20 min job into a 2 hour sweat-fest… protip: Always finish/print early as to avoid this happening!

HOW HAVE ZINES HELPED YOU GROW AS AN ARTIST/WRITER/MUSICIAN/THINKER/MAKER? 

Writing, curating, editing, and crafting zines in this day and age has forced me to engage with the mediums of this era (computers n’ whatnot.) My glue-sticks and typewriter collection see less of me than in yesteryears, but in a society that values time n’ money, this slow crafter is appreciative of the ease of many new technologies. It also encourages me to participate in making community. I have grown more serious about my art/ writing/music/thinking/making since I have returned to zine craftivism…serious in that I am more obsessed and active than in ever! Making zines have forced me to be less fearful of making and sharing. I sort of love the personal feel of the medium of the zine, its like showing someone your underwear drawer, your closet, your chewed gum collection or something equally personal. When someone says they like/ or have read my zine, suddenly I am aware that my obsession is on display... but not in that tired social media overwhelming sort of way. Its like “oh, hi, you see me, you sat and listened to my stories for 15 minutes now tell me one of your stories, please!”

HOW MANY ZINES ARE IN YOUR COLLECTION AND WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITES? 

200+ I don't buy as much as I would like to… many of my original zines were traded and handed out free. $5-20 zines keep me from buying, I prefer trades! I am one who considers many independently published items to be zines. ie:) I have a stack of 1970’s feminist lit mags. Some old Zap! comics for the R. Crumb. I have scrappy punk rock/ riot grrl Xeroxed zines, with typos galore! I really love those 1990’s zines... Comics by Ariel Bordeaux and obsession zines like Craphound or Thrift Score. Zines of this modern era have evolved so much and so many voices are heard by them... It is overwhelming to say favorite. I do hope to "claim" a modern favorite. Lets trade? Maybe its your zine!?

WHAT KIND OF ZINE DO YOU WANT TO WRITE/CREATE THAT YOU HAVEN'T EXPLORED YET? (TOPIC, FORMAT, STYLE, ETC.)

I have found that I am much more into writing/ illustrating comics than I had first thought I was. I love folks whose work is interactive and I strive for such notions in my own makings. I have a few projects on the back burners. I am a proud “slow crafter!” You'll have to wait and see.

Thanks, Amy Lou! 

Instagram: lostprojectszine Facebook: Lost Projects Zine Lost Projects is sold @ Wasted In Zine Distro in Phoenix