IZM Interviews: Rose Sergent (Drawn Poorly)
Hi Rose! Happy International Zine Month! How is life going at the moment? For people who don’t know you, can you tell me a bit about yourself?
Hi Pen Fight! Things are okay thank you ā Iām missing zine fairs and other DIY events that would be happening right now. I canāt wait till we can all be in those spaces again!
Iām Rose, Iām a Manchester based artist and maker. I love working on art projects that provide space for artists to try new things and develop new ideas. Making the arts accessible is prevalent in the work I do; art should be accessible to everyone. During lockdown, Iāve got much better at looking after plants and am doing loads more reading.
I know that your main zine is Drawn Poorly, which is a collaborative arts project for those living with chronic illness, disabilities, and mental health conditions. How did that project begin, and how have you found the process of making it? What feedback have you had – both from participants and people who’ve bought the zines?
Drawn Poorly started as a means to give space to the experiences we have as ill and disabled people. Each issue has a broad theme giving space for people to submit their own unique interpretations of it. Whether newly diagnosed, searching for diagnosis or, living with a condition or disability a long time ā it can be really isolating. It felt really important to create something that was a platform for people who identify with illness and disability and, a resource for anyone who wanted to connect with others who were going through what they were going through.
A lot of the amazing ill/disabled folk I know have come through this project and social media. Before, I didnāt really know many other people like me through other means. The solidarity in shared experiences can be so affirming and, also help us to support and advocate for other ill/disabled people.
People have been lovely about the project and, itās down to all the creatives who get involved and share their work. The latest zine has just been released and one of the artists said āBeing given an outlet to express myself at a scary time of no treatment has been such a massive boostā.
Your most recent issue was on the theme of nature, and itās also your longest issue yet. What do you think it is about that theme that really inspired people to create for it?
We floated the idea of making this zine about lockdown and it was mostly vetoed on a a Twitter poll. It was the right call from them because, it gave chance to focus on something broader and, more open to positive and negative interpretation.
Nature felt like a really good one to explore right now and there was a range of responses ā some celebrating house plants, others reflecting on experiences in nature before lockdown, some examining their relationship to outside whilst shielding.
As well as making zines you’re also a workshop facilitator. From my experience of your workshops I’ve noticed that you really created a space where people didn’t just make zines, but also could talk openly about things that could be quite personal. Is that an atmosphere you intentionally try to make, or is there something about zine making that naturally brings that out in people?
Ah thatās really nice to hear thank you! Partly I think this comes with hosting a space specifically for ill/disabled creatives. Itās really exciting to know youāre in a space with other people who understand your experiences without needing to explain them. Zine spaces are open and supportive too and making a zine can be a really cathartic experience.
I saw on twitter recently that you plan to run some online zine clubs, can you tell me a bit more about that, and how people can take part, and support the sessions?
Thatās right there will be zine clubs coming soon! Iām presenting them with Glasgow Zine Library over August – more details will be posted on social media soon.
The zine clubs will be a space for makers to get together virtually over the coming months. There will be some zine prompts and guidance on how to make mini zines for anyone who hasnāt made before. Itāll be pretty relaxed and an opportunity for people to chat and share what theyāre working on.
As things are starting to reopen and go back to how they were, it feels important to still offer space digitally. In our last workshop with Glasgow Zine Fest, we talked a lot about how a lot of organisations and projects had been so much more accessible for ill/disabled people during lockdown. We want to make sure there is still that space.
Youāre also an illustrator ā can you tell me a bit about your work, and what your dream project would be?
Iām actually working on a project at the minute with Lost Robot Studios which is a real dream! With support from their micro fund, Iām exploring venues and accessibility. Iām a DIY punk fan and, often there are so many small changes that can be made to make spaces more accessible for ill/disabled punks. Our venues of course are struggling right now and, weāre living in precarious times for our DIY musicians ā it does feel like a strange time to make this work. My hope is that, when they reopen, we can have these conversations and spaces will be more accessible than ever before.
Do you have any tips you can share ā on making zines, or running workshops (especially in an accessible way)?
For making zines digitally: Clear fonts (Ariel or Calibri are good) for main bodies of text, size 14 font and above and decent spacing (1.5 works well!). Iāve heard of other zines creating audio described versions of their issues which is brilliant.
Workshops: If youāre in a physical space, be really clear to participants the accessibility of the spaces. If youāre making zines about potentially triggering topics, ask participants to check in with other members of the workshops to see if they feel comfortable with that being discussed. I like running short activities too to bring focus to the session.
Can you share some of your favourite things from the zine world?
Ah for sure! So obviously a huge Pen Fight fan, since getting into zines, Pen Fight has always had an amazing selection of zines to read. Also, the best badges (Straight white boys donāt own punk is one of my all time favourites).
Iāve just read Mixed Rage which is a brilliant zine sharing experiences of being mixed race and the frustration of feeling āotherā. Theyāre looking for submission for their next issue.
This.Is.Your.Life.Zine is another Iām reading a lot. They share these beautiful mini zines on their Instagram page featuring so many topics including M.E diagnosis, chronic fatigue, solo dates and otters just to name a few!
There are so many zines, distros and makers I love itās definitely hard to choose. Some of my favourites are Holly Casio, Brown Girls Do It, Cath Garvey, Three Paws Press, Hidden Ink Child, Bear With Lee, Seleena Laverne Daye.
Do you have any recommendations you want to share? Things that inspire you, artists, books, or anything else youāre enjoying at the moment?
Iām really loving the art of Lou Lou Reed. Check them out for sure!
Ryan Courtierās work was featured on the front page of Drawn Poorly Issue Six. He makes amazing collage work.
Iāve just read Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers Rights by Juno Mac and Molly Smith and Sanatorium by Abi Palmer. Would recommend both of them for sure.
Do you have any projects youāre working on right now that youād like to tell people about?
Iāve just finished some illustration work for Contact, for their The Lost Summer project. Itās a really ace opportunity to share responses to lost summers past and present would love to see some zine makers get involved: https://contactmcr.com/development/the-lost-summer/
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IZM Interviews: Kirsty (Forever Incomplete / Swansea Zine Fest)
Hi Kirsty! Happy International Zine Month! How is life going at the moment? For people who don’t know you, can you tell me a bit about yourself?
Hello! Thanks for having me. Things are strange with *gestures vaguely* all this, but I count myself as very lucky to be able to work from home and to live with another human, which are both things which have really kept me going. Enough of thinking about the state of the world for a moment, anyway. I’m Kirsty, Iām 31 and Iām a lesbianish zinester, fangirl and Professional Nice Person (I work in the Third Sector and manage volunteers) originally from near Southampton but living in Swansea for the last almost thirteen years. Iām am both very much and sort of polyamorous, and I am getting into exercise after a lifetime of thinking there could be no joy in it for me because I am uncoordinated as all hell. I make the perzine series Forever Incomplete and I co-organise Swansea Zine Fest with two of my favourite people in the world.
First up letās do an obvious one ā whatās your zinester origin story?
I owe a large part of getting into zines to Cath Elms (of Here. In My Head. zine) who was responsible for introducing me to the existence of zines in like… 2011 or 2012? It was also Cath who I teamed up with (along with my extremely talented illustrator pal Emily) when I had the idea to start Sonorus: Feminist Perspectives on Harry Potter, which was sort of my way of dipping my toe into the water of zine-making. As it was a compzine I think I felt less vulnerable as my role was to put a thing together rather than create a thing entirely by myself.
I was reading perzines by this point and whilst what I liked about them was the fact that they were so idiosyncratic and mundane (in the most wonderful way), I still thought that maybe you had to be a certain kind of person to make a perzine that other people would want to read. The experience of making and selling Sonorus (including going to my first zine fair, Queer Zine Fest London in 2013), gave me the confidence to think that maybe I did have something to say, and I made my first issue of Forever Incomplete a few months later.
Whatās your process when youāre making perzines? How do you decide what parts of your life to document, and are there things in your life you keep off-limit from sharing in zines?
It varies, honestly. Some things I know I will usually want to write about, like milestones and stuff. Other things happen and I find myself thinking āthis would be good in a zineā and I write about it, or I add it to the Word document I have of things I would like to write about (it is very long and there are topics that have been on there for years). When I am putting an issue of Forever Incomplete together I have usually written a few very current things about stuff that has been going on or whatever, and then I will look back at the list for inspiration about more general stuff I might want to talk about.
I try to keep the content varied in topic, length and format usually, although of course for some issues of Forever Incomplete and for the more focussed perzines I have made that has been a bit different. The single topic perzines have generally come about when I feel like Iāve got too much to say about something to put it in an issue of Forever Incomplete or because what I am feeling is to urgent to wait to go through the process of having a whole issue together ā for example, my very short perzine So Unsexy is one of the most vulnerable things Iāve ever published and really came from a need to say the things that were going around in my brain. Iām not sure that if I had written it ready for my next issue of Forever Incomplete that I would have ended up using it. The zine itself doesnāt look like anything else of mine ā itās all black and white even before photocopying and is just text on a plain background. Itās very reflective of how I felt when I was writing it and it just wouldnāt be the same piece at all if it wasnāt its own thing.
Itās so interesting to think about what my boundaries for sharing stuff are! My instinct was to say that I donāt have any but that definitely isnāt actually true, which will be very clear to anyone who has read Forever Incomplete #11, which contains two pieces that are redacted to the point of being absolute nonsense. I donāt share explicit stuff about sex, broadly because I am embarrassed, but also because it doesnāt feel like it is purely mine to tell. I donāt talk about arguments or conflicts I have with specific people for similar reasons, I prefer to talk in more general terms about frustrations or difficulties. I donāt think I would cope well if something I wrote in anger about a loved one then existed indefinitely. Thatās not to say I donāt think others can or should do that, thatās just a brain thing for me. I also could never share anything even vaguely related to illegal behaviour because of my OCD, but honestly I am too much of a goody two-shoes for that to be much of a barrier to my writing!
I guess my rule of thumb is that I donāt include anything in my zines that I wouldnāt be happy for my Mum or my boss to see, although I am very open with both of those people about a lot of things, although in different ways. (My boss very early into knowing me said āIt seems like you’re a full disclosure kind of personā and I have rarely felt so thoroughly called out.)
Many of your zines talk about either mental health or polyamory ā is working with those topics therapeutic at all, or is your aim more to spread awareness and share ideas? Or are they just things that come out more organically?
I guess to some extent writing about my mental health is therapeutic, particularly in zines where I have little revelations, like in The Common Cold, where I started to understand that being ābetter’ could look however I wanted it to at a particular time. There is an element of awareness raising with talking about mental health stuff but overall I think it is just organic ā Iāve had OCD for like 18 years and it is so much a part of my life that it is too big to write about in isolation and is just kind of there in everything.
With the polyamory stuff, writing zines has definitely helped me to process and take stock of how I have felt about it at different points, though awareness raising and normalising is also a lot to do with why I write about it. Iāve wanted to take people along on my journey of understanding non-monogamy and my place within it, which I think happens quite nicely in Poly/Not Poly and Still Poly/Not Poly. Obviously there is an element of it which is organic too, like in writing about my life I will naturally write about my partners.
Fandom is another common topic through your perzines ā have you ever made a more straight-forward fanzine?
It’s interesting that you asked whether writing about other topics was therapeutic because actually writing about the things I am a fan of is probably what I find most therapeutic of everything. I have had strong, overwhelming obsessions with fictional characters and relationships for as long as I can remember, I was imagining my own stories about characters I loved before I knew what fanfiction and fandom even were. Fandom is my safe place and is deeply personal and precious to me and having places where I can write unselfconsciously about things I love, like I can in zines, is really important to me. I’ve spent a lot of my life berating myself for not liking things ānormallyā and whilst I am generally better at not doing that these days, being able to bask in the weirdness and share my intense fangirl words with others feels great.
Anyway, though, to answer the question ā I have made a few straightforward fanzines. There are the five issues of Sonorus (we decided to take a break from it after issue five because JKR was starting to be a bit much on Twitter … little did we know that was the least of it), and me and Rebs co-edited Death Becomes Her, which is about gender and related politics in crime narratives, which actually started out as a way for me to do something with my Rizzoli & Isles obsession and the resulting rage but turned out to be a zine I am really proud of.
Me and Cath made an Orphan Black fanzine called Variation Under Nature, and I made a made a silly zine called Ways In Which My Girlfriend Is Like Bob Belcher, but after an early zine of Orphan Black fanfic I made got taken down from Etsy for copyright violation I havenāt felt confident to put anything in any way similar up on there so neither of those have sold many copies.
Booo Etsy!
You seem to be an incredibly prolific zine maker ā what keeps you so motivated? Do you ever deal with creative block?
Honestly, a lot of my motivation just comes from obsessive determination ā once I put my mind to something I canāt really manage if I donāt finish it, but I also know that my attention and interest can be a bit fickle so when I want to do a thing I usually feel compelled to make myself get going with it quickly. In life in general that is something I am trying to let go of a bit because it isnāt always healthy (I constantly have to remind myself that it is okay to do one thing at a time, even if that one thing is watching TV), but it can be helpful because it keeps me working on things.
I definitely get creative block when Iām writing ā usually the longer I have wanted to write about something the harder it is to do it. In those situations I tend to try to write about something completely different and come back to it to see if I have any more success, which in all honesty I often donāt. I donāt buy into ideas of writing being this magical process, but I do feel like sometimes Iām just not quite ready to write about something at a particular time, like my thoughts arenāt organised enough, and I try to be okay about that.
Whatās your personal favourite of all the zines youāve made so far?
Oh, deciding on my favourite zine is hard! I think it is probably Forever Incomplete #10, which was an alphabet zine, partly because I like how it turned out but also a lot because I worked my butt off writing it! It took six months to write the text which is a long time for me ā Iād say from deciding to make a zine to having the writing done it usually takes me a couple of months, and often much less time ā and I had to keep myself motivated that whole time. There are others I like for different reasons, like Forever Incomplete #11 which is about my 30 things to do before Iām 30 list and Lipstick & Jellybeans which is a split zine I made with Emily about being best friends.
Youāre part of the team that runs Swansea Zine Fest. Whatās that process been like in previous years? And this year you had to switch the event to being an online zinefest [due to Covid-19] – how did that go? Did it allow you to learn anything new that youāll be able to take back to future IRL events? What does the future look like for SZF?
It is such a pleasure to organise Swansea Zine Fest, and I am consistently overwhelmed by how successful it has been. It started as something we just wanted to have a go at but didnāt expect to be particularly well-attended ā our early plans assumed it would just be the three of us behind a couple of tables and that if even one single person we didnāt already know turned up we would count it as a success ā but we have had around 40 tablers and 100 visitors join us on both years we have done an in-person event.
It was disappointing to have to cancel the physical event this year but we were really pleased with how the virtual zine fest went. We learned loads from it, as I think many people are learning from the necessity of doing things differently which has come from the situation around Covid-19. Our plans for next yearās Swansea Zine Fest involve having a physical day and a virtual day because what this year has definitely shown is that zine fests arenāt just one thing which can only be accessed physically. We’re also going to be providing two funded places including travel expenses for people of colour, with priority for one of the places being for a Black zinester, because we know this is an area we can definitely do better in. If you are interested in donating to that get in touch with us on swanseazinefest@gmail.com or on Twitter @swanseazinefest
Do you have any tips you can share on making zines?
Oh goodness, I definitely donāt feel in any way qualified to give tips! I guess the only thing would be to give it a go if you want to ā the lush thing about zines and zine culture is that there is a place for every voice. I guarantee you that if you make a zine someone will read it and relate to it and know that they are not the only one who feels that way, whether that is about big emotional stuff or your favourite ice cream flavour or whatever!
Can you share some of your favourite things from the zine world?
I am just accepting that I will remember someone or something else once this is published and panic a bit! Aside from Swansea Zine Fest, the zines fests I have attended the most are Weirdo Zine Fest and Swindon Zine Fest and Iāve always had a lovely time. Oh, and Kansas City Zine Con in the US, which I have led my very people-averse girlfriend around twice and is just amazing (it is very hard to look cool at the same time as scrambling around with a bag of coins you canāt recognise quickly to pay the person whose work youāre buying).
For distro-ing I love Pen Fight and Vampire Hag Distro, and I have also worked with Neither/Nor Zine Distro who I met at KC Zine Con. I usually think of Rebs McCormick and Laura Price as my favourite zinesters, mostly because I read their perzines really early on in my zine reading (and before I knew either of them) and really loved them, but honestly the zine community is so full of talented, interesting people that it is hard not to just name everyone!
Do you have any recommendations you want to share?
Honestly, my brain is just Alanis Morissette lyrics and fictional lesbians, so like, listen to her new album when it comes out and give me a shout if you are the one other person in the world interested in The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco fanfiction recommendations.
Is there anything else you’d like to promote?
My Twitter is @MsKirstyFace, feel free to follow me! My zines are available on Etsy and at sonoruszine.wordpress.com as well as through Pen Fight.
Also, my platonic life partner and fellow Swansea Zine Fest organiser, Morgan, is currently crowdfunding for his top surgery. If you donate before 31st August and send me a screenshot on Twitter I will send you a free copy of one of my zines.
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IZM Interviews: Lou Viner (Our Victory Line / Lincoln Zine Fest)
Lou is a 30 something zinester and zine fest organiser from Lincoln, UK. She’s been writing zines for around 10 years, and currently writes a perzine called Our Victory Line, and has put out a collaborative zine called Yr Faves Are Problematic. Lou’s zines are open and honest accounts of her life and her mental health, work, and losses, but also document the joyful things – like being a music fangirl, her travels, trips to zine fests, and fat empowerment.
Hi Lou! Most of the zines of yours Iāve seen have been perzines, what do you enjoy or find rewarding about making them? How did you get into zines generally?
I think the main reason I write perzines is because those were the only zine I knew of for a few years ā the people who I discovered zines through mainly wrote perzines, so when I started, that was the natural path for me. I got into zines from Livejournal ā someone I followed made a beautiful, full colour perzine with their words and photography. I was also part of a swap and sell community, and people on there were selling zines there too so I bought some and so it began. I googled and found some distros in Canada and bought some other zines, then found distros in UK and off I went.
I find them rewarding in a way I am not sure I can explain. I feel like writing my words down is cleansing and also validating. When people pass that pound coin to me over a table or press that ābuyā button on etsy, it does more for me than I think I know. People want to hear what I have to say. Itās a strange thing really.
A few years ago I saw you doing zine reading from one of your perzines at Northwest Zine Fest ā what was that experience like for you? Is it something you’d like the opportunity to do more of?
Oh my, I remember that! Gosh, it was a weird experience. Everyone else who spoke before and after me read these amazing, happy and weird stories and I chose something really depressing, if I remember correctly, and told everyone to be safe and look at pictures of cats afterwards! That is the only reading I have ever done, for some reason. I would love to do more. I am a bit of a natural performer, but I think reading my own words always stops me from speaking. I much prefer people to read them in their own time!
Youāve also made a collaborative zines called Yr Faves are Problematic, how does that compare to making other types of zines?
So far, thereās only been 1 issue because of how hard it is to do a collaborative zine! So many people so interest in writing for it, but life is busy. At this point, even I havenāt written anything for the second issue. But then it sells so well!
What kind of style do you have as an editor, do you try and push a zine in a certain direction or are you more hands-off and let it be dictated by the people taking part and their submissions?
As an editor, I try not to do too much; I did choose not to include some submissions to the first issue as after reading them, they went above being problematic faves and veered into just down right bad people! Also, one story was about a family member so I felt it didnāt really have a place in the zine. I didnāt have a huge amount of submissions though, so there wasnāt much editing to be done thankfully.
Aside from making zines you also run Lincoln Zine Fest ā can you tell me a bit about the experience of organising that?
It is a love/hate relationship! I had always wanted to do a zine fest in Lincoln and when I got wind that someone else was possibly going to be doing a similar event, I jumped at the chance to get in there first. I can be a bit controlling so I tend to do it all myself ā with a little help from my partner and my pal Bettie, who runs Sheffield Zine Fest.
Itās tough, Iām not going to lie – itās difficult when you canāt get funding so have to pay for everything yourself, which thankfully, in the past, Iāve had to privilege to be able to do. I asked for help from people in the local zine/art community but when they found out there may be a monetary aspect to it, they lost interest. Itās also tough not sharing the work out, but Iāve made my zine bed, so I am going to lie in it, you know?
I love it though, on the day, and after, when I see all of the work come together and with the support of both the local community and from those further afield. Lincoln has a growing zine scene, which is mixing with the growing arts, spoken word and music scenes, so I can only hope it continues to grow.
How do you go about making the zine fest accessible to more people?
I always ensure firstly, that the location is accessible, which I have been lucky with, in the fact that though Lincoln doesnāt have many independent venues, those it does have are accessible. Iāve also made use of the local library and arts building at the University, which are of course accessible as a requirement.
Regarding other aspects of accessibility, Iāve ensured that other than giving preference to people who are part of marginalised groups, Iāve also given preference to Lincoln and Lincolnshire zinesters and creatives over āout of townersā. This ensures that a bigger community is reached, and introduces new people to the world of zines. By embracing the arts community in the city, it brings people who may not know a thing about zines into a free space, where they can discover something new.
Like most events in 2020, Lincoln Zine Fest isnāt running this year due to Coronavirus, but can you share any news about what might be happening in the future for LZF? And if the sky was the limit ā what would your dream future for it be?
LZF 2021 will be at a completely new venue within the city, where we are going to be working in close conjunction and partnership with the organisation. Iām not sure I can say much more at this stage but I am very excited to be working with them and look forward to the event! If the sky was the limit, I would have as many tables as I could fit in the biggest venue in the city, all for free, with visitors coming from far and wide, but alas, that is just a dream!
Over the past decade the biggest shift in zine making has probably been social media. Zinesters used to get their work out in very different ways ā listings in other zines, pen-paling, distros, local activist centres and then later personal websites. How do you think this shift has affected zine culture?
I think itās changed massively ā both in a good way and a bad way. I miss reading the little snippets about someoneās zine, sending some pennies over paypal and waiting for a week or two for a zine in the post from a far away country. I often hate the way zines have become somewhat commercialised ā every one is making a zine these days. There is a fine line between gatekeeping and protecting the community though and this is something I really struggle with personally. On the other hand, social media has opened the zine community up and let in people who wouldnāt have known about zines otherwise. Itās a slippery slope. I am not a brand, I donāt even really refer to myself as writer, even after all these years!
Can you share some of your favourite things from the zine world?
I could go on for hours about my favourite zines and zinesters but Iāll try to be short
- Bettie ā Fault and Fracture
- Jen ā Bucket of Entrails
- Rebs ā who writes so many zines, itās baffling! Her Derry Girls zine is a favourite
- Cherry Styles ā Grub, Synchronise Witches Press, NWZF
- Jade Mars ā Scorpio Moon
- Janet ā Barren, Do you remember the first time along with so many more
- Em & Seleena ā Poor Lass
- Kirsty ā Hard Femme and Weirdo Zine Fest
- Tukru ā Vampire hag distro, Your Pretty Face is Going Straight to Hell
- Kathleen ā Scratch that itch
- And of course, you!
Some of the best zines Iāve read, not by people listed above are: Fucked – on being sexually dysfunctional in sex-positive queer scenes, Working Class Queers, Pansy, and Telegram. I have over 100 zines in my collection so I would struggle to tell you all my faves! (Iām sorry if Iāve missed anyone! Itās not intentional)
What else have you been enjoying, or been inspired by lately?
I am a self confessed fan girl ā with my main focus being the band Deaf Havana. Their music is a massive influence for me. I hear their lyrics and I hear the words of a perzine being sung to me. Other influences are my friends, their work, their lives ā I try to surround myself with people who I am in awe of.
Iāve been reading less and less to be honest ā with COVID19 and lock down, Iāve found it tough to focus. Iāve been working from home so after a day sat in front of a computer in my house, I like to just switch off and watch something that I can either completely focus on or completely lose myself in. Iāve been watching a lot of documentaries, mainly things like Anthony Bourdain ā Parts Unknown and other food and travel shows. Iāve also been watching I may destroy you on BBC iplayer. Though dark, itās absolutely amazing and Michaela Coel is faultless.
Do you have any projects youāre working on right now?
I have started writing my āGuys with guitarsā zine, my ode to my fan girl nature, but as I said before, sitting in front of the computer at home, whilst Iāve been having to do my job from home, has meant I donāt like to sit and write too much on my laptop. But itās not going to be a rush job, I am going to take my time. Iāve written a few bits for the next issue of my perzine but again, I am letting the words come out when they can and not letting myself get too bogged down with it.
Where should people go to find find out more about you?
My zines can be purchased from Pen Fight distro or from my etsy shop – and my social media for Lincoln Zine Fest, which is on facebook, twitter and Instagram.
Any final words?
I want to take this opportunity to highlight the amazing zines and outreach people like Queer Zine Library, Tender Hands Press, and Brown Recluse Zine Distro, are doing right now. As with most communities, even the zine community has a race problem, a privilege problem, and we should listen to marginalised voices more, lift them up and give them the space they deserve.
Zines forever, Lou
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IZM Interviews: Janet (Brick / Barren / Someone Somewhere + many more)
This International Zine Month Iāve been interviewing a series of zinemakers so we can get to know them and their zine making process a bit better! The first one is from the excellent Janet of [too many zines to mention!]
Hey Janet! Happy International Zine Month! How is life going at the moment? For people who don’t know you, can you tell me a bit about yourself?
Hey Vicky! Iām currently living in Leicester – I was in the process of moving back home to West Yorkshire when Covid hit and everything got delayed. Iāve been making zines for 25 years (or rather, I started making zines 25 years ago and then had quite a long break in the middle before returning to them about 8 years ago). Outside of zines, I like books, cats, solitude and sunshine, so Iāve been managing pretty well with lockdown all things considered.
How did you originally get into zines? I remember you mentioning to me once that you made a lot of zines back in the ’90s, can you tell me a bit more about those? And what inspired you to get back into zine making? Do you feel zine culture has shifted much?
When I was 15/16 I got very into alternative and indie music, which made me even more of a weirdo at my Bradford comprehensive. Wanting to not feel so isolated, I started sending off for the music fanzines I saw advertised in the back of NME and Melody Maker and once I’d read a few, I thought āI could do this!ā And so I did. Itās quite weird to think of how self-confident I was capable of being back then: Iād somehow found out that if you wrote music zines, you could get free records and gig tickets so I started phoning up the PR departments of record companies and asking to be put onto guest listsā¦ and it worked!
I was this strange teenager in Yorkshire doing her A Levels and with maybe 30 people buying each issue of my fanzine, but London music PRs would be like āyeah of course you can go and see Ash for free, fancy interviewing them too?ā It was every teenage music nerdās dream, and I pretty much stopped working on my A Levels and spent two years going to gigs, meeting bands, and then writing about it.
And in the meantime I also started a perzine, which in retrospect was mostly standard teenage whining about no-one understanding me. It was all done by post in those days (āthose daysā ha I sound like a right grandma!) so Iād put an ad in the music press or on Ceefax and then people would send their pound coin and self addressed envelope, and Iād send them a zine back. And quite often theyād end up writing back and youād become pen pals; I met so many people that way who ended up becoming friends.
Then I went to university and gradually stopped making zines for various reasons, and it was only in my early 30s that I returned to them. Iād become friends with Laura through blogging and sheād made zines in the past and wanted to get back into it, and so the two of us were sort of āok letās do thisā and planned a trip to Sheffield Zine Fest. We came home loaded down with zines and fired up with inspiration, and the following year we went back to table and sell the five zines weād made between us in the intervening year.
One of the biggest shifts in zine culture is how the internet enables the promotion and distribution of zines, and also makes organising zine fairs easier. Maybe there were zine fairs happening in 1994 but I just didnāt know about them. But now thatās a central part of my zine making; going to zine fairs and meeting other zinesters. And perhaps itās because I mostly made music fanzines in the 90s, but the scene seems much less male-oriented now. In the 90s it was pretty evenly split but now itās predominately women and non-binary people who you see selling at zine fairs.
Your zines are often about very personal topics (your experiences with abortion, being childfree, being a child of immigrants and your familyās history). Are you generally an open book day-to-day or are zines a kind of outlet for that?
I am not at ALL an open book usually! While Iām happy to be open about having an abortion, for example (and in fact think itās really important to do so to help normalise it), I wonāt generally talk about the messy feelings that go along with it. Even with my partner or my best friends I can be quite closed off about my emotions, so I do think zines are an outlet for working through complicated feelings about important events or elements of my life.
Youāve also made a few zines collaboratively (like Mixtape and Do You Remember the First Time?) ā how does that experience differ for you from making a zine on your own? I really love Do You Remember the First Time? in particular because the stories of people having sex for the first time vary so much, what inspired you to put that together?
Making collaborative zines is not my favourite to be honest! I was that kid at school who hated group projects because I like to be in complete control, so working with another editor, like I did on Mixtape, is a challenge for me. But totally worth it because the finished zine is different to anything Iād make on my own (which is sort of the point). Iāve learned that I manage better with a zine like Do You Remember The First Time, where itās just me putting it together but taking submissions from other people.
And Iām glad you love Do You Remember The First Time, because of all the zines Iāve made itās the one Iām most proud of. I canāt even remember what inspired me to start collecting stories, but I always had a really clear vision that I wanted the zine to examine the notion of āvirginity lossā and how problematic that is from a feminist perspective, from a queer perspective, from a trans perspectiveā¦ Itās incredible that so many people were willing to tell their stories – the good, the bad, the funny, the sad – and Iām so pleased that it represents a variety of experiences and bodies and sexualities. Itās the zine that I always ātalk upā at zine fairs because I love it so much!
You sent me your zines very early in my distroing days (and you were the very person whose work I printed other than my own too!) Before that we didn’t know each at all – and getting to know you online and chatting at zine fests since has been one of the highlights of starting Pen Fight for me. What have zines been like more generally for you as a means of connecting with new people?
Ah I didn’t know this! And yep totally agree that meeting you has been one of my highlights š For me, the people are what make the zine world so special. As a general rule zinesters are socially awkward, shy, anxious (and lots of us are neurodiverse too) so zine fairs, where we have to be sociable and talk to people about our work, are pretty weird. But I always have such a nice time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Most of my zine pals live in the north and so Iāve not always been able to hang out with people other than at fairs, so one of the things Iām most looking forward to about moving is being able to have IRL hangs with zine friends (well, thatās if Covid allows for itā¦).
Do you get people reaching out to you after reading your zines often? I can imagine it can be quite liberating for people to read your zines (in particular Brick which is a very open account of your getting an abortion). Is this something you had in mind when you were making Brick?
Itās something that happens a lot with Brick, but not with my other zines. I think because abortion is still considered a taboo subject, Iām often the first person outside of those closest to them that people will talk to about their abortion. Itās beyond humbling to have people contact me to say how much it resonated with their own experiences.
I always say that regardless of what I do in my career (I was a teacher, am now an education researcher), Brick will be the most important thing Iāve ever written because it seems to have that power to resonate with readers. Which was never my intention! I started working on it because the #shoutyourabortion movement was just beginning and I felt that talking more openly about abortion was important. And I also had some residual emotional stuff to work through, and making the zine helped with that.
The fact itās so popular is really nice, and I get messages from people from all over the world about it. If I recall correctly, it was you who sent a copy to Mumbai Zine Library years ago, and Brick even ended up being featured in the Hindu Times newspaper!
Do you have any zine making tips you can share?
Oh gosh I feel like Iām such an amateur (which, I guess, is sort of the point of zines). I still make everything using cut and paste sheets of paper, rather than doing digital layouts! I think my biggest zine making tip is to just do itā¦ donāt worry about it needing to look perfect or professional because to me thatās the antithesis of what zines should be.
Can you share some of your favourite things from the zine world?
Eek, Iām definitely going to miss someone important out! I need to shout out some of my favourite zine fests – Weirdo Zine Fest, @sheffieldzinefest, @nwzinefest, @lincolnzinefest, @overherezinefest and @bradfordzinefair and all of their organisers. Presses and distros I love include Synchronise Witches Press, Black Lodge Press, Easter Road Press, Vampire Hag Distro and, of course, Pen Fight Distro! Iām also really loving the output of Irregular Zines – the Sew Irregular zines are brilliant and their recent Five Things I Wish Iād Learnt At School About Empire is essential reading.
Do you have any projects youāre working on right now?
Iām currently seeking submissions for a zine about Joanna Newsom (to be called Heartbroken & Inchoate) so would love it if people got in touch with me about that at jbistheinitial@gmail.com
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