DIY feminist zines since 2001
Welcome to the first zines I read in 2023! These booklets touch upon gardening, herbs, tarot, touring, witchery, and more, and are filled with amazing art and writing! I feel as lucky and grateful as ever that they crossed my hands and eyes. Find out more about these paper treasures:
I love books on crafts and have a bunch from which I draw regular inspiration. For this month’s Februstitchery challenge I gathered the books from my shelf that contain sewing, crochet, embroidery, and other crafts to look for tips, ideas, and possible projects…
Hi there, how are you?
I have some Lost Luna news to share with you: I’ve upgraded a zine bundle on Bandcamp with a digital download of my latest Lost Luna album “Wish upon a star”, the amazing I Wannabe Yr Grrrl Zine wrote a lovely review of that same album on Instagram, some of its songs have been played on a bunch of podcasts and radioshows, and I’m currently composing new songs on my guitarlele! Read on to find out more…
Whether there’s a heat wave or a snow storm going on, reading zines (and making zines!) is always a good idea. Here are the ones I devoured in August:
(More info, photos, and web links under the photo)
Hello! Here are all the zines I’ve read during International Zine Month 2020! These include newsletters, perzines, travelzines, musiczines… Inside you can find stories about underrated 90s bands, boxing in antifascist and feminist groups, gentrification, living in the Bay area, autonomous spaces, self-care, Covid-19, teaching in Chicago Public Schools, working and travelling in Italy, and much more. There are so many gems here and I highly recommend checking them out!
Where you can find some of these zines:
If you’re curious about the zines that aren’t listed here, let me know and maybe I can get you in touch with the zinester.
Welcome to the final batch of zines that I’ve read this year! There are zines about radical queerness, female musicians, making terrariums, migraines, veganism, the film “Ghostbusters” (the cool new one, with the female actors), and much more! You’ll certainly find something you’d want to read too!
Remember: Zines can be difficult to categorise and some of them can belong to multiple the genres and themes. I’m aware of the limitations of this approach but it’s just easier for me to categorise them under certain genres/subjects to write my mini-reviews/descriptions. Also, if you’re interested in buying some of the zines for which I didn’t add a website/shop, get in touch with me and maybe I can help you find the zine maker.
Happy zine reading in 2020!
Tis the season to read and make zines! Well, every season is zine season but I’ve read a lot of them these past two months and we’ve also just had Mini Zine March in March.
For this edition of “Zines I read” there are zines about birds, touring, witchcraft, anonymous letters, roller derby, anarchist dumpsters, Brexit, and much more. So I’m sure you’ll find some zines here you’ll like! (You can also check out the zines I make).
I sorted the zines I read according to genre to make it easier for myself (and you?) but remember that zine genres often overlap and zines often combine genres/subjects so these categories might be blurry and incomplete. I added websites/shops where possible and you can contact me if you’re interested in a zine that doesn’t have any web link. Maybe I can get you in touch with the zinester.
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In the beginning of January I set myself a New Year’s resolution of reading at least 20 books this year and I’m already at 19 now. It might be silly to count the books I’m reading but it really helps to encourage me to read more, make time for it, and focus on it. I’m a slow, lazy and easily distracted reader, even though I do enjoy reading books (and zines, duh!) a lot. I’m even becoming fond on reading fiction lately, something I didn’t used to do or enjoy.
I won’t review everything I’ve read but I’ll just select some of the books I liked or found interesting to review and that I want to share my thoughts about on this blog or at De Tweede Sekse Blog. For De Tweede Sekse I just wrote some reviews of the comics I have recently read (written in Dutch there – sorry, non-Dutch readers). For this post, I will review some crafty/creative/how-to books that have crossed my eager eyes these past 8 months. Enjoy reading!
It’s always nice to have someone give feedback on or review your zines and today, for International Zine Month, you get to…
“send your zine out for review to a website or magazine that does reviews”
I’m postponing this activity till Same Heartbeats #13 is finished and printed and I’m planning to send it off for review then.
Some places you can send your zine to for review:
I review zines too but I only write mini reviews (as part of my zine reading list) so if you’re ok with that, get in touch. I’m very willing to trade zines too!
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To read all my posts about International Zine Month, click here or here.
I read quite some books in the past year, here are some I haven’t reviewed elsewhere but enjoyed reading a lot. They range from self-care to creative activism.
Living out Loud – Keri Smith
If you’re a bit stuck creatively or have always wanted to do/make stuff but don’t quite know how or where to start, please grap a copy of this book. The author encourages you to find the playfulness we used as children in our artwork, to boost your creativity and for me that certainly worked. It’s fun to even just quickly read through the book and will give you instant inspiration and ideas. It comes with lots of little games, activities, stickers, paper dolls, and other such child-like fun, and it’s spiral-bound which makes it easy to use. The book is written by Keri Smith who’s know for her Guerilla Art Kit book and other similar public space creativity workbooks.
Hello Cruel World – Kate Bornstein
I wish everyone had this book on their bookshelf, in case of need. Really, get one for yourself, and then some for your friends if you can afford it. You may know Kate Bornstein for her books about (trans)gender outlaw identities which were way ahead of their time and being in her 70s she still kicks ass. In this book, Bornstein talks about suicide and about the 101 alternatives she lists to prevent it. Sure, not all those alternatives may be usuable for everyone, or are legal or healthy, but they may be of help for someone at some point, and she clearly states that anything is better than killing yourself. The first part of the book focuses a lot on gender and sexuality, as these are/were inportant in Bornstein’s life and related to her wellbeing. If that’s not relevant for you, you can skip it and go directly to the list of alternatives. There’s really plenty of diverse ideas here and she presents each option in a down-to-earth friendly and even funny way. The ideas range from staying in bed and running away to reinventing yourself and taking drugs or staying sober. Really, get this book, it’s probably the best self-help book out there, and in this shitty world we can all use a little Kate Bornstein in our lives.
A Little Book of Craftivism – Sarah Corbett
Craftivism means using craft for activist purposes. Sarah Corbett founded the Craftivist Collective and in this small book she gives some practical ideas or recipes for doing your own craft actions. She explains how to cross-stitch mini protest banners, how to embroider protest masks, how to make speech bubbles with shrink plastic, and how to create activist bunting, while mixing in tips for becoming a craftivist and ideas for slogans. This is a fun creative handbook if you’re looking for some new inspiration in your activism as well as if you’re an activist newbie.
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More reviews I recently wrote: about comics (in Dutch), about The Archivist Turn in Feminism (in English) and about The Handmaid’s Tale (in Dutch) and there’s more to come!
Echo Zines 