Call for Submissions: All In Your Head Issue 8: To The Bone

[Image Description: drawing of a skeleton arching their back and tilting head backward. Text reads: call for submissions. Issue #8: To The Bone”]

Call for Submissions!

All in Your Head is a queer/feminist traditional cut-and-paste style zine with a focus on LGBTQIA neurodivergent and disabled activists, zinesters, artists, and authors, sponsored by GlitterWurst Zine Distro. Our zine operates on the following *principles:

1.) social inequality and injustice exists [racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, cissexism to name a few];
2.) disability, neurodiversity can be understood as a viable form of human difference that intersects with/is shaped by systems of dominance;
3.) claims that there is a “normal” bodymind can have damaging and harmful effects (physically/emotionally/spiritually) and are partly shaped by current social/cultural values and white western colonial histories;
4.) neuroqueer and disabled people must navigate cultural taboos, move among complex institutions and systems of care and negotiate conflicting ideas of “wellness/illness,“ “silence/disclosure,” “visibility/invisibility;” “dis/ability” and more
5.) most importantly, our stories matter. (*this list is by no means exhaustive)

We are seeking submissions for issue #8 of All in Your Head: TO THE BONE: OUR QUEER CRIP BODIES, OURSELVES. We accept many kinds of submissions including but not limited to: essays, short stories, poems, personal narratives, manifestos, rants, drawings, doodles, illustrations, photography, collage, book or movie reviews (related to the theme), song lyrics, playlists, short plays/monologues and more! We resist the notion that there is such as thing as a “good writer/good artist” and seek to dismantle, critique, and challenge that “good writing/good art” means from a queer, disabled, neurodivergent perspective.

Some possible topics for TO THE BONE may include:
-Reclaiming and living in our bodies which exist at the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, disability, size, and a multitude of other differences.
-Visceral knowing, alternative modes of thinking, perceiving, feeling via a queer crip, neuroqueer bodymind.
-Queer disabled engagements with artistic or spiritual bodily movement and practice such as: dance, yoga, theater, slam poetry, film, singing (and others!).
-Critiques of and engagements with the notion of “transcending disability.”
-Explorations of the mindbody split trough the lens of disability.
-Analyses of disability, passing, and embodiment.
-The rhetoric of “loss” and disabled embodiment (i.e.: “sight loss,” “loss of limbs”).
-Queer disability, pleasure, body erotics.

*Deadline: February 28th, 2018
*Send submission and bio to: allinyourheadzine@gmail.com
*Please limit your submissions to approximately 1500 words and/or send high quality images of your artwork/photography. *We enthusiastically welcome and prioritize submissions by queer, trans, and disabled IPOC.

All contributors will receive a free copy in the mail!

Call for Zines: WRC March Skill Share: Zines and DIY Publishing

Image: Illustrator Gemma Gorrell courtesy of Broken Pencil Magazine

“Hello fellow zinesters! [Women’s Resource Center is] holding a zine workshop in March and we’re looking for folks to donate zines to our growing library. Our attendees would appreciate a variety of zines (perzines, art zines, fan zines etc) for inspiration. Our long-term goal is to collect over 100 unique titles and eventually establish a small archive at Augsburg’s WRC. Send us zines for our library and inspire a new generation of zinesters!

Women’s Resource Center
Augsburg University
c/o: Dr. Adriane Brown
Sverdrup Hall 207
707 21st Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55454”

Zine Review: Diary of a Lavender Plant

Diary of a Lavender Plant
Rae White
@wings_humming
raewhite.net

Diary of a Lavender Plant is an A5 black and white zine about the journey of a lavender plant through poems.

If you’ve been reading these reviews for any length of time, you know that poetry makes me nervous… but I usually have a go anyway.

I’ve always believed that the crucial goal of any piece of writing or art is to make the person taking it in actually feel something. Frankly, I had no idea why the line breaks were where they were or what it meant. That being said, the language Rae used make me feel.

I paused and closed my eyes, thinking of sleeping in the sun at the mention of daytime naps. I laughed at the not overt but clear to me disdain for noisy, destructive children. I absolutely loved the use of the strongest memory inducer – smell. The smell of ripe tomatoes is so distinct, and I immediately remembered it when I read the words.

I’m not a gardener, not a poet, and I’m not even a fan of the scent of lavender. But I still think this zine is lovely.

Zine Review: Fragments Issue 5

Fragments Issue 5
Fragments
https://fragmentszine.weebly.com

Fragments is a ½ fold black and white text-only (except the covers) perzine about a number of different life thoughts and subjects.

Right from the get go, Fragments gives you a look into their life and thoughts with a writing voice that is unflinching and confident. I was just as fascinated by their writing voice as I was by what had been written. The intensity I thought may have been reserved for the intro ended up carrying all the way through. I was taken in by this interesting combination of strength of conviction and thought alongside admitting they are still learning and growing.

From their annoyance about empty words, to creativity, to parenting, Fragments covers a lot of subjects big and small in mostly short sections. I had to smile as I increasingly got the feeling that Fragments likes documentaries – even sharing notes on one of them in one section.

I get the impression that Fragements is someone who doesn’t just think that people can be and do better – they know it. There are no illusions about what people often are, and yet there is this impression of realistic optimism about the potential of people – including Fragments.

I must confess that there is a section of the zine that I wasn’t able to read because of my own stuff, but I admire the bravery in being able to share what one has been through. There’s also mention of physical abuse as well, but it’s not explored to the same degree.

Fragments Issue 5 was an intense (in many ways), interesting zine about many different life moments. If you want to check out a perzine by someone with a strong writing voice and don’t mind the content warnings, definitely check out this zine.

PS. Fragments also offers free handwriting analysis, which sounds really cool to me.

Upcoming Zine Projects

Hello, zine friends!

I really love this picture. I could have taken it at a better angle or done something ‘better’ photographically, but it still inspires me when I’m ready to start taking on the world. I’d like to put it into a photo zine one day, but I’m terribly nervous that my photos aren’t ‘good enough’.

Ah, the common doubts in all of us.

As much as I find it useful to keep my mouth shut on projects and just get them done – too many projects lost to talk in my past – but it can be good to write or talk things out to get your thoughts in order. Writing a task down can be a step toward making it a reality.

With that in mind, here’s what I’m working on now:

Dream Zine

A zine idea borne of an excited conversation on the Zines & Zinesters Discord channel. We were chatting about zines, and I mentioned how I’ve wanted to make a dream zine but thought people weren’t interested in them.

Well, I was wrong. Haha.

I haven’t picked out a title just yet, but I’m excited to be working on a zine about my somewhat strange dreams and some dream journeys I’ve taken.

Paper Currency 2

I’ve been wanting to work on this since the first one came out, as I am eager to get this series really rolling. A few people have been sending in fliers, and I’m so excited about what’s to come in the future of this zine.

In the first one, zinemakers wrote about their first zines (whether the ones they made or the first they discovered). In this one, I’m thinking more along the lines of pieces about how zinemaking has changed you as a person or helped you.

If you think you have around 500 words (very flexible on this, though) to say on the subject, let me know!

I should note that I don’t know if I can send out contributor copies because they cost me $9 a pop to send. It hurts to say that, but I’m going to have to accept certain things about my life currently and act accordingly. So if you don’t mind the possibility of not getting a contributor copy but still want to write, please let me know.

I’m honestly not sure if I’m ready to go back to my perzine series Don’t Call Me Cupcake. The last issue and mini-issue I wrote were so good for me therapeutically but also took a lot out of me. I’m not sure if I’m ready to write about my life again in that way just yet. But it has been playing on my mind.

What else has been playing on my mind is my next novel. I’m still at a loss of how to balance all my time, but technically it’s a current project…

That’s it for today, zine friends. Are you working on something? Care to share? Let me know about it in the comments (even if it’s not a zine!).

Quick Note

http://giphy.com/gifs/rainbow-lol-gif-vomit-LwIw5RCH3hwGc

Hello!

This post is just a quick note to let you know that I’m still having a smidge of trouble with my emails going into people’s spam folders. The thing I don’t know if is my email is blocking anyone. I do check my spam folder, but I’m not trusting the system right now.

Anyway, the note is that if you have any trouble reaching me or are waiting on a reply for more than 72 hours:

1. Check your spam folder.
2. You can now email me at seagreenzines@gmail.com if you want to check in about anything.

theauthor@inkyblots.com is definitely my preferred email, but if there’s anything super urgent or anything along those lines, the gmail address could be the go.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back with a post tomorrow.

Happy Mail Monday: Nyan Cat Edition

Hello, and happy Monday, zine friends!

This Monday hasn’t been a particularly great one so far. I’m feeling a bit run down, which makes everything that little bit more of a task, doesn’t it? I won’t drone on about it because it’s boring and no one wants to read about me being pouty. Haha.

After all, it’s not a truly bad week when there’s lovely mail to share with you.

Colourful mail from Shelley! I thought the nyan cat and taco dog (?) were stickers, but I tried peeling them – and now I’m not sure. They could be bookmarks. Either way, I love how colourful they are! Lots of fun.

Thank you so much to Shelley for this colourful ray of sunshine in my week.

Mini zines from Keira of Small Potatoes fame! I wish I would have taken a closer up view of the washi tape on the envelope because the kitties are so cute.

And, of course, so are tiny zines. Mini-zines just in time for me prepping for Mini-Zine March (where I review exclusively mini-zines for the entire month).

Thanks so much to Keira for the mini-zine goodness!

Ah, mail. No matter how cranky or pouty I am, mail will always brighten my day. I appreciate everyone who takes their time to send me some sunshine, and I appreciate everyone who shares these Happy Mail Mondays with me.

That’s it for me today, zine friends. I hope your week ahead is good and fun.

Until next time…

Call for Zines: WRC March Skill Share: Zines and DIY Publishing

Hello fellow zinesters! I’m holding a zine workshop in March and we’re looking for folks to donate zines to our growing library. Our attendees would appreciate a variety of zines (perzines, art zines, fan zines etc) for inspiration. Our long-term goal is to collect over 100 unique titles and eventually establish a small archive at Augsburg’s WRC. Send us zines for our library and inspire a new generation of zinesters!

Women’s Resource Center
Augsburg University
c/o: Dr. Adriane Brown
Sverdrup Hall 207
707 21st Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55454

Zine Review: Intimacies Volume 2

Intimacies Volume 2
Dara Idris
intimacieszine.bigcartel.com

Intimacies Volume 2 is a black and white ½ fold zine about Dara’s journey with physical intimacy, sex, and expectations told through a collection of short essays.

Dara starts volume two not with an essay but with a snippet about separating sex and even romance from the need to touch and be touch. While it doesn’t state these things directly, I feel like it does a fantastic job of setting up the fine distinctions that are to come.

Where I felt volume one was more about being unsure and contemplating the meaning of intimacy, I feel volume two is more what intimacy means and continues to mean after firsts are happening and growing relationships are explored. Simply put, there is a lot more kissing and sex in this one, but there are still questions to be answered as well as keenly feeling the difference in oneself after the firsts have happened.

It’s nice to read something that give such gravity towards firsts and ‘small intimacies’. Each essay shares a moment or a conversation about intimacy, touch, and or sex, and yet each is granted the same amount of thoughtfulness and gravity. Each is respected as a moment of change.

The only thing that got a little confusing was the use of ‘you’. I absolutely understand the use of second-person writing – especially to help with the identities of those involved, but the writing feels somehow less intimate with the reader despite the intimate writing because I’m not sure who you is from piece to piece. One might assume that you is one person, but it’s made clear in the first few essays that you is at least two different people.

I fully admit that it’s a nitpick, though. It’s something that my editor brain is picking up on, and I don’t think that it takes away from the writing in a significant way. After all, this zine isn’t so much about who as involved as it is about what’s happening.

Aesthetically, this is a text-heavy zine with very few illustrations. While you certainly won’t breeze right through it, it is possible to pick it up and put it down because of the shortness of the essays.

On a side note: I looked back at my review of Intimacies Volume 1 and realised I’d already mentioned the copyright note on the back. Still, I think “Don’t be a dick is a good rule, isn’t it?” is worth another mention.

I found Intimacies Volume 2 a tasteful and thoughtful collection of essays about intimacy, relationships, and sex. While I do think the volumes should be read in order, I think they can stand on their own if you can only grab one for any reason.