Have you ever written for a zine or would you want to?
I first heard about zines as a do-it-yourself form of expression feminists/Riot Grrrls used in the 1990s and have seen quite a few circulating around the ace community. Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson define a zine as “a handmade magazine or mini-comic about anything you can imagine: favorite bands, personal stories, subcultures, or collections. They contain diary entries, rants, interviews, and stories. They can be by one person or many, found in stores, traded at comic conventions, exchanged with friends, or given away for free.”
I think zines are a fascinating medium to get across intimate details and new ideas. They remind me a lot of blogging, but holding a zine in your hand has a uniquely personal touch. I’m about to start a zine project wherein I’ll be facilitating making a zine with my feminist animal liberation university club. The last collective activist zine I put together turned out great and I loved the process of making it as much as the finished project. Many of the undergraduate students I’ll be working with this time aren’t familiar with zines and I’m curious how it will go.
The Ace Zine Archive is a great resource if you’re looking for ace zines to read: https://acezinearchive.wordpress.com/
I’ve written a few pieces for the f-ace-ing silence zine (shameless plug), which I like because it fills a particular gap (issues that people feel silenced about in ace blogging communities and other ace spaces).
I haven’t really gotten into other ace zines although I read them from time to time if they sound interesting.
I’ve had a couple stories in German ones about asexuality, following a call for submissions. (“Wer A sagt, muss nicht B sagen”, #2 and #3)
While it was certainly satisfying – and the first issue was a reveation, because finally something in print just about asexuality in my language – whenever I write articles for print (maga)zines, I kinda miss the interaction with the readers and the immediate feedback.
I’ll second the Ace Zine Archive as a great resource. This is another shameless plug, since I’m one of the people who run it.
Also, I’ve created 15 zines so far and many of them talk about asexuality in some way. Some of this content is posted to the Ace Zine Archive. Most of my zines are personal zines, but I also have fiction, poetry, comics, and found object zines. I’ve also contributed to several compilation zines on a variety of topics, including asexuality. You can find out more about my zines and zines I’ve contributed to here: http://oliviaszines.tumblr.com/
I’m also currently collecting submissions for a series of zines on asexuality called Asexual Content. You can find out more here: http://asexualcontent.tumblr.com/