Constellation cancellation

Hi all-

After underestimating how much time/energy/and life changes would happen with a newborn and broken foot, respectively, we’ve realized that we need to cancel Constellation this year. We just don’t have the time or energy to give it the attention it deserves, and didn’t want to put only half our efforts into it. We’re really sorry that it’s not happening this year, and if it’s caused you any inconvenience or disappointment.

We are really excited about the work that you all continue to do and hope to see you as a participant next year. Thanks so much for your understanding.

Kevin and Lacey

Zine Apothecary is closing

Hey,
Most of the Zine Apothecary collection has been moved to other collections–a big part of it going to the Mpls Community and Technical College library. If you’re looking for a library to donate your zine, send it there! You can find the rest of it at the Fly Away Zine Mobile, possibly coming to your state soon!
Here’s MCTC’s address:
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
Library Zine Collection
1501 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403

 

Thanks for your support over this past year, everyone!

IPRC Zine Machine call for zines

The Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, OR, needs some great mini zines to stock their zine machine! They’re doing an open call for submissions to the Zine Machine. The machine has eleven slots for eleven different zines at any given time and they plan to rotate the selection. If your submitted zine makes it in, the IPRC will print 50 copies of  your zine and box, 25 to be stocked into the machine and 25 for you to give to your friends, sell at Portland Zine Symposium, or whatever!

There are also four spaces to feature four boxes, so part of submitting your mini zine can also be making an eye-catching design for the outside of the box. There is no deadline for your mini zine submissions, as the Zine Machine will be an ongoing project with a rotating stock. Click for their blog for the template and more info. 

Essential Hues Looking for Zines

The Filth Submission call

The Filth is currently accepting submissions for our Sex Toy issue. You know that sextoy party you went to last year? We wanna hear about that. Remember the first time you bought/used something plastic/mechanical? Come on, don’t be shy. Have a favorite toy that you wanna recommend? Ever bought a toy for someone else? Worked in a porn shop? Don’t make us beg for it!!

This will be our spring issue, out in April. Deadline for submissions is MARCH 31, 2012! Send your best, dirtiest, filthiest stories, poems, pictures, drawings, and paintings to

TheFilthSubmissions@gmail.com

Also, come on over and “like” us on Facebook to stay abreast of all Filthy happenings.

Issues 4 & 5 are available on Esty!! Or for trade.

Pandora Press submission call

Feminist comp-zine Pandora Press is looking for submissions for its third issue!  The theme is TIME.

Here are some prompts/ideas for where you could go with this theme, though this list is far from exhaustive:

– Waves of feminism: do you identify with a wave in particular? What do you think the 4th wave will look like?  Do you think that the notion of “waves of feminism” is a useful notion, or is it problematic?  Do you agree with the direction of modern feminism, and its fights/causes?
– A woman’s age/passage of life: What pressures are women under in particular with regards to age – what they should look like, what they should be doing (e.g. childbearing before the age of 35), what direction their life is supposed to take?  Are these realistic, or too constricting?
– The history of women/feminism: Are there any historical women or female activists that inspire you?  Any groundbreaking pre-feminist texts?  What was the world like for women before our era?
– The future for women/feminism: what would a feminist society look like?  How far do we have left before equality is reached?  Is it on the horizon?  Is it possible?
– Beauty standards: are women under pressure to avoid “looking their age”?  What qualities are associated with each decade of a woman’s life?  Are these fair?  What pressures are women under as each decade passes by?
– Young vs old feminists/women: are we being pitted against each other?  Or is the generational divide too wide to relate to each other?  Can we learn from each other?  Are there experiences that exclusively lie with one group, or are we not that different from each other?
– Issues that affect young people: sex education, virginity/chastity/purity myths, employment, higher education, etc.
– Issues that affect older people: how is one’s age construed in our society?  Are there prejudices against older people?  Are old people ever favoured over young people (e.g. older men = authoritative figures), or are young people overwhelmingly favoured in society?
– Our current “time”/culture: What sucks about society’s treatment of women?  What will our future look like – utopia? Dystopia?  Will humanity be better off, or worse off, once our generation has passed away?  What will be our legacy?

The deadline for the winter issue is 20 FEBRUARY 2012.

Contributors must be from Wales!  Just email your ideas, questions, or submissions topandorapresszine@gmail.com.  More info can be found athttp://swanseafeministnetwork.wordpress.com/pandorapress.

Call for submissions – Hoax #7

Reposted:

The topic of Hoax #7 will be feminisms and CHANGE. We are eager for feminists of all backgrounds & genders to submit!

Potential ideas for material include, but are not limited to:

• Goals: how we aim to act & who we want to become / thinking about the future of feminism / short term vs. long term planning
• Measuring Change: methods in which we attempt to gauge change (grant cycles, report cards, the DSM, etc.) / is change quantifiable?  / a-ha moments in which we have observed noticeable differences in our communities / “normative” & expected changes (in terms of personal & community development, growing up, queerness as “a phase,” recovery, etc.) / delusions of “progress” / changes that have not necessarily been positive/ inspirational stories
• Development: colonization & gentrification / community organizing (strategies, personal stories etc.) / feminist & queer geography / international gender issues / re-location
• Loss: grief / assimilation / death of someone close to you / dealing with trauma
• The Body: changing relationship our bodies over time (aging, weight, political beliefs, surgeries, etc.) / the “love yr body!” expectation within feminism (critiques of this expectation; positive stories) / body modification
• The Self: personal growth & ways in which feminism has (or has not) pushed & challenged us / self-care & feminism / “the personal is political” – the importance of that statement paired with the necessity of challenging it / do we have a “true self” that escapes change? / how “coming out” alters the way that we relate to others & vice versa / stuff that others have tried to change about us (through force, coercion etc.)
• Legislation: the pros & cons of legislative reform / does “radical” always mean a rejection of legislative reform? / obtaining legal aid / social factors that impact our relationship to the cops / when & if can the master’s tools be used to fuck with the master’s house
• Visibility / Communication / Media: how our personal changes are showcased & read / self-expression (or lack thereof) & how it relates to feminism, queerness, zine making, etc / books, movies & music which have influenced us / changing nature of information sharing as it relates to feminism/ how the media has changed our perception of time & social justice work/ personal exposure & secrecy
• Relationships: our feminism has impacted our interpersonal relationships (with family, friends, partners etc.) / relationships between who we are and what we can (& cannot) do / trying to change ourselves in order to feel accepted / how does (& doesn’t) feminism accommodate people who hold different identities & come from different backgrounds
• Language: evolution of terminology & identity descriptors / nuances of identity politics in feminist & queer circles / what terms we embrace and cast aside over time / applications of the “feminist” label
• History: unearthing connections with our predecessors / relationships to feminists & queers of the past / importance of historical perseverance / traditions (when to keep & to alter) / personal reflections & retrospections

we also totally need lots of artwork (photos, collages, illustrations, drawings, paintings, comics, etc.)! particularly for background designs and things that compliment the written material.

please aim to send us yr amazing material to hoaxzine (at) gmail (dot) com by april 1^st, 2012. if you are interested, feel free to e-mail us yr ideas for topics & artwork!  as always, we are willing to work with you during any and every stage of the writing process. the sooner you send us yr work, the better!

it’s been almost three years since we first began working on hoax. since 2009, hannah montana has been taken off the air, carrie brownstein picked up her guitar again, ugg boots are even more out of style, & those of us in the US can officially be detained indefinitely. neither of us can believe how much this project has expanded since its inception. thank you so much to every contributor, reader, & supporter of this zine! we are looking forward to seeing yr work!

in solidarity,
sari & rachel

Call for cute zines

Do you make a cute zine? A zine of the month club is starting called Cute of the Month and they’re looking for cute zines to include in monthly care packages. It can be perzines, litzines, artzines, craft zines, gardening zines, etc. They would be interested in buying them in groups of 10 like a distro. Send  a message if you publish something (or make something cute that’s not a zine) you think they might be interested in.

e-mail: petitspoissons@gmail.com

mail: 3970 Seminole / PO Box 41003 / Windsor, ON / N8Y 1Y0 Canada

Call for Best American Comics

A word from Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, the series editors of The Best American Comics for comics artists and publishers!

Hi everyone,

This is a note to remind you that we are, as always, collecting submissions for the Best American Comics. Great stuff comes out all year round and we want to get our hands on it as soon as possible. In addition, it makes our guest editors’ jobs much more manageable if we can supply them with a large batch of excellent booty by mid-summer.

So please submit your books published since September 1 of 2011 for Best American Comics 2013. If you don’t publish books, we’ve put you on our reminder list because we know you know people who do, and we hope you’ll pass on this reminder to them. Especially when it comics to minis, webcomics, and very small press, we need your help to make sure we’re seeing what’s great out there in the comics world.

How to submit:
Mail one copy of each of your books to us at the address below. Please make sure to attach your contact information and the RELEASE DATE. If it’s not inside the book, stick a post-it on the cover with that info.

For more details on the submissions process and rules, look here:http://www.hmhbooks.com/bestamerican/comics/contacts.html

BAC11, under guest editor Alison Bechdel, has been one of our most popular volumes yet and I’m pleased to be able to announce to you “officially” the the guest editor for BAC12 is none other than Françoise Mouly! (As for BAC13, you’ll just have to wait and see…)

Looking ahead, Jessica and Matt will both be at MoCCA Fest  and will have a table where you can drop books off if you don’t see us walking the floor. Matt will also be at TCAF the following weekend. We look forward to seeing you.

thanks and get in touch if you have any questions,

Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
Series Editors
The Best American Comics
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
215 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003

Call for Submissions: Orgasm Zine!

Our understanding of women’s orgasms from pop culture and porn is very narrow. In talking with other women we realized that our experiences of orgasms are extremely diverse, and this allowed us to embrace our own unique experiences of pleasure without feeling pressure to conform to a norm. We all have different bodies, so it makes sense that we would have different orgasms. We are compiling a collection of personal stories about women’s orgasms into a zine to hopefully help other women better understand that their pleasure is theirs alone and not what society says it should be. Please send us a submission of 500 words or less to the address below. You are welcome to start with one or more of the following questions, but they are only meant to get your juices flowing! The deadline for submissions is Feb. 29, 2012. All submissions will be anonymous unless otherwise stated. We recognize that gender is fluid and performative, and that “woman” is an unstable category. We welcome submissions from anyone who has ever identified as a woman. Happy writing!

-Do you have orgasms?

-How would you describe your orgasms?

-Do you have different kinds of orgasms?

-Have your orgasms changed over time?

-Do you think your orgasms are normal or typical?

-How do you communicate with a partner about your orgasms?

-Have you ever faked an orgasm? Why?

-Tell the story of your first or best orgasm

-Do you have difficulty reaching orgasm or did you in the past? What did you do about it?

-Are orgasms important to you?

-Do you experience orgasms differently while masturbating vs. with a partner?

-Do you have multiple orgasms, and if so, under what circumstances?

Send submissions to: orgzines@gmail.com