Handmade, Small Press Zines at the SPL

Did you know that the Library has a few hundred zines? They range from comic books, to small treatises on birds or movies, to poetry chapbooks, to pamphlets on how to intervene when a stranger is being abusive to another stranger. 

Most of these items are hand-made, self-published, and printed in very limited numbers. Since many of them are locally-produced and cover topics of local interest, they offer a wonderful window into the minds of our neighbors. And as a group, they document the evolving concerns of our community. 

Our zine collection is located at the Central Library at 79 Highland Ave. During the current health crisis, items from this collection can be requested for curbside pickup. 

Curious what we have? Click here for a full list. 

And here are some of our favorites:

• Sharon Amuguni’s Through the Words of my Neighbors explores what Somerville residents have to say about our city. 
• Blind Date and Cyborg Sweetie is a zine about dating while disabled. 
• Moon Eaters’ self-titled comics are a platform for Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) and femme identities.
• Dave Ortega’s Dias de Consuelo comic book series tells the story of his grandmother, who emigrated from Mexico during Revolution. 
• Cooper Lee Bombardier’s The Economy of Nostalgia is a poetic, thoughtful essay on flea markets and the vendors who work at them.
• Alex Kittle’s Women Make Movies looks at directors such as the Wachowskis and Ava DuVernay.
• Damon Charles Bishop’s The First Church of the Parasitic Twin is a pulp novella about mysterious events that occur in a senior center. 
• Neil Horsky’s Constitution Found Poetry rearranges the words in the Constitution to provide commentary on contemporary America.