Hi folks! Happy first day I saw a warbler! I’ve so been looking forward to Spring Migration and welcoming back my little friends. If I sound like a crazy person to you right now, perhaps this peek into my latest zine will give you some insight. Why Birding is a series in which I talk about why I love birding (what else?) alongside some nature-y collage. Issue 4 is out now! I think this one wraps up the series nicely, but that’s no promise that I won’t add another issue in the future. These are big sellers at zine fests. Seems like everyone wants to get into birding! I love seeing younger people take interest in the wholesome activities.
I also proudly finished my larger zine project, Kris In Love & Recovery #4. I made each page on a 4.25 x 5.5 “tile” as I like to call them, not worrying about pagination til the very end. In the past, my partner has made me a Scribus template document to drag each tile scan onto, four to a page, but this year I found The Zine Arranger in the Zines and Zinesters discord. What a lifesaver! I simply scanned all 40 pages in order, and the tool organized it into a perfectly paginated printing format. I’m not good at technology, and I’m even worse trying to figure out page order. This was so easy I could’ve cried with joy.
KILR4 is glossy, full of colorful collagework, poems, personal essays, and a comic I made in a Shay Mirk workshop in 2023! Read all about how Megan Falley made me cry, my imposter syndrome, family dysfunction (CW for mention of abusive family members), loss, longing and heartbreak, some gender thoughts, nature, how the pandemic affected me and continues to affect me, chronic pain, and the benefits and drawbacks of my 12 step recovery program, Al-Anon. You can listen to the accompanying playlist to this zine here. (What’s been your playlist to this late stage capitalist hellscape? Let me know in the comments.)
You’d forgotten the sweet smells of the forest,
the way the woods insulating your parents’ house felt of another world,
a paradise made of leaves and grass
and berry bushes picked in the summertime of youth,
fur and feathers,
creatures that fascinate you now.
As an impatient teenager you couldn't care less,
always urging him to keep driving, get on with the ogling already.
Pieces of junk are still strewn throughout, random piles of rusty appliances resting
in peace upon dirt and moss, after a life of toil.
The tightness in Daddy’s hug when it had only ever felt loose before.
excerpt from “Bittersweet,” KILR4
#4 will be the last issue of Kris In Love & Recovery, and it feels like I’m closing one chapter of my life. I’ve done a lot of healing since 2020. Many of the poems in KILR4 I started writing in Zine Lunch workshops. I really miss weekly Zine Lunches - they’ve cut the program down to once a month - so I dropped in on a Chicago Zine Club workshop last night. Did you know it’s national letter writing month? We made a letter zine, and I mailed mine out to an old high school friend today, with the new Betty White stamps I just bought. Does mail make you happy? Consider reaching out to someone with a card, postcard, note, or letter in the mail! Everyone could use a smile these days.
My first two events of the year went awesome. I’m so glad I’ve found my place in life! That place is zine fests, where everyone coming through the doors is weirdly obsessed with our niche topics and special interests, so much so that we have to write about it. :) In one of life’s bizarrely annoying mix-ups, my partner and I had to take our dog Dado with us on our trip to Montclair, NJ last month. She’s 8 and has never stayed in a hotel, so it was a bit nerve wracking but she did great! Okay, in the hotel she did pretty great. Dado is a dog with separation anxiety so there were challenges. But we didn’t get kicked out of the hotel which was our main fear!
The day of Montclair Zine Fest was so hot it felt like summer, and I’ve never had so much fun sweating my ass off in a packed room! They really know how to show up for zines there. I loved that the event was short ‘n sweet. I even randomly got set up next to someone I knew from a discord server. My space was tiny, but mighty. Check out my toy vending machine I got to offer mystery pins + artsnfartsnkris coupons!
Lancaster ZF turned out to be pretty incredible too, in a really neat venue. I even got to walk around and buy some zines at the very end. I had many folks offer zine trades, and I met my penpal in person! Yay! I loved checking out feminist bookstore Pocket Books while in town, and my wallet openly wept when I stumbled across Building Character, a huge warehouse filled with all different vendor spots of handmade, upcycled and vintage. I just love buying cute shit, and there was some clutch stationery, so I was in heaven! There was even a little antique printing press museum in the back.
I’ve been having fun making buttons at home, but when I get carried away and go too hard, my old rotator cuff injury acts up. Did you know I used to be a cake decorator? Repetitive stress is no joke, and I finally found relief years ago when I stopped carrying a purse, of all the things. I found two copies of old National Geographic field guides, kept one for reference, and one for cutting up. Some bird buttons from there are now available at Evergreen WB.
As for right now, I’m excited to get back to making minizines. I need to get a new ribbon for my typewriter. I’d really like to use that for the text for a mini I have started. Then might fuck around and revisit the writing I started for a zine on my gender and sexuality, that may just devolve into a fanzine for a certain nonbinary celebrity. That will be a bigger project, probably. White Lotus and Yellowjackets were truly next next next level this season, and I’m having fun reading a book called Paul Takes The Form of A Mortal Girl currently. Excited to start the new ones I got at Pocket Books too! Spring looks good when I block out all the noise from this shit eating nasty world we live in. I hope you are able to do the same, and keep yourself happy and sane. Tell me what you’re reading or watching in the comments.
I’ll leave you with this throwback from Kris In Love & Recovery 3. Intense Kris Syndrome, amirite? This poem was called “Fleetings” and was also featured in the Anxiety collaborative issue by Coin Operated Press out of Scotland a few years ago.
Be well + fight fascism when and how you can,
Kris
(they/them)