Things that made my weekend

Hello!

So I thought it would be ridiculously and shamelessly self-promotional to mention this. And then I thought, if I can’t be self-promotional on my own blog where can I be? And then I thought, why do I keep arguing with myself, I must look crazy.

Anyway, Emma at Flying Machine has written a lovely blog post that mentions my zine Sutures. And it’s lovely because I too have been wondering about the place that zinemaking has in my life, even as I haven’t been able to stop writing them. I’ve only been involved in zines for two and a half years and already they’ve taken over so much of my time and energy that I’m not sure they haven’t just become another escape from making any kind of meaningful decision about what to do with myself. But then finding such a nice response to something I’ve written, especially from a zinemaker that I admire and respect, is pretty much all it takes to convince me to start secretly photocopying on the office photocopier again.

x Amanda

New Zine – Sutures

Hey kids!

It’s been a little barren on the zine landscape the last couple of months but this is the week it’s going to change. Firstly, Mary-Helen has her amazing artwork up in the Degraves St subway in Melbourne RIGHT NOW as part of the Undiscovered Press exhibition courtesy of the Platform Artists Group. There are some amazing zine artists involved so I highly recommend you check it out. If not tomorrow, then definitely at the opening this Friday 12th February from 6-7pm. I don’t want to make undue use of hyperbole but I saw the aforementioned artwork with my own two eyes, and was left a changed woman.

Secondly, Sticky’s annual zine fair is being run this Saturday 13th February in City Square from 3-8pm. Now reliable sources tell me that this is not the same as Federation Square but seeing as I have no idea about Melbourne landmarks either way…

Anyway, I’ll finally have a new zine for the fair which has been in the making since last July.

A5, 40 pages, b/w

I’m not going to lie to you, this is a personal zine of the most self-indulgent variety. Inspired by my mother’s recent move back to Lebanon, it’s a record of my parent’s memories of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, a meditation on the role nationality has played in my life, an attempt to reconcile all the little parts of my life in light of her departure, and lots of other things as well. You can also play “See if you can find the mistake in page numbering” thanks to my butterfingers.

Of course, if you’re not going to be in Melbourne this weekend I am, as always, down with trades. Address details are to your right, otherwise I’ll put it up on Etsy as soon as I can!

And also, if you’ve read our zines and want to say hello this Saturday, please do! We (by that I mean I) may look incredibly socially awkward but we’re actually good people. Really.

x amanda [panda]