Local writers talk zines after the first AZF
After the festival in Castleberry Hill, authors talked about the beauties and challenges of DIY literature
- Isadora Pennington
- Kory Calico talks at the first AZF
Last weekend, the first Atlanta Zine Fest was held in Castleberry Hill. The event included local artists as well as those who made their way across the country to participate in the event designed as a small marketplace for handmade books and a series of panel discussions on DIY culture. CL sat down with event organizer Amanda Mills, founder of the Atlanta Zine Library, along with Kory Calico, current head of Kill Your Darlings writers workshop, artist Becky Furey, and Jessie Feigert, Ar’nt I A Woman blog author, to discuss the importance of zines as a platform, the challenges of DIY, and the art of documenting Atlanta subculture from your bedroom floor.
CL: Talk a little bit about the zine-making/DIY process.
Jessie: This was my very first zine and I very foolishly went in thinking, “This is gonna be really easy,” because the appeal is that anyone can do it. I still believe that, but you do have to do hard work to get it done. Printing was my biggest headache. I spent three days straight at FedEx.
To me the content was more important than the aesthetics, it was just more of using this as a platform. I wanted more people to start talking about mental health, and women that suffer from mental health issues.
Amanda: I have a sincere interest in the copy machine. Knife!! of Atomic Heat Ray, who gave a sticker-making workshop during the Zine Fest, has an entire printing press. He has like some ancient steel thing - not a letterpress, but it’s kind of similar- two or three office copiers and a risograph.
A risograph is the exact same thing as a photocopier but instead of using toner it uses actual ink. Another thing is it prints really fast for some reason so when you hit copy, and you hit like 100, him and I were doing this just for the fun of it, and paper is just flying into your face, like 20 a second.