Zines - and particularly zines by women - are being picked up by libraries across the country. Particularly in an academic setting, it might seem strange to include zines because they are not formally published works, but more and more they are coming into the research environment. For instance, Duke University's Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, contains zines as part of their larger collection on works by women in the South.
Regardless of whether you are using zines in your research paper, the center is inviting anyone that lives outside of a 100-mile radius from Durham, NC to apply for the Mary Lily Research Grant: a maximum award of $1000 dollars for any faculty member, graduate or undergraduate student, or independent scholar with a research project requiring the use of materials held by the Sallie Bingham Center.

Here are some more details should this peak your interest:
The Sallie Bingham Center documents the public and private lives of women through a wide variety of published and unpublished sources. Collections of personal papers, family papers, and organizational records complement print sources such as books and periodicals. Particular strengths of the Sallie Bingham Center are feminism in the U.S., women's prescriptive literature from the 19th & 20th centuries, girls' literature, zines, artist's books by women, gender & sexuality, and the history & culture of women in the South. An overview of our collecting areas can be found here: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/overview.html.

Grant money may be used for travel, photocopying, and living expenses while pursuing research at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

The deadline for application is January 31, 2011 by 5:00 PM EST. Recipients will be announced in March 2011. Grants must be used between April 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012.

For more information and to download a copy of the application form, please visit: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/services/grants/index.html

Applicants are encouraged to contact Kelly Wooten, the Bingham Center's research services librarian, before submitting their application. In our experience, those who spoke with a staff member about their projects produced stronger applications. Contact information is listed below:

Kelly Wooten
Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Rare Book, Manuscript, & Special Collections Library
Box 90185
Duke University
Durham, NC  27708-0185
Phone: 919-660-5967
E-mail: kelly.wooten@duke.edu<mailto:kelly.wooten@duke.edu>
Website: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham

QZAP - the Queer Zine Archive Project in Seattle, Washington - is a great collection devoted specifically to zines about queer sexuality and by people who identify as queer. They want to record a "living history" of queer independent publishing and provide the collection as a resource for both academics and anyone else interested in queer zines. While they have a physical collection, they have been making a strong effort to put all of them into a downloadable catalog. Check out their online catalog here.

QZAP is currently accepting submissions for issue five of their zine QZAP:meta. This issue is focused on music, and the zinesters are "narrowing [their] focus a little for this one" as compared to the other issues thus far.

Here are the specs:
We're looking for articles and narratives about how queer zines and queer music connect.  More specifically across genres like queercore/queerpunk, riot grrrl, and homo-hop, though please don't let that be the limit.

Some questions to think about:
Did queer zines turn you on to certain bands or musicians?
Did queer zines help to promote you or your band?
In the age of the internet, MySpace, iTunes, etc. what and how do musicians and zines interact?
What about fanzines?  Do they still exist?  Any stories about fanzines specifically?


Written submissions should ideally be 1000-3000 words (about 2-5 pages) and images should be grayscale at 300dpi or higher.

The deadline for these zine submissions is December 15th and the zine should be published in early January.

Send them in to qzap@qzp.org.

Also, if you're not feeling the music vibe, check out QZAP's roundup of other zines calling for submissions on this page.

What are you doing this Fri., Sat, or Sun. (Nov. 5-7)? Well, what you should be doing is heading out to PS-1, where Printed Matter, Inc. presents the NY ART BOOK FAIR.

The three day event is free and promises zines aplenty. There are 45 international participants listed as Artists' Zines exhibitors, coming from Zurich, Tokyo, San Francisco, and our own little backyard of Brooklyn, just to name a few. There will also be a space designated for informal zine-exchanges all weekend, with an official Zine-Trade-Meet-up on Sunday, from 3-5pm.

Within the NY Art Book Fair, the Contemporary Artist's Book Conference will also be taking place. The Conference consists of six panel sessions covering a variety of artists book and library related topics, including  "Riot Grrrl: Traces of a Movement" - a panel in which your very own Barnard Zine Librarian, Jenna Freedman, will be speaking! "Riot Grrrl: Traces of a Movement" takes place on Saturday, 2-3:30pm.

Please note that while the NY Art Book Fair is free of charge, entrance to the Contemporary Artist's Book Conference sessions are not. A full weekend pass to all six sessions is a bit pricey, but a single session ticket will put you back just $20.

The Barnard Library Zine Club meets alternate Wednesdays from 6-7 in the Digital Training Lab on the 1st floor of the library (until we get a better space).

Remaining meetings this fall are:
10/20
11/3*
11/17
12/1
12/15 (cancel for reading days?)

*There will also (instead?) be a bookbinding workshop on 11/3 8-9pm in the library staff room, led by Jordan Alam. RSVP to zines@barnard.edu by Halloween.

The next zine club meeting will be on Wednesday, October 6 at 6pm in the Digital Training Lab on the 1st floor of the library.

All are welcome. Oreo cookies will be provided along with six juice boxes. First come, first served.

http://www.syndicateproduct.com/2010/09/call-for-entires-syndicate-product-meta.html

(I love that A.j. calls for entries, not submissions.)

The META-COMICS ISSUE will include comics and essays ABOUT comics and sequential art. You certainly DO NOT have to be an artist to contribute – essays are very much welcome and encouraged!

Some potential ideas:

• The creative process of drawing comics: Where do your ideas come from? Why do you draw comics?
• Comics-related disasters: From the cat knocking over the ink bottle to basement floods that resulted in floating longboxes.
•  __ broke my heart: As a comics reader, the most soul-crushing, genre-destroying, why-the-hell-am-I-still-reading this storylines you’ve endured in mainstream comics. Why did you stop reading some titles?
• Creative space: Where do you draw? What rituals do you perform? (E.g., Lynda Barry always begins a drawing session by writing out the alphabet a few times with a brush and ink.)
• Reading comics: Are there comics that left you so emotionally wrecked that you’re scared to read them again? Flipside: are there books you have to re-read every year?
• Collecting comics: Are you a Wednesday regular? Did your mom throw out your collection when you went to college? Have you ever sold off parts of your collection for rent, food, or more comics?
• Comics and relationships: Friendships and romances found or lost over comics.
• Memories of stores past and present: Good and bad stories from the comic shop. Did/do you work in a comic shop?
• Inspirations: Artists, teachers, storytellers?
• Tangentially related ideas: Terrible, little-seen comic book movie/TV adaptations. Tales from actual comic book conventions.
• Previously self-published comics (either print or web) are welcome if they relate to the topic.

Comic artists: Final art size should reduce to around 4.5 x 7.5 inches. Four pages maximum (but if it’s really good, this can be negotiated). B&W only. Send art as 300dpi TIF files if grayscale scans, 600dpi TIF if bitmap scans. Also, once entries are in, I may be looking for small illustrations to accompany some of the essays.

Writers: Between 400-1200 words is acceptable. If you need to go longer, please do. If the writing is good enough, people will want to read it to the end. I'll let you know if a piece is simply too huge, rambling, unwieldy, or needs editing. Send essays as OpenOffice, MS Word, or plain text files, or paste the text into an e-mail.

Contributors will receive a copy of the final project.

Due date and where to submit: First deadline is JANUARY 7, 2011*. Submit your entries to syndprod@gmail.com. If you want to mail them, send them to: A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050.

* Due date subject to extension if needed, as it usually is.

First, check out this interview with MoMA assistant curator Gretchen Wagner, as she talks about the essay she wrote for she wrote for the publication Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art:

“Riot on the Page: Thirty Years of Zines by Women.”

Then, visit the Experimental Women in Flux exhibit at MoMA Library, on display until November 8, 2010.

"The exhibition features experimental works by women that form part of the newly acquired Silverman Fluxus Collection Reference Library. With a focus on artists’ books, event scores, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, and examples of the alternative press, the exhibition includes publications by Alison Knowles, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, Yoko Ono, Dorothy Iannone, and others."

via grrrlzinenetwork

"I want to put together a zine all about bras. I was writing a piece about bras for a zine I was working on about clothes and I just thought...I wonder what other peoples' stories and thoughts about bras are...I'd like to put a zine together about that.

"Possible things to write about:

• first bra, favourite bra, why you love/hate bras
• bra washing tips, bra fashion tips
• historical facts/essays about bras
• where you buy bras and why
• dealing with having an odd bra size
• to wear a bra, or not to wear a bra?
• any interesting personal story relating to bras, bra shopping
• have you ever been professionally fitted for a bra?
• if you're a male, what do you think about bras?

"Please send submissions/questions to: petitspoissons AT gmail.com and put BRA ZINE in the subject line. No fixed deadline...as soon as I have enough material I will print the zine."

Zines at Barnard that talk about bras:

• Adorable pancreas : a zine about beauty and body image Zines S686a (Rare Books)
• Beautiful bras and body hair Zines W38b (Rare books)
• Breasts?! Hell yes! : a loving guide from one boobie owner to another! Lets learn how to love and take care of our bodies together Zines B743 (Rare Books)

Also, issues 7-9 of Bust have a section called "Bra Stuffers" Zines B878 (Rare Books)

The event will be on Saturday, July 31st, 3pm-7pm At Pete's Candy Store.

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Pete's Mini Zine Fest is a free event focused on the amazing zine scene we have here in NYC. Artists will be tabling. Support the zine community in your own backyard! Give a little love--buy a little zine!

The event will be held at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, just a short walk from the L (Lorimer) or G (Metropolitan) trains.
We have a fantastic lineup, over 20 zinesters, graphic artists, photographers and bookmakers attending. PLUS performances by local singers, bands, bookmaking demonstrations and more!
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Contact: Marguerite Dabaie