April Ibarra Siqueiros
Day 8 of International Zine Month is: Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade zines with you.
On the 7th of this month I signed up for a zine swap and got assigned someone who is also in California! I'm excited to put together some zines and things to mail a fellow zinester. I'm looking forward to getting some zine mail as well. Yay zine swapping!
April Ibarra Siqueiros
Day 7 of International Zine Month is: International Zines! Explore zines from a country different from your own!
For this topic I went to Sherwood Zine Library and looked through their Asian/Pacific & Australian Politics & Culture. The one that caught my attention was Women and the Decolonization Movement in Indonesia, which has a cool letter from the editor page that talks about why the zine format worked well for this topic.
If you look through other categories on there, such as music and food, they also include zines from different countries so that's another way to explore international zines!
April Ibarra Siqueiros
Day 5 of International Zine Month is: Free Zines! Post a PDF online or leave copies of your zine in public for other people to enjoy!
For this day, I gift you the very first zine I made on my own in 2015 (it just turned 10!) and I no longer reprint so it is my pleasure to share it.
My zines are made under the name Valley of Paradox and this first issue was titled Ourstories Exchange. The idea was that I shared reflections and stories and gave readers space to share their own. This PDF file has an imposed layout, which means the pages are ordered in the way that need to be printed in order for is to be folded into a booklet. If you print double sided with short edge binding in printer settings, that should work.
I hope you enjoy my first solo zine!
April Ibarra Siqueiros
Day 4 of International Zine Month is: AmeriZINE Day! Explore marginalized voices in the Americas. Support zines written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).
Here are some websites to explore that focus on BIPOC zine makers:
These websites are a combination of a viewable archive, zine distro (distribution), and event, so there are different ways to explore and support BIPOC zines.
I'm catching up on posts after a holiday weekend so check out the next few blog entries!
April Ibarra Siqueiros
Today marks the start for International Zine Month! Every year, a poster is created by Alex Wrekk with prompts for each day in the month of July. Below is the 2025 poster available to download that I'll be following along with and sharing the results on this blog. For day one, I'll be making a dedicated post once I make a mini zine. More soon!
1 – Make a 1 page zine! Don’t know what to write about? Make it a zine about why you like zines!
2 – Zine Rewind! Dig out your favorite zines and share them! Remind yourself (and others) why they’re so great.
3 – Look up local or virtual zine event or maybe even dream about starting your own!
4 – AmeriZINE Day! Explore marginalized voices in the Americas. Support zines written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)
5 – Free Zines! Post a PDF online or leave copies of your zine in public for other people to enjoy!
6 – Zine Pride! Support zines created by LGBTQIA creators. Don’t know where to start? Check out the Queer Zine Archive Project! (QZAP.org)
7 – International Zines! Explore zines from a country different from your own!
8 – Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade zines with you.
9 – New Skill Day! Learn a new zine skill like folding, binding, duplicating, or layout!
10 – Write a review of a movie, album, book or podcast to add to your next zine.
11 – Write a letter or a short note to a zinester you admire.
12 -Zine Wiki Day! Add or update listings to Zine Wiki. Support community powered information at zinewiki.com
13 – Zine Meme! Make a Zine themed meme from an online meme template.
14 – ValenZINES Day! Write a valentine to zines and share why you love them!
15 – Zine Cuisine! Cook from a recipe found in a zine and share the results
16 – Zine Distro Appreciation! Order some zines from a zine distro online and share with people about your favorite zine distros.
17 – Zine Collab! Ask a friend if they would like to collaborate on a zine with you.
18 – From Trash to Treasure! Use recycled or scrap materials to make a zine or embellish one.
19 – Variety is the spice of life! Read zines outside your usual taste—like comics, art zines, how-to guides, or perzines!
20 – Zines of the Future! Explore zines by youth or introduce the youth in your life to zines
21 – Zine Library Day! Find a zine library in your area or check out a digital zine library archive. out or send your zines to a zine library!
22 – How-2 Day! Make a zine about how to do something you are good at doing.
23 – Zine Origin Day! How did you get into zines? What keeps you going?
24 – Slice of Life – Make a zine about events of a single day
25 – Zine Wishlist – Make a list of things you would like to read about in zines, see if anyone has any suggestions for you
26 – Make a clever flyer about your zine to send to your zine friends so they can put them in their orders or distro orders
27 – Lost and Found Day. Dig through old notebooks and finish or revive a zine you never completed.
28 – Zine Playlist! Make a playlist that represents the mood of you zine or share a playlist of what you like to listen to when working on zines
29 – Shelfie Time! Organize your Zine Collection and post a “shelfie”
30 – Take a picture with you and your zine or your favorite zines!
31 – HallowZINE! Remember zines and zinesters that are no longer with us and reflect on how your IZM went this year.
