Introducing: Museum Studies
Two new zines premiering April 18
Darlings,
When last we spoke, I told you about my plans for the beginning of this year. One of which in particular was offering some new printed materials to offer at events. I am excited to announce that after months of work and troubleshooting, I have completed two zines that I will start offering on April 18. I made this announcement earlier on Instagram, but I wanted to use this newsletter to tell you a little bit more about them and about the events I’ll be offering them at.
The first of two zines I created is a chapbook-sized collection of ekphrastic poetry titled Museum Studies. Art and our relationship to it has been a longstanding subject that has permeated much of my work. My recently published short story The Persephone is set in a museum as well. While none of these works were created with the intention of being part of a larger collection, I love how they compare and contrast, speak to similar but different themes. I was surprised to see that many of the poems maintained the gothic and horror sensibility that inspires much of my work despite the subject matter not obviously relating to those genres. Museum Studies features many of my favorite poems, the ones that speak from the heart, the ones I’ve struggled to publish because they don’t fit neatly into any one box and can be strange or volatile.
For this collection, I chose to type each poem on a typewriter before scanning them together. The cover and section pages feature royalty-free historic art. It was fun to blend digital work with physical work and to piece everything together by hand. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot creating this collection, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.
For my second zine, I chose to create a physical copy of my novelette Le petit mort. This work was originally published by House of Long Shadows last year and it brought many of you reading this to my Substack. It’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever created and it feels so exciting to hold a physical version of it in my hand. For this zine, I chose to use digital type, but to hand-stitch each one with a raw edge binding. It was cool to learn how to pamphlet stitch, even if I did stitch a few in the wrong order and cry about it. Given the setting of this story (Nazi-occupied France) and the main character’s struggle with her supernatural hunger, it seemed like the right time to share this story with more of my audience. I’ve chosen to do a limited run of 100 of these zines. When they are low or sold out, I might just have another short story waiting in the wings to take its place. ;)
So now that I have hopefully sold you on these, where can you buy them? I will be premiering both zines tomorrow at Slay the Lake's LGBTQ+ Horror Book Fest. I will also have my typewriter with me to write you custom poetry, as always. Here’s the events I have booked so far:
Slay the Lake LGBTQ+ Horror Book Fest (18+ event)- April 18, 2-8pm (ticketed entry 2-3pm, free entry after 3pm) at The Final Girl Bar in Kenosha, WI
Voices from the Animal Kingdom- April 24, 6-10pm (free entry) at Washington Park Media Center in Milwaukee, WI (this is not a market, but if you want to see me type poetry from the perspective of a buff tip moth, I’ll be performing 7-9pm)
Historical Bohemian Schoolhouse Open House Spring Celebration- May 2, 10am-4pm at Racine Heritage Museum in Racine, WI
Spring Queer Makers Market- May 9, 12-5pm (sidewalk sale) at the MKE LGBT Community Center in Milwaukee, WI
Spring Food Truck Festival- May 16, 10am-4pm (free entry) at Veterans Park in Elkhorn, WI
Bronzeville Farmers Market- July 11, 10am-1pm at 414loral in Milwaukee, WI
And if you’re not in the Chicago/ Milwaukee area? Send me an email at savvofragments@gmail.com and I will be happy to mail them to you! I don’t have an online platform to sell them through yet, but I am actively looking into it.
I’m so proud to be sharing my work with all of you, and I’m so appreciative of everyone who has been along with me on the journey.
Until next time,
Van