Currently, the two main places to find zines at Brown are at the Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender (for members of the Brown community) and at the John Hay Library (open to the public).
20th century zine culture originated within communities of fans of science fiction and fantasy literature. Fans exchanged homemade booklets and newsletters by mail sharing news and items of interest. The John Hay Library holds a number of sci fi and weird fiction fanzines from the 1940s-1970s. A list of holdings can be browsed in the library catalog, BruKnow here or by searching for "fan magazines" or "fanzine" and limiting the results to materials at the Hay.
There are also fanzines available in some archival collections, including the John J. Weir papers and the papers of the Gaylactic Network.
The modern zine movement emerged out of punk fandom, and later, the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s.
The Hay's punk zines can be browsed here.
The Malana Krongelb Zine Collection began in 2017 and is part of the Pembroke Center's women and gender at Brown collections. It consists of administrative files and zines that focus on social justice and marginalized identities, dating from 1974 to 2018. Areas of strength include zines by and about people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer peoples, disabled people, interpersonal violence, sex and relationships, sex work, the prison industrial complex, self-care, feminism, and punk. These zines are available through the John Hay Library.
Click here to view the finding aid and search the Malana Krongelb Zine Collection. Zines are alphabetized by subject and an explanation for the subjects chosen is available under the Scope & Content section.
Zines can be viewed by appointment in the John Hay Library Special Collections reading room.
To browse the Malana Krongelb Zine Collection, view the finding aid here. Zines can be requested by container through BruKnow here.
Cartonera is an artistic and social justice publishing movement that originated in Argentina in 2003, and expanded throughout Latin America and beyond. Cartoneras are bound in recycled cardboard covers and contain prose, poetry, and artwork.
The Hay holds significant collections of cartoneras and zines from countries in Latin America.
The growing collection of Native and Indigenous-authored zines explores a variety of topics including social and political activism, gender, sexuality and two-spirit identity, Indigenous epistemologies, storytelling, botanical and medicinal knowledges, colonialism and Indigenous futurism.
Please contact hay@brown.edu for information on how to access these zines.
Some of the manuscript collections held at the John Hay Library also contain zines. Currently, the collection with the richest collection of zines is the Kate Bornstein papers.
Additional zines within the John Hay's collections can be found by searching "zine" or "zines" in BruKnow.
In 2015, Brown University student Malana Krongelb '19 began the Sarah Doyle Zine Collection. Areas of strength include zines by and about people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer peoples, and disabled people as well as zines about interpersonal violence, sex and relationships, sex work, the prison industrial complex, self-care, art and activism, feminism, and punk. These zines are available through the Sarah Doyle Center.
Sarah Doyle Center student librarians curate the zine collection at the center and create related programs and events connected with the collection.
Click here for more information on the Sarah Doyle Center Zine Collection.
Click here to search the Sarah Doyle Zine Collection.
To access the collection, and if you have questions about the catalog or contributing to the collection, contact the Center at sarah_doyle_center@brown.edu.
Many of the zines in the Sarah Doyle Zine Collection and the Malana Krongelb Zine Collection are by and about Brown University students. The following titles can be accessed through the Malana Krongleb Zine Collection at the John Hay Library.
Brown University 2015-2016 by the (Micro)aggressions at Brown PAR team
Neocolonial Providence: Nonprofits, Brown, and the Company Town
The Pembroke Center Archives at Brown University: Women's History is Here
Providence 101 by Rachel Sohl for the Howard W. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University
Silence + Voice: Sexual Assault at Brown by bluestockings magazine
SPACE: A Prison Arts Journal by Space in Prison for the Arts and Creative Expression (SPACE)
Women's History is Here! The Pembroke Center Archives at Brown University by Anna Steinberg
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