Paper Plains Zine Fest #3 happens on Labor Day weekend 2024.

Paper Plains Zine Fest is a two-day celebration, exploration, and exhibition of zines and zine culture in Lawrence, Kansas.

It’s gonna be great!

What’s a Zine?

zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for fanzine)

In her classic text Stolen Sharpie Revolution, zinester Alex Wrekk defines zines as “physical, printed, self-published creations that can consist of a single sheet of paper or many, fastened together, usually with staples; independently made for the love of creating and rarely make a profit; created by one person or with a group of people; usually photocopied.”

Since the 1930s, creatives operating outside mainstream culture, either by choice or due to systemic oppression, have favored zines as form of expression that promotes agency, empowerment, and community building. Zines inform, inspire, and instruct across infinite genres and topics, including DIY/how-to; music; art and design; comix; poetry; personal narratives; fandoms; feminist, queer, antiracist, and left politics; or dive deep into single-topic obsession and miscellany: there’s something for everyone!