ZINE: A Recent History

In 2012, when I decided to apply for a faculty position at Berkshire Community College, I of course first did my homework, and was pleased to discover that the college had a literary journal … and one that had been in existence since the early 90s. In fact its title felt to me like a throwback to the time of its inception: it was called Zine, a term that usually refers to a small run of often photocopied, frequently stapled, almost always DIY magazines whose content, according to The Creative Independent, “subvert[s] dominant and patriarchal ideologies through the sharing of lived experience.” I was curious about this Zine. In my application cover letter and during my subsequent interviews, I asked about the journal and discovered that it had not had a permanent or devoted caretaker in some time … that the project had been for many years tossed from hand to hand, its future constantly in question. I was able to take a look at some recent issues: they were high-gloss, high-color, and heavily illustrated – in other words, expensive, running on a budget that was very potentially unsustainable. I had some editing experience behind me, having for several years been on the masthead of Tarpaulin Sky journal and press, and having as a part-time faculty member launched a newsletter at the School of Art at the University of Arizona … and so with some confidence I pitched myself as the faculty advisor to Zine.

It was not until 2013, my second academic year at BCC, that I began my role as advisor to the journal, and when I did so my most essential goals were clear: to lower its cost; to ensure the quality of its content and aesthetic; and to involve more students. The journal’s production had lacked stability, and it was important that I create that. For too long the creation of Zine had been haphazard and unsure. Through my contacts at Tarpaulin Sky, I discovered a wonderful printing company called BookMobile, and through a burgeoning friendship with a member of BCC’s fine arts faculty, I connected with a talented local designer and layout artist named James Grady, who also happened to be an alumnus of our college. Six years and six Zines later, I was still working with both BookMobile and James, and was very pleased with Zine’s consistent and understated aesthetic. The pages in these issues – from 2014-2020 –  are white, the type is simple, and the visual art is housed in a dignified semi-gloss insert. I also managed – with the support of the College Foundation and the Office of Student Life – to stabilize the journal’s annual budget.

While the production process of Zine each year from 2014-2020 stayed more or less the same, what changed each year, of course, was the work within the journal’s pages, the students who produce this work, and the students who volunteer as its editors; this changing population is indeed what keeps the project dynamic and fresh and worthwhile. After all, the journal – which is and has always been a gathering of student writing and visual art – acts a record of the concerns and artistic creations of our constantly shifting student and alumni body and those who care for and work with its members. 

And when 2020 arrived, Zine had to do what it does best: transform itself to reflect our changing world, both locally and globally. And so I learned to build a website (to the best of my totally untrained ability!), and this site is where the journal has been housed since.

Each year of Zine begins with a bunch of unknowns: Will the journal receive writing submissions? Will it receive art? Will any students be interested in editing, and if so how involved will they want to be? For several years I had a student editorial staff of 5-7; one year I had only one. One year I had two student editors, but they more or less vanished partway through the project; one year I had four women who were enthusiastic and engaged. Our longest issue to date was in 2015 at 62 pages; our shortest was in 2019 at 46. We have had as many as 75 people show up at our annual in-person launch event, we have had as few as 30 or 40, and, in the throes of the pandemic, we had our launch events via Zoom. I have met the parents and spouses and children of proud, tearful students whose work we published once, and I have known students who cheerfully submit work for years beyond their graduation. We have published short stories about zombies and about parenthood, creative nonfiction about suicide and about sex work, poetry about Grandmas and about Afghanistan, and academic writing about Margaret Atwood and about Anita Hill. We have included script when script has been submitted, and have created a section for mixed-genre writing when what comes in cannot easily be categorized. Like a living organism, the journal adapts – expands, contracts, changes color – in response to its changing environment. I am curious about what form it will take when I myself am no longer involved. And even though there are no longer any metal staples or Xeroxes used 90s-style in the making of the journal, in many ways this project is indeed still DIY, continuing to keep it real by the sharing of lived experience.

Julianna Spallholz

Professor of English

Faculty Advisor to ZINE, 2013-2023

At its inception some time in the mid-1990s, ZINE (pronounced /zēn/) was created to provide the creative minds at Berkshire Community College the chance to express themselves. ZINE is BCC's journal of the literary arts. While it has a faculty advisor, it is otherwise entirely student-driven. ZINE publishes poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, script, cross-genre work, visual art, critical essays, and more. Today, ZINE’s mission has remained, at its core, the same as it was in the ’90s. However, it has changed quite a bit due to the rapidly evolving environment of 2020. Face-to-face meetings have become virtual, and what was once a physical publication is now an online journal. While these changes are overall setbacks, they have set the stage for an all-new era. The team behind ZINE is always looking for new members, even in this time of conflict. ZINE hopes to capture your ideas in the most authentic form possible. With ZINE, there is no need to restrain your beliefs or worry about them being censored. ZINE is, and always has been, the best way to express yourself at BCC.

So, what does ZINE look like in your average school year? ZINE is published annually during springtime by a group of student editors and a faculty advisor. A digital release is made available on the BCC website on launch day, while the physical copy is made available all around campus. Copies are completely free and are available to every student at BCC. A typical issue of ZINE will contain an inside cover crediting those who worked on the magazine, a table of contents, and pages filled with student submissions. The deadline for submissions is usually sometime in February to provide sufficient time for printing. ZINE shapes itself based on the submissions it receives. In the past three years, in order of frequency, ZINE has received a great deal of visual art, poetry, and creative nonfiction and has received relatively few works of short fiction, other genres, and literary criticism. Nonetheless, it is important to keep in mind that each year, it may look completely different from the last. ZINE always finds a way to work your vision into the magazine and collaborates with artists and authors to share creative and critical visions, regardless of any statistics of the past years’ submissions.

How has ZINE changed to accommodate the chaos that is the 2020 to 2021 school year? Well, for one thing, it has changed from being both physical and digital to being entirely digital.  Upon the magazine’s publication, a virtual launch event each year in April allows students to read their creative pieces to everyone who attends. It is a golden opportunity for everyone involved.

If you want to have your voice heard, ZINE is the magazine for you. There are many aspects of ZINE that make it the best way to express yourself as a BCC student. ZINE is shaped each year by the submissions it receives, meaning that you can make it whatever you want it to be. By the end of the year, each issue ends up being a physical representation of every BCC student’s voice. As a student editor, artist, or author, your name will be credited in the current issue of ZINE. Your name will be out there for the world to see, and you can build your reputation as a creative or critical creator. ZINE is a safe haven for expressing your ideas, one that listens to every idea you wish to share and will make sure that your voice is heard. Whether you choose to participate in it is completely up to you. Just like any other college creative outlet, you need to reach out to participate. The choice is entirely yours. If you choose to join ZINE, we are happy to welcome you. For those who do not choose to participate, we have no ill will. ZINE is for you, the BCC student. How you choose to utilize it is entirely up to you.

Finley Root, Editor-in-Chief

ZINE 2021