Zine Fair

The Cowley rag is a community-led, print zine which is all about making bad art for the Cowley/Oxford community. The zine mainly contains community-based art pieces that focus on free expression rather than a hyperfocus on quality. Our goal with the zine is to remove the barriers of entry (whether mental or social) for creating and sharing art. The work is submitted by local community members and can be in any medium.

  @thecowleyrag

We are a queer zine collective using craft and a free approach to collage to explore community and care. With members from My Normal, Trans Happiness Is Real, and Common Books, pursuing an art-for-all approach in the Oxford context is what's brought our collective together.

 @imperfectboundcollective

LUNCHBOX is one of Oxford's newest creative magazines; that is, we are a space for writers, artists and others to submit their silly scribbles, unorthodox sketches, eerie daydreams - you name it. If it's messy, you best believe we'll eat it up.   

Madras is a student journal, created by 4th-year student Brandon Sambrano, which aims to publish undergraduate essays on topics related to the Caribbean Arts and Humanities, including commentary on the works of Caribbean authors, artists and thinkers. It is the first project of its kind at the University of Oxford. The first edition is focused on the French Caribbean and includes essays from five contributors. The full title is Madras: A Student Journal of Caribbean Arts and Humanities.

  @madras.oxford

NEON BOOK CLUB is a Tokyo-based community of book lovers who come together in an intimate space to discuss, listen, and perform. Founded in 2022, the regular bilingual book club events take up books related to feminism, queer sci-fi, contemporary art etc., and have collaborated with exhibitions across Tokyo. NEON BOOK CLUB Zine N.1 is its first publication and collects short stories, essays, poetry, visual art and reading performance from the book club community, many of which are accompanied by translation (English and Japanese).

 @neon.bookclub

Oxfag Dykegest zine is a new Oxford zine about queer silliness.

Onyx Magazine is an independent Black creative magazine publishing poets, artists, writers and creatives. Launched in 2018, our vision is to provide a long-term publishing infrastructure that combats the history of suppression and devaluation of Black creative artistry within mainstream publishing. With each annual edition, onyx is providing an alternative and sustainable community-led Black creative space that authentically champions talented Black creatives through publication and communal gatherings.

Rose Nordin is a graphic designer and artist based in London and is currently in residence at Somerset House Studios, London. She is a founding member of OOMK (One of My Kind) art publishing collective, focused on supporting self-publishing as “a vehicle to an independent validation to ones’ own culture, history, politics and sense of self” [John La Rose]. Collectively, OOMK runs a community Risograph press called Rabbits Road Press. Former Social Practice fellow at the University of Chicago (2017) and currently an associate lecturer at UAL, Rose teaches across BA and MA Visual Communication in publishing, speculative design and socially engaged practice.

sinθ (Sine Theta) is an international print-based creative arts magazine made by and for the Sino diaspora. Established in 2016, we have published 30 print issues and maintain an active online community.

 @sinethetamag

sweet-thang zine is a print zine and independent press publishing work by Black creatives worldwide. We publish zines that uplift, archive and advocate for the voices of Black folks, particularly fostering a space for women, queer and trans folks. We want our publications to be written collaboratively with artists from all around the world who share a love and interest in the practices of zine culture, radical publishing and art as activism. We also deliver zine-making workshops to facilitate collective making, build manifestos, and learn about the history of zines and creation through an accessible, anti-mainstream lens.

Tinashe Mushakavanhu is a Junior Research Fellow in African & Comparative Literature at the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT), St Anne's College. He holds a PhD in English from University of Kent (England) and completed postdoctoral work at University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). He has an interest in literary archives from southern Africa and interrogates issues to do with literary legacies. Apart from writing journal articles, book chapters, this work also manifests through a series of creative publications, exhibitions and digital humanities projects.

Eric Yip is a poet and writer from Hong Kong. He won the 2021 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. His poems have appeared in Best New Poets, The Guardian, Oxford Poetry, and The Poetry Review. His debut pamphlet is forthcoming with ignitionpress in 2024.

Jennifer Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong and now lives in the UK. She has a creative writing PhD from Oxford Brookes University. Wong is the author of 回家 Letters Home (Nine Arches Press, 2020). Her poems and stories have been published in Sine theta, Under the Radar, Poetry London, Magma Poetry, The North, Tupelo Quarterly, Signal House Edition, Voice and Verse, Asian Cha, The Rialto, Wasafiriand anthologies. In 2022, she was a visiting fellow of Oxford TORCH in 2022. She is the author of Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry (Bloomsbury, 2023) and a co-editor of State of Play: Poets of East and Southeast Asian Heritage in Conversation (Outspoken Press, 2023).

Students from Oxford Brookes University, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Publishing courses will present an array of collaboratively created zines, many of which were created in the Bibliographical Press at the Bodleian Library.

 @brookesfineart | @oxford_graphics | @oxfordpublishing

The Isis is the longest-running independent student magazine in the UK (established at Oxford University, 1892). Bailed out by Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Nigella Lawson at various points in its history, The Isis has survived against all odds. They have been banned in Germany, threatened by blackmail, and mocked by Punch Magazine. Along the way their reporters have been prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, hosted by Wikileaks, and forced to walk out over threats of editorial censorship during The Isis’s radical left-wing heyday. On this journey, their ranks have included the likes of Evelyn Waugh, Sylvia Plath, Terry Jones, Graham Greene, Michael Foot, Richard Ingrams, Hilaire Belloc, and of course Mostyn Turtle Piggott, our delightfully eccentric founder.

 @isismagazine.org.uk

There will be contributions by students and tutors from The Ruskin School of Art, made at the Bodleian’s Bibliographical Press and Ruskin printmaking studio under the guidance of artist and Senior Tutor, Graeme Hughes. Amongst the range of works to engage with The Ruskin will be showcasing a recent zine publication by students Temitayo Bandele and Ella Soni, exploring the Ruskin archives under the guidance of artist, Director of Art and EDI Academic Lead, Daria Martin. Elleanor Chapman will be sharing her own zine library; Maisie Goodfellow and Eve Alexander will be showcasing their printed works; Sui Hin Mak brings his poetic publications and Devin Kenny will show zines and a collaborative album made with Maria Chavez and published on flexi disc. On the day you will also be able to browse works by Fern Kruger Paget and Eve Aspland and sign up to their zine-making workshop on Sunday 3 March at The Bibliographic Press.

At the Zine Fair the organisers of the ‘Collage Comparison’ symposium (Georgia Nasseh, Joseph Hankinson and Tinashe Mushakavanhu) will introduce the ways in which archival research and zine-making can intersect, offering academics from all levels new alternatives in exploring the relational logic underpinning different forms of comparative practice. This will be done through a small exhibit about ‘Collage Comparison’—featuring a description of the event and the material outputs, including a chapbook made from the Archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement —as well as take-away zines made by the organisers which explore the ways our own research can take impetus from the practice and aesthetics of collage. We will also have a button/pin-making machine.

Adam J. Maynard is an artist and poet living in Oxford. His poetry has been published in: Prelude, FENCE, SAND Journal, West Wind Review, Abraham Lincoln Magazine, Zembla, Purple, TANK, Neru Phuyt Magazine, Lamination Colony, Elderly, LIT, Robot Melon, Pineapplewar, New Wave Vomit, Kill Author, The Corduroy Mountain, Pangur Ban Party, NOÖ Journal, Red Lightbulbs, Up Literature, Housefire, and Horse Nihilist among others. His book of short fiction, Stumble, was published by Pulp Books. His chapbook, The Frogs, was published by Plain Wrap Press. The Sea, The Flowers and The Forest, a poetry pamphlet printed at The Bodleian Bibliographical Press, was also recently published.

Caiban Butcher is a writer who lives and works in Oxford. He will be displaying a pamphlet of short fiction recently printed at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press.

Good Press is a workers cooperative based in Glasgow, dedicated to the promotion, distribution and production of independent or self-published printed matter alongside co-projects, Sunday’s Print Service and Lunchtime Gallery. We are a bookshop, events and gallery space, risograph printer and bookmaking studio. All of the publications you find in-store and on-line are either self-published or produced by an independent small press, gallery, group or organisation. We always have, and continue to operate an open submission policy.

 @good_press

Anthroposphere: The Oxford Climate Review is an interdisciplinary magazine founded at the University of Oxford and open to contributors from around the world. As the first international, student-run publication on climate change in English, we take pride in publishing pieces that are insightful, thought-provoking, and interdisciplinary. Pieces in Anthroposphere sit at the intersection of the artistic and the academic, engaging with the changing climate through feature journalism, art, poetry, prose, and more. While our team remains primarily Oxford-based, we publish both print and digital copies of the magazine for a growing international audience of over 1,000 monthly viewers on our website.

 @anthrop_review