A zine (abbreviated from fanzine) is a small, home-made publication, like a magazine but usually less professional. Zine culture is typically associated with riot grrrls or the 1990s, but there’s more to it than that. Historians will tell you that they’ve been around for some time, and their roots spread from radical underground publishing, through punk, football, fandom, old Hollywood, porn and other offbeat avenues.
Lots of different kinds of people make zines. Sometimes they can be a bit samey but my favourites are those that have an idiosyncratic voice, where ideas are published which would never stand a chance in mainstream or even alternative media. Reviews of canned meat, an account of someone’s longdead Quaker poly queer uncle, stories by gender variant sex workers from the 1950s to the 1970s, this is the kind of reading matter you’ll find on my shelf.