We’re getting ready for another year of putting together Chicago Zine Fest and we’re looking for new organizers! If you’ve attended, tabled, or heard about CZF and have always wanted to join the ranks of the zine fest community, then this is the perfect opportunity for you! We strive to work together as a team to create the best zine fest possible, and you can become an integral part of it.

Qualifications: Be cool. Be local. Be reliable. Be available Sunday nights. No experience necessary!

Please join us for our organizer orientation meeting, Sunday, September 24 from 3-5 pm at CHIPRC (858 N Ashland Ave). RSVP at our Facebook event and bring a friend!

An apology to CZF 2017 exhibitors from the CZF organizers: During this year’s fest, it was brought to our attention that we had printed full/legal names of exhibitors on our printed program. As part of the registration process, we asked exhibitors both for their full names (for payment tracking purposes) and for the name they would like listed on the printed program and website. When creating this year’s program, we inadvertently listed the names from the wrong column. None of us caught this in double checking the program in the busy run up to the fest. We take zinester privacy very seriously. To prevent this error in the future, we will no longer be asking for full/legal names during registration, but instead will ask for the email that the Paypal payment will be sent from. We sincerely apologize for this mistake.

Thank you to those who brought this to our attention: we appreciate the chance to offer our apologies and make corrections for future fests!

The CZF organizers would like to say THANK YOU all of the coordinators, volunteers, exhibitors, attendees, panel members, readers, sponsors, and donors for helping make CZF 2017 the best ever! Thank you for your support!!

Now that CZF is over, we’d love to hear your opinion about the fest. You can give us your thoughts on our anonymous post-fest survey, or you can email us at chicagozinefest@gmail.com. Your feedback will help us make next year’s zine fest even better!

You know we love our karaoke here at CZF!! Please plan on joining us at The Learning Machine (3145 S Morgan St in  Bridgeport) on Saturday after the fest from 8-11 pm to celebrate another fest in the bag. RSVP at the Facebook event and join us for fun times!!

To make the CZF magic happen, we need YOUR HELP! Can you help distribute posters and postcards to areas around the city before the fest? Would you be willing to volunteer for a few hours on Saturday May 6th to make sure the fest runs smoothly? If so, please let us know by emailing us at chicagozinefest@gmail.com, including the word “volunteer” in the subject line. All volunteers get a free poster of this year’s fabulous artwork by Mike Centeno (beautifully printed by our friends at Perfectly Acceptable Press).

We’ve got a lot of great stuff lined up during our Saturday May 6th zine exhibition! It’ll be open from 11 am-6 pm at Plumbers Union Hall (1340 W Washington Blvd) but we’ve got special events lined up during the day. Check it out:

Workshops throughout the day on Saturday:

• 12:15-1:15 pm: Ever Evolving Bastion of Freakdom: a Retrospection of Quimby’s Bookstore. Owner, manager, workers, and customers all chatting about Quimby’s twenty-five-year history. Emceed by CZF organizer and youth educator Alex Nall.
• 1:30-2:30 pm: Zines: the Next Generation. Join the youngest members of the zine community while they show us all up with their zine skills. Bring your work to share and sign up to read at 1:30 p.m. Emceed by CZF organizer and youth educator Alex Nall.
• 2:45-3:45 pm: Experimental Drawing Techniques with Mackenzie M-B. Ever wanted to use different modes of drawing in your zines? Like, something that is still highly observed but is more “show” and less “tell”? This workshop will teach you how to incorporate some experimental drawing techniques to deepen and strengthen your drawing practice. We will use keystone techniques in the workshop and share ideas around how to take these techniques back into the studio. Let your drawing puppy off that leash! Please bring a sketchbook and something to draw with.
• 4:00-5:00 pm: Press-less Patch Printing with Fata Morgana Press. Workshop participants will learn cheap and easy methods for printing patches at home including vegan gelatin printing, ink slab transfer, cyanotype, xerox transfer, and pochoir stenciling. Led by Mary Clare Butler and Amy Leners.

There will also be all-ages activities all day Saturday, including:

• 11:00 am-1:00 pm: Letterpress. Spudnik Press will be showing off their new portable letterpress at the activity table. Make some analog magnetic poetry to keep on a card forever or send to a friend!
• 1:00-3:00 pm: Button making. Join Busy Beaver Button Co. at the activity table to make custom buttons.
• 3:00-6:00 pm: Sticker-making & arts and crafts. Everyone is invited to join staff from The WasteShed, Chicago’s Creative Reuse Resource, for mini-zines and sticker making.
• all day: Photos. Get your glamour on in the GlitterGuts photo booth.