Third Woman Press is run by a collective located in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Oakland and Chicago.
Core collective members Mariana Lui, Audrey Silvestre, Daniela Jiménez, Sara A. Ramírez, Kim Tran, and Brenda Rodriguez publish poetry, spells, essays and artwork by feminists of color, with a special emphasis on queer writers and artists.
The Third Woman Press Zine is a series covering topics of love, experiences, feelings, and personal affirmations. Each zine is handwritten and drawn, cut-and-pasted, and digitally edited before being printed and stapled into the final product.
The collective is currently finishing up Third Woman Press, a traditionally bound book, and recently has expanded their online repetoire with a new podcast.
When did you start making zines … and why?
Third Woman Press began its revitalization in 2013 with a call for submissions for a new anthology due to be published this year and a call for donations with which to fund the anthology. We saw so many excellent voices around us and wanted to be able to publish more quickly and in a more nimble format, so the Third Woman Press Zine was born.
What was your first zine called? What was it about?
#TRANSLIVESMATTER is our first Zine issue and it features writing by Trans Feminists of color and a beautiful artpiece. It is not easy to condense what it is “about” because the pieces all explore different subjects from a first-person perspective. It is a beautiful first issue and I must say that it features some of my (Mariana’s) favorite poetry from all of our zines.
How do you create your zine content?
It depends on the pieces. The first zine was a heavily cut-and paste version which received a lot of love and care from Richard Giddens, who was working with the press at the time. You rock, Richie! The design was then tightened up digitally. The later versions were also created in the same way.
Why do you make zines?
We love being able to amplify voices that are not often voiced in the mainstream. Even though you hear a lot more about queer issues in the news, the voices are very rarely queer people of color. We are so honored to be trusted by so many creative people to feature their work. We just want to make these voices heard!
In addition to zines, what are you passionate about?
We are passionate about media! In addition to finishing up our first anthology as Third Woman Press, which is a traditionally bound book, we are working on media online. We have a literary journal at thirdwomanpulse.com which can be more broad in presentation. We recently published our first episode of Teeny Tiny Radical Seeds hosted by our interns, two amazing Women’s Studies undergraduate students from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Angelica L. and Itzel A.. It features an interview with artist Julio Salgado.
What is your favorite part of making zines?
Providing a medium for people of color to stop being spoken about. We can speak for ourselves and our voices are beautiful.
What is your biggest challenge in making zines?
Printing costs, haha. We are a non-profit organization and we don’t make any money at all from the press. It is completely a labor of love and proceeds from the zines just get rolled straight into the next publishing venture. We make sure that the Zines are priced really low. We want to provide beautiful, full color zines to everyone who wants one. We just love publishing!
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start making zines?
Don’t wait for it to be perfect. Just publish it. It’s a Zine, it’s not a job application. The only one setting limits on it is you (and maybe the printing costs).
Why are you tabling at Long Beach Zine Fest?
A few of our collective members met at Cal State Long Beach, and we love the community. We are so stoked to be coming back for a Zine Fest! We can’t wait to see where the creativity goes.
What else do you want people know about you or your zines?
Everyone is welcome to purchase and read them. In fact, if you don’t identify as queer, feminist, or a person of color we would like for you to definitely jump in and read what we have to say!
Connect with Third Woman Press