'Zine: How I Spent Six Years of My Life in the Underground and Finally...found Myself...i...think. (Pagan Kennedy Project) - Softcover

Kennedy, Pagan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1939650100 ISBN 13: 9781939650108

Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project, 2014

Synopsis

Back in print for the first time in a decade, this is the hilarious autobiography of a pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. A young woman named Pagan, having just graduated from a writing program at a very prestigious university, is left with a single burning question: Now what? She then takes an unusual step by deciding to invent her new self—the one the public will know—by starting her own magazine, one that will be written, created, and star none other than herself.

About this title

About the Author

Pagan Kennedy is an author and pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. She is the author of 10 books, including Black Livingstone and The First Man Made Man. She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe and has published articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including Boston Magazine and the New York Times. She lives in Boston.

From Publishers Weekly

Between the ages of 25 and 31, fictioneer Kennedy (Stripping & Other Stories) published her own personal fanzine, Pagan's Head. Why? "[T]o procrastinate, to trick people into liking me, to get dates, to turn myself into a star, and to transform my boring life into an epic story. And the scary thing was, it worked." It even got her this book, which reproduces parts of the not-so-immortal Pagan's Head with the author's interpolative commentary. Pagan's Head suggests a puckish, post-college creativity: the author mixes personal essays, cartoons, photos and advertisements, covering such topics as roommates, books, dating and pop culture. In "The 12 Stations of the Cross My Career," Kennedy amusingly annotates the friezes of the incidents in Christ's Passion. Her report on a noted historian is headlined "Henry Adams: hot, single and dead." But much of the 'zine, however well written, is truly ephemera?unless you're a '70s fanatic who obsesses about The Partridge Family. As a whole, the book serves as a growing-up story; the author reflects that her fanzine voice was "a camped-up version of myself." Later, the 'zine became a refuge from the real-life trauma of her father's illness; and finally, she notes, a more mature, grounded voice has emerged. While this book won't convert those outside the author's demographic, it might go down well, say, during a long lounge at a coffee bar.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1939650100
• ISBN 13: 9781939650108
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 196