2018 Zine Awards: Best Micro-Literary Journal

Plumbago Magazine, Issue 3
Edited by Andy Welfle
(San Francisco, California)

CATEGORY SPONSOR: SENECA COLLEGE – ARTS, ANIMATION & DESIGN

Last year we found that lots of indie literary journals and magazines wanted to submit to the Zine Awards, but weren’t sure if it was the right place for them. And while they aren’t traditional litzines — which do have a category of their own — we did end up getting some awesome submissions. So this year, a new category for small journals and magazines printing fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction.

From Toronto-based WORDASHES, a bimonthly feminist magazine that collects writing and media about topics like sexuality, body image, and mental health, to San Diego’s Is That So? Issue 9, cheekily themed as the “mom why did you give my Bop-It to Amvets” issue, we were delighted by the response to this new category. And we couldn’t be more tickled that the winner was the pencil-themed Plumbago Magazine, edited by Andy Welfle from San Francisco.

“I submitted my zine on a lark, but I never thought I’d get to the final shortlist, let alone win the category,” said Welfle.

Plumbago was such a refreshing read, mixed with beautiful sketches, evoking a classic, analog object in an overly digital world,” said Zine Awards judge Monica Trinidad. “‘The Life of a Pencil’ by Father Kyle Sanders stood out the most. It’s a seriously hilarious and melodramatic life story from the perspective of a pencil.”

Watch the 2018 Zine Awards ceremony.

// MICRO-LITERARY JOURNAL FINALISTS //

Into the Void, Issue #8
Philip Elliott
(Toronto, Ontario)

Boy Tears Mag, #1
Ry
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Is That So? Issue 9
Catherine Snow
(San Diego, California)

WORDASHES, Issue 2
Nina V. Rye & Masha Baur
(Toronto, Ontario)

Winners + nominees available at the BP Zine Store.