I'm making a zine!

A quick update about a new subscriber benefit I'm working on.

The Feminist Kitchen zine is well underway.

Quick post from me this week about some very exciting news:

I’m publishing The Feminist Kitchen zine.

A zine, a booklet, a series. Whatever you want to call it, I’m putting together themed collections to start sending out this summer as a way to say “thank you” to subscribers and to put the wheels in motion for a Feminist Kitchen print product that can live on your bookshelf.

Longtime readers of this newsletter know that many of my weekly “columns” are more like chapters of a book I started writing way back in 2010, when The Feminist Kitchen first launched as a blog.

I’ve always wanted to find a way to print my favorite essays from over the years, and when I realized that I could curate them around themes, topics like parenting, travel, grief or ancestry, in a format that felt manageable for a one-person operation — like a booklet with high-quality paper that’s easy to ship — I immediately started researching how I might actually pull that off.

I’ve picked the stories for the first issue, whose theme is birthdays, and am in touch with the printer who will help bring this little vision to life. Now I’m at the design stage of the process, learning about book binding and paper weights and all that fun stuff.

I’m so inspired by makers. I’ve written about many artists over the years, including a shoe designer who hosted a DIY class.

So, what does this mean for you?

If you’re a paid subscriber, hurray! If you’re still a subscriber in May, you’ll be on the list to receive the very first Feminist Kitchen zine, hopefully in June. (I will send out a form to collect mailing addresses closer to the publication date.)

If you’re not a paid subscriber, you have a few months to change your mind before the first edition goes out.

After the first zine ships, I’ll start producing the next one, which I hope to send out over the winter months. And we’ll continue that process every six months. I have more content than I know what to do with, so I’m hoping to publish quite a few of these.

At some point, I’ll sell the zines as a collection, but the best way to support this project is as an ongoing subscriber, which covers my time to pour so much of my freelancing energy into the stories I write on The Feminist Kitchen.

Don’t forget that stories from the archive that are more than one year old are available for everyone to read. Paid subscribers have exclusive access for the first year.

Thank you so very much to everyone who has made it possible to get to this point in my creative journey.

I’m so excited to share this next iteration of The Feminist Kitchen with you.

I hope these stories inspire you to think about the world and your role in it in a new way.

Writing them certainly has.

Until next week,

Addie

P.S. The January and February donations went to the National Museum of African American Music, which you’ll be reading more about in my stories from Nashville that are slated to publish soon, and Black Mamas ATX, a local organization that supports Black families and parents. (If you’re a new subscriber, I donate 10% of my Substack proceeds to LGBTQIA++ and BIPOC organizations each month.)

Thank you for making these donations possible!

Dressed up for a night out in Nashville last week.

Recently on The Feminist Kitchen:

Taking the architect’s view

They traffic in delight: Meet Mel and Dave of ‘Strong Sense of Place’

We don't have power until everyone has power

The missing link: A birthday gift for the ages

How ‘the weird New Yorkers’ won over (and helped incorporate) one small Texas town

A year ago on The Feminist Kitchen:

Puddin’ Tane and Pumpkin Pie Cake: An ode to my Great Aunt Pud

Billie Eilish and the art of radical care

Teenie Harris, ‘Silver Clouds’ and the inexplicable charm of Pittsburgh in February

'It's like painting with your food'