It’s unclear what continued role Joe will have in Microcosm. For the time being, he’s still listed on Microcosm’s “about us” page as the person to contact about “upcoming publishing projects, printing questions, or owing you money.” Microcosm has also announced that it is moving its mail order headquarters, new address: Microcosm Publishing, 112C S Main St., Lansing, KS 66043.

Initially, the page on which this statement was posted allowed for users of the Microcosm website to post comments. In less than 1 day, commenting was closed and all comments were deleted. However, Derek Neuland created screen captures of the comments, which Alex Wrekk has posted at her website. Among the comments was one left by Sparky Taylor (Joe Biel’s partner after his divorce from Alex), which said “I’m sad to say that I no longer support Microcosm Publishing. I cannot support a group of people who so adamantly claim to oppose abuse, but in practice have let it continue for years. This abuse was perpetrated against me, and I have remained largely silent in hopes that Microcosm could be salvaged. I no longer believe this is possible.”

Alex has also published a response to Microcosm’s statement. A discussion of the topic is ongoing at WeMakeZines.

card by B.T. Livermore, www.bigtimeillustration.com

During last weekend’s Chicago Zine Festival, Quimby’s Bookstore awarded the 2nd annual Long Arm Stapler award to Jerianne, “for her tireless work as editor of Zine World and administrator for Zine Wiki,” and to Zine World:

“The classic review zine, Zine World is now on its 30th issue as a beacon and resource for independent publishing, putting zines and distros in touch with their audiences and vice versa. Zine World’s print edition is supplemented by an active Zine World website and blog, operated as a not-for-profit labor of love. Operated out of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Zine World is a testament to vibrancy of independent press in rural towns. Zine Wiki is an amazing wiki-format database of zinesters and zinedom and a welcome addition to archiving strategies for sharing/preserving/gathering information on homemade media that is often small run, often locally-distributed. Jerianne balances her involvement with promoting and participating in independent publishing with grad school, motherhood, and a day job as a librarian (let’s not forget that she helped start her library’s zine collection as well as all this other stuff!).”

We are quite honored to receive this award! Jerianne wishes to thank all of the volunteers who help make each issue of Zine World possible, and all of the zine publishers worldwide who inspire her to keep on keepin on. And: thank you to Alex Wrekk for accepting on our behalf (and for not being mad because we failed to give her a proper acceptance speech). Jerianne wishes she could have been there to accept in person.

The Long Arm Stapler Award is “an annual honor bestowed upon a group or individual dedicated to self-publishing and the First Amendment.” The inaugural award was given to the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP) in 2010.

Also, have you planned which zine fests you’ll be attending this year? Check out our events page for more details about what’s coming up near you.

Tabling is up for the Madison Zine Symposium. Check it out here. Also, tabling is almost ready for the Portland Zine Symposium. Registration will open at 4PM tomorrow, April 6th. Also, they are still looking for donations—if you are interested in helping out, click here. Every little bit counts!

“I’m working in a NYC-based collective that is creating educational and training materials for folks that identify as gentrifiers and want to do anti-gentrification organizing. We are hoping to build a model that while grounded in our local context/movement- can be useful as a framework for organizing gentrifiers in other cities. We are working towards creating a platform/concrete analysis regarding gentrification, solidarity organizing principles, and ways to both create autonomous groups working on these issues as well as plugging folks into existing exciting groups in the movement such as Take Back the Land and Right to the City.

As a part of this work I am researching what has already been written on these topics. If anyone in your organization knows of any printed or online resources that you think are useful, or other groups doing this work nationally we would appreciate it.”

If you have any suggestions, please email them to Sam at empressloophole AT gmail DOT com

Also, the Portland Zine Symposium needs your help!

“The Portland Zine Symposium will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year on August 28-29th 2010, which makes it the longest running zine fest in the world!

While admission to the zine symposium has always been free and will always remain free, there are lots of costs that come with putting together an event such as this. We really need your help! The prices for renting the space for the symposium were raised exponentially. Due to this, this year we’re making a call out to the zine community to help us out. You are more than welcome to donate as little or as much as you’d like, but we have set up several donation levels so you can get a little gift from us in return for your donation.

$5.00 – Thank You Level – Every little bit counts!

$10.00 – Mini-Zine Level – We will send you a sticker from a previous zine symposium.

$15.00 – Quarter-Size Level – You get a sticker and a 1” button from a previous zine symposium

$30.00 – Half-Size Level – You will get a recycled t-shirt from a previous year. These are really random so sizes and colors aren’t guaranteed but we’ll do our best. These are great for modifying or making them into a patch. We’ll also include a sticker and 1” button.

$50.00 – Full-Size Level – We’ll send you a 1” button, sticker, and a blue corn mug from the 8th Annual Portland Zine Symposium made from 100% corn plastic.

$75.00 – Zine Library Level – You will get an assortment of zines all created and donated by the Portland Zine Symposium organizers. We’ll also include a button and a sticker.

$100.00 (and beyond) – ZINE ARCADE Level – You get the assortment of zines from the organizers, the 100% corn plastic mug, a button, and a sticker.

Any donation of $30.00 and above will also be thanked in the 10th Annual Portland Zine Symposium program.

Want to just buy some PZS gear to support us? Check out the PZS store here.

Thank you all in advance for helping us make this year’s Portland Zine Symposium the best one yet. Happy 10th anniversary!

Much gratitude,
Portland Zine Symposium Organizers”

First, an article about the first Chicago zine fest! With pictures!

Also, if you like dinosaurs, and you like zines, this podcast is for you! “Listen in as zinester Rio Safari and librarian Cathy Camper discuss some of the best and most bizarre dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are related to birds, but were they colored like parakeets? What’s the deal with T. rex’s teeny tiny arms? And what dinos had more spikes than a punk’s leather jacket?”

Worldwide negotiations on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement have been underway for some time now. Recently a secret copyright treaty was leaked, which has many crying foul. Among the proposals: ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material (say goodbye to YouTube); ISPs have to cut off Internet access of accused copyright infringers; the whole world must adopt US-style “notice and takedown” rules. Yikes. Read more… and more…

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Indiana teenagers who were suspended from participating in extra-curricular activities and forced (by high school administrators) to attend counseling sessions because of “racy” photos they had posted on their MySpace pages. Read more…

Fox News is caught (again) deceptively using video to advance a false story line. Read more…

UK’s government was moving towards an “updating” of wiretap laws, which would include monitoring all Internet use, including the collection of communications such as email, text messages, social networks, chatrooms, and online games. For now, the scheme has been delayed, perhaps indefinitely. Read more… and more…

Other stuff you might care about:

ZineCore Radio has some new shows online, featuring Johanna Fateman, Kathleen Hanna, Jenna Freedman, Stephen Duncombe and Rachel Haywire.

Interesting piece on why a library is not digitizing zines in its collection.

Another interesting piece about Banned Books Week, from a comics perspective.

As outlined on the collective’s Myspace page, Papercut is looking for at least 180 square feet of space in an accessible area. Joining an existing community/arts/organizing space is an option, and so is renting low-cost commercial space. There’s just one absolute: “that the freedom to make decisions about the library’s internal operation stay within our collective. That is, we are not interested in another library absorbing our collective if it means the collective will not be involved.”

Anyone who has ideas or tips should get in touch with Papercut.

Source: Utne.com

Florida has now joined Missouri, Montana, Indiana and Pennsylvania in banning inmates from having pen-pals. State officials say it’s for the good of the public, but there are now lawsuits challenging the state for encroaching on the prisoners’ first amendment rights.

Student journalists at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pa., are contesting a policy that will require their student-run newspaper to be approved by the principal before publication. “We have such a strong responsibility to serve the students, teachers, administrators and all the community members, and we feel that’s our charge,” said Henry Rome, who was the paper’s editor-in-chief until graduating in June. “That will be taken away if the policy is enacted.”

Also, charges have been dropped in a lawsuit against MySpace filed by an Alaskan high school principal to find out who created a fake page using her name. The two students who created the page ultimately confessed and were punished, although the details of their punishment have not been disclosed.

OK, that’s it for your Monday news roundup. I’m still recovering from the Portland Zine Symposium. The new issue of Zine World should be out soon, so if you have any news for the Word of Mouth section, send it our way! We’re interested in new distros, zine libraries, zine events, and any other zine news that you’d like to share! wordofmouth@undergroundpress.org