To Zine or to Chapbook

Post by ZAPP intern Emily van der Harten

ZAPP is getting a makeover this week (see last week's blog for a meticulous blueprint by genius Vera/ZAPP intern, Tom Heuser), but this event, though exceedingly monumental, is not the issue that has caused me sleep deprivation the past several days. What has forced a normally easygoing girl into a state of insomnia? Well, it's these modern day self-published chapbooks and the thin line drawn between them and zines. You see, as one of the caretakers of this zine archive, I am compelled to think about what sorts of materials constitute the stuff that make zines and what don't, and chapbooks are a piping hot conundrum, believe it or not.

Zines and some modern chapbooks have a considerable amount of defining qualities in common. Generally, both are crafted artfully by hand to showcase creative book binding methods. They are self-published, and they are also produced and distributed in limited numbers by their author(s). Yet, there is a division between the two that, to me, seems quite blurred. I understand that some chapbooks are not so self-published and also that the intent of a chapbook is oftentimes to provide a foundation from which to build upon and eventually make a larger book of poetry or prose that could potentially entice a publishing company (not to assume that all zinesters vehemently oppose that brand of aspiration). But if they are self-published and handcrafted, can’t they be considered part of the zine family, too? Perhaps a chapbook that exhibits all the proper criteria may be denied the zine label because the author deems it so; the distinction is in the name and in the author’s intent. So, then, is the difference between a chapbook and a zine governed by how the author perceives his/her work, regardless of all the structurally similar aspects that bind (no pun intended) these two types of books together? Is there more to it?    

Well, I should lay these thoughts to rest once and for all and get back to the Cinco De Move-O fiesta. ZAPP is going to look its best in a matter of days.  And rest assured we’re moving in style with sombreros on our heads, mariachi blasting from our speakers and nachos in our bellies.

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