Introducing Greater Constellations: A 2021 Prison Writing NaPoWriMo Zine

Posted by PEN America on June 29, 2021

Though they have been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century, zines—short for “magazines”—became most commonly associated with the do-it-yourself and punk aesthetic sensibilities of the late 1970s and 1980s. Easy and affordable to make—often held together with tape, run off a photocopier, and assembled by hand—zines have always been an accessible grassroots method for artists, musicians, and writers to share their work with peers and collaborators, without waiting for the fickle approval of gatekeepers.

Drawing on this rich history of community-oriented creative dissemination, our Greater Constellations zine springs from the inspired poetic work created by members of our PEN America Prison Writing community during National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo), an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.

Learn more and download the zine.