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New Zine Coming, and a Chapbook from a Friend

Well, I did end up raising over $200 with my Well, It's a Job zine! It was really exciting to be able to donate that much money to Immigrant Families Together. Thank you to everybody who donated. And I still have copies of the zine, so if you or someone you know would like a copy, you can still use the PayPal link that's included in the earlier blog posts to order one.

I'm working on another fundraising zine now, this one with poems based on my own experience rather than emerging from found text. I've chosen all the poems and just need to write a little intro part and do the layout. I want to get this done in time for tabling at an upcoming book fair at the Washington State History Museum on April 6. I'll post about it on the blog, too, of course! The title is Some Poems for the End of the World.

By the way, I'm not putting out a call for submissions for content for zines because I need to keep things small/manageable, but I do want to keep making these fundraising zines as an ongoing series. If you have an idea and want to talk about collaborating, I invite you to leave a comment here or reach me via email (mandypoet at hotmail.com). Or one other thing is that you could consider making your own fundraising zine or other project. I was really moved when poet and publisher Dale Wisely told me that he was inspired by me and made a limited edition chapbook to raise money for the Sexual Assault Services program of The Crisis Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

Also, through an Immigrant Families Together group on Facebook, I found out about a shelter in El Paso that has been helping a lot of families and had put out a request for support, and my mom and I put together a box of stuffed animals and other toys and games for the kids there. As a side note, it's outrageous how much it costs to ship a lightweight box bigger than 12x12". It cost us almost as much to ship the box as it cost to buy the toys. Of course, this is why it typically makes more sense to donate money or order from gift registries, etc, but in this case, we knew the folks at the shelter wanted to be able to just open a box and find a variety of small, comforting things that kids could take with them. And we were able to find affordable stuff, too, so it all worked out. It was a really nice thing for my mom and me to do together. We're going to do another box soon. We would have done it already, but I was waylaid by the end of the quarter plus back pain.

Thanks again for everyone who has encouraged me in this project so far. :)

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