Hamilton Kirikiriroa Zinefest 2023 celebrates self-published creative writing

The Hamilton Zinefest 2023 will take place at the Hamilton City Library. Image / Kirikiriroa Hamilton Zinefest

Creative writers, geeks and zinesters are getting ready for the ninth Kirikiriroa Hamilton Zinefest where zine-enthusiasts show off their self-published pamphlets, comics, journals, collages and photo essays.

Zines (pronounced zeens) are short-run and self-published print media publications. The word is an abbreviation of fanzine, a term that first originated in the 1940s to describe amateur science fiction fan magazines.

This year’s Kirikiriroa Hamilton Zinefest will take place on June 10 at Hamilton Central Libraries in Garden Place where dozens of zine-makers will sell, swap and share their creations with each other and the general public.

There will also be an after-party where the best zines are set to be crowned with prizes for best comic, long and short form writing, political zine, pictorial zine and weirdest zine.

The 2023 Zinefest features stallholders from Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Te Awamutu and Palmerston North.

Apart from buying and swapping zines, festival attendees are invited to create a zinepage themselves, in line with the theme of cryptids (Yeti, Loch Ness Monster, Mongolian Death Worm, etc). All pages will be compiled into a zine to be mailed out to all contributors.

The night before the Zinefest, on June 9, Pecha Kucha Hamilton will be running a special zine pecha kucha, where a selection of zinesters present their work in this 20 x 20 second slide format imported from Japan.

In early June (date to be confirmed), tattooist Kendell Noyse-White will be helping Hamilton Central Library to introduce a mini zine template. The template is set to go in the library’s new zine vending machine, called the Dream Machine, which was commissioned by Tauranga Zinefest’s Hannah Wynn with funding from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

The Kirikiriroa Hamilton Zinefest was first held in the city in 2014, founded by Massey University Fine Arts lecturer and author of Aotearoa’s longest-running zine (Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People) Bryce Galloway.

The 2023 Zinefest is organised by a committee made up of writer/photographer Malcolm Hutchinson, Kendell Noyse-White, Wintec Media Studies graduate Eli Dawson, Grace Newman of The Meteor Theatre and Bryce Galloway.

To find out more visit the Zinefest Facebook page.

The Details

What: Kirikiriroa Hamilton Zinefest market day

When: June 10, from 10am to 3pm

Where: Hamilton Central Libraries in Garden Place