"distro" is short for "distribution". a zine distro is an easy way to buy several zines at once. a reader need only peruse the catalogue, make their selections, & send off their money, & the person running the distro will mail them. it's sometimes faster than odering directly from the zinester; sometimes distros will still have copies of a zine even after the zinester has run out. but the real benefit comes from having a wide selection of zines to choose from, & getting big packages in the mail that will provide reading material for a while to come.

learning to leave a paper trail distro is run by one person--me, ciara xyerra. i selected all the zines i carry. i especially enjoy innovative personal zines, travel stories, information on reproductive or mental health, unique cooking & craft zines, & writing that takes a radical anarchist/anti-authoritarian or d.i.y. attitude toward life. stories about alternative parenting, cooperative living, collective projects, acknowledging that our choices are made in a political sphere whether we are particularly political or not, interrogations of privilege & oppression, & alternatives to mainstream culture appeal to me most. but i especially try to focus on good writing & interesting layout, because that kind of quality is what sets a zine apart from the rest of the pack. if people share my general interests, or if they are just looking for top-notch zines in a glut of options, they are likely to find something they'll enjoy through my distro.

who is ciara xyerra? what is her involvement in the zine community?

well, that would be me. i'm 29 & have lived in boston for over seven years. i've also lived in minneapolis, los angeles, portland (oregon), & bowling green (ohio). i wrote a zine of zine- & punk-themed logic puzzles, called "up the logic punks!" (june 2007), & a second issue was released in september 2008. i've also written two personal zines in the last few years, "you live for the fight when that's all that you've got" (february 2006) & "love letters to monsters" #1 (august 2007). all of these zines are available from the distro. i wrote a zine for a few years called "a renegade's handbook to love & sabotage". i have written other zines over the years as well. i made my first zine when i was thirteen or fourteen, but was contributing to zines for a while before that. i organized the first bowling green zine conference (now the allied media conference) in 1999. i was involved a tiny bit in getting the first portland zine symposium together, but had moved away from portland before organizing really got rolling. since moving to boston, i have organized five boston skillshares, which are weekend-long conferences full of d.i.y. workshops taught by people throughout the radical/d.i.y. community. i briefly volunteered at the liberation collective in portland in 2000 & volunteered at the lucy parsons center in boston for about two years. i volunteered for six months at the papercut zine library in cambridge. i have been heavily involved in the zine community since 1991, when i discovered riot grrrl. i have been running the distro for five years.

my main projects right now are the distro, writing my own personal zines (something new is in the works--i'm hoping to have it done by the beginning of 2009) & logic puzzles, & various crafty projects i get up to now & again. i also read voraciously (well over one hundred books a year) & keep an exhaustive journal. i'm an anarchist & a feminist & my political outlook informs all of the projects i'm involved in, including those that concern zines. my zine projects are not for profit & my primary interest in running the distro is to help zinesters get their projects out to a broader readership & to put excellent zines in the hands of people that want to read them. i travel a fair amount, tabling at different zine events around the country (i have attended zine fairs in kansas city, minneapolis, detroit, portland, bowling green, boston, los angeles, & other kinds of conferences with d.i.y. elements in alabama, d.c., new york city, berkeley, chicago, bloomington, columbus, etc) & investigating local infoshops, collective houses, & other projects. this is pretty much my passion & i don't intend to disappear anytime soon, even if i do sometimes take extended hiatuses from making zines myself.

how does the distro work? how do you get zines & how do get them to me? where does this work take place?

when i decided to launch the distro, i sorted through the huge steamer trunk in which i keep all the best zines i have received in the last fifteen years, & i made a pile of the more recent ones that i would have liked to carry. i tracked down contact information for each of the zinesters, & i wrote to them, explaining my intentions & asking if they were interested in working with me. everyone said yes, & little by little, packages of zines from all around the country, & some from other countries, started arriving on my doorstep. i decided from the beginning that i would pay all zinesters upfront, & i poured hundreds of dollars of my own money into paying zinesters before the distro even went public. over the years, i have established personal relationships with just about every zinester i carry. i've met & spent time with almost all of them. some of them are really close friends that i talk to at least once a week. i even dated one zinester i worked with. i still operate the same way: reading all the zines i can get my hands on, contacting people if i like their stuff, writing checks or sending people distro stock for trade. i also accept zines for consideration from anyone who cares to send them to me.

when i get an order, i process it. every person that orders from me has a card in my filing system with their contact info & what they ordered. distro zines are stored in a teetering but painstakingly organized pile of milk crates in the office i share with my boyfriend, jared. envelopes, tape, & other office supplies are stored in another crate. once the order is processed, i pull the zines, package them up, write a friendly note, & take them to the post office. it takes fifteen to thirty minutes to put each order together. i do my best to keep mistakes (mis-addressed envelopes, inaccurate orders, etc) to a minimum. i do everything myself. all the money that comes in goes back into the costs of postage, office supplies, copying, paying zinesters, paying for web hosting, etc. the only times i use distro money for personal stuff are after tabling at zine-related events, when i usually treat myself & whoever helped me out to a nice dinner & maybe a beer.

i might try updating this page with a little more frequency, sort of as a journal of my thoughts about being a zinester & distro operator. so check back & see what's new once in a while. feel free to write me with questions you might like to see answered here. & use the following address to send me postcards, fancy chain rings, & plastic dinosaurs! thanks! (last updated 9/30/08)

ciara xyerra * 12 lincoln ave. #3 * somerville ma * 02145
learningtoleaveapapertrail@hotmail.com