Rachel Lee-Carman's zines are, to me, the perfect manifestation of the potential inherent in zines. What can zines do that a mass-published book can't? Well, they can (like in this issue of The Thread) have pages you as the reader take out and fold to create mini zines within the larger zine. They can have a sheet of velum paper for you to write on and send to her to be part of a different zine. They can be full of sketchbook drawings and scrapbook photos, can break up stories in odd and interesting ways, have detailed (almost circular) instructions for making twine out of stinging nettles in the middle of the some really heartfelt writing. They can be wilder and freer and full of a raw life that gets edited out of 99% of books.

This issue of The Thread is an anniversary, of sorts. The 17th issue of a zine series Rachel Lee-Carman started 17 years ago when she was 17. It has meditations on keeping a journal, romantic friendships, the beauty and danger of rivers over the course of a lifetime, an imagined art show, three years of grieving a parent in a personal and atypical way, Pagan customs, food and poem pairings with Anis Mojgani, so much more.

40 pages, half-letter size, French flaps.