Doris Book: an anthology 1991-2001

Who’s my favourite writer? A nomadic girl whose name may be Cindy, and whose typewritten life story I’ve been following for a decade, clutching the photocopied stapled paper as though they were letters from a long-lost sister. Doris is the zine I drag my hungover ass to zine fairs for, playing invisible pinball with all the people I don’t feel like networking with, all to get my Doris fix. She writes about sex and girlhood with a brave authenticity, taking us on her bike rides, to the treehouses and squats she lives in and to Siberia, through her heartache and on her political explorations. Her ability to succinctly and tenderly portray her mistakes, sadness and hope on paper is matched by no other personal zine writer I’ve come across over the years, and her commitment to documenting her journey is unwavering. Though I have as many individual issues as I have kept track of over the years, having a collection of her writing and personal doodles and maps, was a dream come true, in the most earnest sense possible. Cindy is the reason I’m glad riot grrrl didn’t entirely kill personal girl zines. (Zoe Whittall)

by Cindy Gretchen Ovenrack Crabb, $12, 320 pgs, Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Ave. Portland, OR, 97217-4551, U.S.A., microcosmpublishing.com