Spotlight: Horsebroke Press

These Days

I am grateful that Ottawa’s Horsebroke Press is donating to the campaign. Canadian residents can pick up the 12-month subscription as their reward for supporting our campaign.

“Horsebroke Press publishes amateur, outsider, and established artists of all ages, primarily through its bi-monthly zine, These Days. All zines and chapbooks are produced by hand and feature innovative and unique designs, such that no issue is like another. Despite our small size and photocopied aesthetic we pride ourselves on supporting contributors with rising honorariums, quick turnaround times, and as much hype as we may muster.” from the Toronto International Writers’ Festival Small Press Interactive Map of Canada

Jeff Blackman is the creator of These Days, a mostly monthly zine that began a month after the first lockdown. Jeff raises money to cover the cost of the zine through a Patreon account and pays contributors.

Every month, I receive these small envelopes full of poems, interviews, fun drawings, often by children. There’s something lovely about this zine, which preceded another one of Jeff’s great community building initiatives, the 2-4-1 open mic, hosted by Jeff and fellow poet, Bardia Sinaee.

Listen to Jeff talk about the zine and its origins here.

I am ever so glad to live in Ottawa where there is such a generous and warm literary community. Check out the zines here. Support the crowd funding campaign here.