Community Outreach

At Feels Blind Literary, we feel it’s important to elevate marginalized voices through the work we publish, but also through the work we do in the communities where we live. Starting with Issue #7, each issue will have a companion or apprentice project giving back to those communities in some way.

Our first is a zine collaboration benefitting Safe Harbor, an organization providing free resources to survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Our Editor in Chief, Lindsay Chudzik, recruited a team of her service-learning undergraduate students to collaborate with previous Feels Blind contributors to illustrate their work. This felt like a win-win-win: our authors will see their stories in another medium and those stories will find a larger audience, the students who mostly are majoring in art will get hands-on experience and have the opportunity to add to their portfolios (you can read more about these artists below), and Safe Harbor will receive monetary support for the important work they do.

Our first batch of zines will be available at our table at AWP (T126) and at our AWP Offsite Event, but most also will be available for direct purchase using the links below for each story. We will be adding to this list in the coming weeks:

“Sleep Deprivation Was Banned by the Geneva Convention, You Know” by Shannon Frost Greenstein (first appeared in Issue #6 of Feels Blind Literary), illustrated by Annabelle Starr

“The Buddy System” by Tricia Leaf (first appeared in Issue #5 of Feels Blind Literary), illustrated by Kelly Zhao

“Stray” by Brigette Pugh (first appeared in Issue #5 of Feels Blind Literary), illustrated by artist I.R. Sheppard

“She Stepped into the Ocean” by Madison Gray (first appeared in Issue #4 of Feels Blind Literary), illustrated by Emily Belson

*”Holiday Guests” by Theresa Ronquillo (first appeared in Issue #5 of Feels Blind Literary) was illustrated by Atieh Zanganeh, the same rockstar who designed our new logo. These are not available for purchase through MagCloud because they have to be assembled by hand, but we will have copies at AWP.

 

Safe Harbor Zine Project
Spring 2022

 

Contributing Artists

  • Annabelle Starr

    Annabelle Starr is an artist based in Richmond, Virginia. After graduating as valedictorian from Prince George High School, she is currently pursuing her BFA in painting & printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. Follow her on Instagram at @starrcadium to see more of her work, professional and otherwise.

  • Atieh Zanganeh

    Atieh is a student at VCU, working towards majoring in communication arts and illustration. Her passion for books and compelling story telling has also lead her to consider a minor in creative writing. She specially enjoys studio ghibli movies and exploring stories/character designs of powerful women. She is looking forward to a career in Animation, mostly character design, or working as a game designer. Other than creating art, her hobbies include hoarding books, getting way too geeked about stellar animation, watching anime, and trying very hard to be more public with her art.

  • Kelly Zhao

    Kelly Zhao attends VCU in pursuit of a biology degree on the pre-medical track. Originally from Williamsburg, Virginia, she loves to spend time in nature and exploring new hobbies. Examples of hobbies explored include but are not limited to dance, gymnastics, art school, piano, taekwondo tennis, and now, zine design.

  • I.R. Sheppard

    I.R. Sheppard is a freshman student currently enrolled in VCUarts. While she intends to major in craft and material studies, she has had previous experience in many forms of art. One of her hobbies is exploring comics and digital illustration, so when given the opportunity she was ecstatic to participate in this zine project. Her work generally incorporates all manner of creature and beast, so Brigette Pugh’s lycanthropic prose in “Stray” was what caused her to gravitate towards this project in the first place. She is infinitely grateful for this opportunity, and more of her work can be found on her website https://sheppardi2.wixsite.com/irsheppard or at her instagram @she.ppard