Wild Ramp Publishing was started by Keidra Chaney in 2022, after a long period of creative burnout as a journalist and digital creator. After publishing several personal and music fanzines, she quickly fell in love with the medium and community.
Wild Ramp Publishing believes that the accessibility and creative freedom of zine-making is a powerful tool for expressive writing, storytelling, and joy that is open for anyone to explore! That’s why in addition to publishing zines on all sorts of topics, we reinvest our earnings into microgrants that support zinesters, DIY creators and writers.
We’re Chicago born and raised and proud of it! That’s why our name is a clever reference to Chicago.
We publish deeply personal zines on pop culture, fandom, identity, and social issues.
Self-expression through writing is our focus, we don’t take ourselves seriously but we take the importance of writing VERY seriously.
Some of the zines we publish:
My Years of No!
A short personal reflection on boundaries, burnout, and the power of saying no as a creative and survival practice.
The Gentle Deadline
Part perzine, part ADHD-inspired workbook for writing and storytelling that is focused sustainable, compassionate creative practice.
Fangirl Confessional
An intimate look at fandom through the personal lens of a Black woman heavy metal fan. Part memoir, part cultural critique.
Act Your Age: Fandom at 35+ and Beyond!
A collaborative zine exploring what it means to be a fan at 35+, from joy and obsession to aging, identity, and belonging.
So You Want To Start A Nonprofit (or something similar)
A short introduction to different ways to do good as an organization: B Corps, 501(c)(4), 501(c)(3), and Fiscal Sponsorship. We get into Wild Ramp Publishing’s choice to operate with a fiscal sponsorship
The First Amendment and You: an all-ages zine for Chicagoans
A collaborative, all-ages zine that explores the First Amendment from a distinctly Chicago perspective – and why exercising your right to free speech matters.
Through workshops, classes and other programming, we encourage zine-making, expressive writing and personal storytelling as a creative practice as well as a tool for community building
Wild Ramp Publishing offers (at least) three $250 grants per year to cover printing costs for zines with a disability justice focus.
We’ve given eight microgrants so far!
Our grants support zine production and distribution, with a focus on marginalized and underrepresented voices. (All zines are eligible, including comics and perzines, but we have a bias towards the written word!
