Durland Alternatives Library Announces New Zine

April 14, 2026/Jen Graney

Our goal with this zine is to provide people who are experiencing homelessness with an outlet for creative self-expression that doubles as a public forum to share your experience. Because you are not your housing status! You are a unique individual and your voice matters.

Founded in 1974, the Durland Alternatives Library promotes and advocates for sustainability, social justice, and the kind of curiosity that can change the world. We are the home of Prisoner Express, a program that fosters creative self-expression for people who are incarcerated throughout the U.S.

We know through our work with Prisoner Express – and as humans – that creative self-expression is life sustaining. By creating a public forum for sharing, together we can create unique opportunities for understanding, compassion, and mutual aid.

We hope you’ll accept our invitation to share your words, your art, and your stories.

Prompt for ISSUE #1: What are you passionate about?

Is it a hobby, a person, a dream? A place, an animal, a hope? A principle, a theory, a way of being?

Send us your response in whatever form strikes you. It could be a letter, a poem, an essay; a collage, a photograph, a drawing. Your responses will be compiled for the debut issue of this zine and will be distributed for free. We can’t promise to include everyone’s work but we’ll do our best!

Things to Know:

Submissions are open to anyone who is experiencing homelessness, however you define it: living in temporary housing like a motel or shelter; encampments; living out of a vehicle; couch-surfing; etc.

By sharing your work with us, you agree that we can publish it. You retain all rights to your work.

Please include your name, age, and general location (so that we can get a sense of who is participating and better know where to focus our efforts) and let us know whether you would like to use your full name, first name only, a pseudonym, or to remain anonymous.