Miami Zine Fair Returns to Celebrate Its 10th Anniversary

If you think print is dead, the return of the Miami Zine Fair aims to prove you dead wrong. More than 100 creators will exhibit at the fair on Saturday, April 19, at Paradise Plaza in the Design District, showcasing a wealth of self-published printed materials lovingly known as zines.

"We'll have zines about the environment, the Everglades, photography, LGBTQ+ issues, about cats and history, and one about [a writer's] favorite plant in their house," event founder Amanda Keeley tells New Times.

Keeley, who is also the director of nonprofit publisher Exile Projects, launched the first Miami Zine Fair in 2015.

"Exile was a pop-up store back then," she remembers. "We had a residency at YoungArts. We had an exhibition on youth culture and zines when we decided to make something bigger. It was outside that first year, and it got to 98 degrees, but it was a great success with 60 tables. We decided to make it an annual thing."

COVID halted the fair in 2020, but in 2025, organizers are ready to give it another go.

"This is ten years since the first Zine Fair and ten years of Exile Books," says Keeley. "Everyone was asking if we were going to do an anniversary party. The only thing I could think of doing was having another Zine Fair, which is like a big party. We put the word out and got over 100 submissions. People from as far as Mexico City, China, and Italy applied. It allows people to get off their screens and meet each other in real life."

It's hard to say exactly what first-timers will encounter because the DIY nature of zine fairs lends itself to unique, one-time-only experiences. "The morning of the first year, someone called me asking if they could perform as a ventriloquist mime. I told them it was too late, maybe next year. But then I got there and a man was crawling around all in black with a puppet," she remembers. "Zine fairs always bring out the alternative flip side." 

This month's anniversary edition is free to attend and chock-full of activities throughout its five-hour running time. "There are lots of activations," says Keeley. "There are workshops involving colors. There's a limerick rally with students from Miami Dade College working on political puns. Black Miami-Dade has a listening session. O, Miami has two projects. One [activation] called TutiFruti will have participants running around with their cameras taking pictures, and they'll create a zine on site using all the images they take."

There will be plenty of items on sale, too, from food to merch to, of course, zines. But Keeley says she has long been drawn to the non-capitalistic nature of zine culture. "People don't sell all their zines. I see a lot of trading going on."

Keeley will be trading her own zine with other creators. Hers focuses on themes of movement and dance and their connections to surf culture. "I'm one of those people who brings two tote bags and tries to fill them with as many zines as they can hold."

Miami Zine Fair. Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at Paradise Plaza, 151 NE 41st St., Miami; miamizinefair.com. Admission is free with RSVP via eventbrite.com.