Make a Quaranzine with Malaka Gharib

Learn how to turn a single sheet of paper into an eight-page mini-zine with Malaka Gharib and use it to document your experiences during quarantine. You can pick up a copy of Malaka’s book I Was Their American Dream from our friends at Bookshop, where proceeds will help benefit The Believer and independent bookstores.

Watch a video of the livestream below, and follow these steps to make your own.

Here’s what you’ll need to make an eight-page “Quaranzine”:

1: A paper (any dimension/type, as long as it’s rectangular).

2: Pens (or any drawing material).

3: Scissors (optional).

First, make an eight-page zine out of a sheet of paper:

Step 1: Fold paper hamburger style.

Step 2: Fold it over on the long side, so the zine is in four quadrants.

Step 3: Fold it over on the long side again, so it’s folded into eight.

Step 4: Open up the paper.

Step 5: Fold it hamburger style again. Make sure the fold is facing up.

Step 6: Cut or tear down the center fold, from the top to the middle of the paper.

Step 7: Open it again and fold it hot dog style.

Step 8: Fold it onto the side, and push to collapse it into itself, until you get something that looks like a book.

Answer each of the following questions to create your own eight-page Quaranzine:

Page 1: Title Page: Choose a title

Page 2: What part of your life has changed the most since living under lockdown?

Page 3: What’s been the hardest part of living under lockdown?

Page 4: What are some things that have given you joy?

Page 5: What is something new you learned about yourself or others during this time?

Page 6: What do you miss about life pre-corona?

Page 7: What’s the first thing you want to do post-corona?

Page 8: What gives you hope about the future?

We’d love to see your quaranzine! Post it to social and tag @believermag and @malakagharib.

This workshop was supported in part by Zappos.