K/S Reflections

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In 2004, Liz Woledge proposed a project, "a memory archive and zine edited and produced by Liz."

While the project did not end as first expected, much of the responses she received became part of Legacy, a five-volume zine set published in 2007.

The Original Proposal

Were you involved in fandom in its early years? Or have you been heavily involved in fandom for some years? Do you have a story to tell about your life in K/S?

I am looking to preserve the history of our fandom, not through the zines we have created, but through the memories we share....

This project has been inspired by listening to people joyfully sharing memories at cons and thinking what a rich a delightful history we have. I want to know about: the trouble you had getting zines through customs, how early zines were reproduced, how certain zines like One Night Stand had a history of their own, how you and your friends got involved in producing zines or writing or reading or about meeting your first fellow K/Ser in the flesh, about the joy of receiving a long-awaited new zine, about the story that was K/S for you. I want to know how fandom has changed over the years, what were the issues that mattered then? And what are the ones that matter now? How did people's experiences differ in the UK, The US, Europe and the world over....

There are several things I would like to do with these memories: Firstly and most importantly I would like to publish a zine of memories, K/S Reflections, for distribution in our own fandom—just like any other zine. I know how much I have enjoyed listening to people's stories of the history of fandom, and I am sure others would enjoy reading them (submissions for this could carry your name or be anonymous). However, I can see that some people might have memories to share that for some reason they don’t want to make public in fandom, and I would also be interested in collecting these with the proviso that they be kept in a private "memory archive"—which only I would have access to and I would guarantee privacy for a number of years—say 30 or 50 (by which time I’d be 78 and might be losing my marbles!). Finally in years to come I might be interested in making some kind of academic work out of this but of course ONLY in those cases where permission for general publication was given (again you could remain anonymous in this case if you wanted). I have no intentions in this regard at the moment, but I do think it is a shame that we fans never really speak for ourselves in the academic world, but are only heard through the often distorting voices of the likes of Bacon-Smith and Penley...

I would also be interested in any photos or other materials that you think would be of interest to others. Please mark each submission clearly with your name, or the fact that you want to be anonymous. Please indicate clearly whether you give permission for archive only, publication in the zine K/S Reflections, and/or (potentially) publication in a general book. There is no deadline as this is an ongoing project BUT I aim to publish the resulting zine by August 2005.