True Story! is a new zine so good that I've been compelled to read aloud from its first two issues. Using a simple comic strip format, editor Barry Scanlan -- an elementary school teacher in small-town Minnesota -- relates anecdotes about insects, a pet iguana's ailments, a campground embarrassment, invasive plants, stillbirth, domestic abuse, and an octogenarian father. The result is educational, funny, and poignant. $3 (1 issue) from 19367 120th Ave., Milaca, MN 56353.

Al Jadid, the quarterly Arab culture and arts publication in English, has changed from tabloid to magazine format. Regardless of packaging, it's always an interesting blend of essays, poetry, and reviews, going beyond literature to music and film, both historical and contemporary. $18 from Box 24DD2, Los Angeles, CA 90024; www.aljadid.com

Mamalicious ('A magazine for the fierce mama in us all') is a new publication by and for today's mothers who have come of age reading and writing zines. Though I didn't find my fierce inner mama, I enjoyed the premier issue's selections, including an interview with antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott, a profile of the parents-and-daughter musical group Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, and contributions from Bust co-founder Marcelle Karp, The East Village Inky's Ayun Halliday, and novelist Ameena Meer. $10 (2 issues) from 1211a Agua Fria St., Santa Fe, NM 87501; www.mamalicious.com

ARTitude Zine, a quarterly written and edited by crafty women, is full of how-to-do-it articles on book alteration, scrap craft, collage, shadow box assemblage, rubber stamping, and related activities. You too could make a cigar box purse, whether or not you need one. $29.95 ($33.95 in Canada) from 117-2017A Cadboro Rd., Dept. 7, Victoria, BC V8R 5G4, Canada; www.artitudezine.com

Captive Words

Publications about prisoners and imprisonment

The heavy door clanged shut behind me. Locked inside the euphemistically named Hennepin County Correctional Facility, doing volunteer library work, I sensed how, but for good fortune, I might have been a 'resident' there. About 2 million mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers are currently behind bars in the United States.