About me
Hi, I’m Laura Blanchette (she/her)! I’m an independent journalist, artist, and founder of Good Golly Zines. I started this project in January 2024 while completing the final year of my undergrad at Carleton University in Journalism and Humanities.
I’m currently based in Ottawa and grew up in Edmonton, AB (amiskwacîwâskahikan).
Although I don’t remember when I first learned about zines, I’ve loved them for years and started my first zine project in 2020. I played around with printing zines and publishing issues online (through Tumblr lol). During this first project, I edited and curated visual art, poetry, recipes, and photography into a zine called French Press.
Through Good Golly Zines, I started tabling at markets and festivals in 2024 with the Queer Zine Collective, an informal group of zine-makers who often partner with the Ottawa Trans Library. I've since attended other markets independently, including Object//Project Book Art Fair in 2025 and 2026, Anarchist Book Fair, Hallowzine, and the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair.
Send me an email if you're a zine-maker, I'm always interested in swapping zines!
Now
- Reading: The Fraud by Zadie Smith...and many others
- Listening to: Olivia Rodrigo's new album and Naomi Klein's Doppelganger audiobook
- Working on: Election zines with Synapcity and Mid City 12
- Playing: Not a lot of video games, but I've been playing a lot of Wingspan (the board game) and it's the best!
- Thinking about: Love Island USA