Pistil Prose

a zine publication of Pistil Books

Pistil Prose #5 All Retail Hell	Pistil Prose #4 Romance	Pistil Prose #3 Crime

Pistil Prose #1 and #2 are out-of-print.

All Retail Hell is now available to read online.

What is a Zine?

Now available online! Click title below.

Pistil Prose #5 The All Retail Hell Issue

"For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pistil Prose, let me take a moment to educate. Pistil Prose is a publication of Pistil Books and News, a bookstore in Seattle's fine Capitol Hill district. Among a vast range of subject matter, Pistil Prose often includes quirky insights into the indie bookstore business.

"The 'All Retail Hell' issue is chock full of nothing but amusing journalesque entries. From catching shiplifters and taggers to dealing with salesmen, pedophiles, cell phones, drug addicts, vagrants trying to sell cheap novels, homophobes, freeloaders, zealots, perverts, the insane, the mentally retarded, religious fanatics, and people who ask dumb question, this issue of Pistil Prose will either make you laugh out loud or slap yourself silly.

"Reading this issue of Pistil Prose, you get to know the store clerks through how they deal with certain situations. Sean Carlson, for instance, often deals with the aforementioned list of people with sarcasm and definitely is not afraid to tell someone to "Get the fuck out!" (not a direct quote, but representative nonetheless). Amy Candiotti seems to always have to deal with the perverts; she tends to have the "ignore them and they'll go away" sort of approach.

"Despite displays of sarcasm and with behind the counter, the reader doesn't get the feeling that the environment inside the store is negative. Though the 'All Retail Hell' issue definitely proves that people can just be plain weird, meen and stoopid! (Yes, I know how to spell stupid!)"

—Helen Martyr, Tablet, November 13-16, 200

Read the complete text of Retail Hell

Back to Top

Pistil Prose #4 Romance

"Too Hot Too Trot"

"Pistil Prose #4 The Romance Issue, the newest issue of the zine published by Pistil Books & News, almost failed to make the stands-its local printing house politely "declined" the print job after seeing the touchy theme (when asked what, specifically, was so offensive, a manager demurred, "Oh, well, you know, we have women running some of our copiers."). And ooh la la: the literary content by fine local writers including Charles Mudede, Bret Fetzer, Gillian G. Gaar, and Mark Mitchell, skips readily from romance to SEX: sex in the Taj Mahal; an interview with a Lusty Lady; chap-wearing leather boys at the Puyallup Fair. Thankfully, the issue found a printer willing to sell his soul."

—Traci Vogel, The Stranger, December 17, 1998

$3.00 (includes shipping)

Back to Top

Pistil Prose #3 Crime

:This is definitely one of the best local zines that I've seen in a long while. Employees of Pistil Books on Capitol Hill compile a very literate publication representing their store, and this issue has a "crime" theme. There is an interview with a prisoner at Monroe, a very good piece about a skinny Pistil employee chasing down and subduing a bullyish robber over the S.U. campus, and then receiving guilt-trip letters from the perpetrator. There is a really funny list of strange Pistil customers, an account of working as a criminal defense investigator, a support of Books to Prisoners, and a really provoking book review of Obedience to Authority, about the psychological study in the 70s which showed that most people will apply deadly electrical shocks to another human if an authority (the psychologist researcher) orders them to."

—Christine P. 10 Things Jesus Wants You to Know #18

$3.00 (includes shipping)

Back to Top

What is a Zine?

"A small handmade amateur publication done purely out of passion, rarely making a profit or breaking even. Sounds like 'zeen.'"

—Factsheet Five

"The name 'zine,' short for 'fanzine,' a science-fiction fan magazine, may be new, but small, self-published pamphlets and newsletters date all the way back to Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, which was launched in 1757. Dadaist manifestoes of the early 1900s continued the trend and started a design style adopted by many of today's zine editors. Science-fiction zines proliferated in the 1970s. Today's zines cover political rantings, sex and sexual politics, hobbies, music, movies and just about every other topic that's conceivable—and many that aren't."

— S.F. Examiner

Back to Top