Sticky Fingers Publishing
Sticky Fingers Publishing is an intra-dependant feminist press based in South East London, run by Kaiya Waerea and Sophie Paul. We produce experimental non-fiction at the intersection of academia, visual culture, art, design and performance.
stickyfingerspublishing@gmail.com
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Submissions
Self–Publishing Sessions
Lectures & WorkshopsGuest Lecturer & Introduction to Risograph Workshop, School of Cvuntology, House of Annetta (2025)
READ ALL ABOUT IT: Feminist and Queer Newsletters at the Feminist Library with Sticky Fingers Publishing, The Feminist Library, CHASE Feminist Network (2025)
Guest Lecturer, BA Graphic Communication Design, Central Saint Martins (2025)
Guest Lecturer, BA Graphic Design, Kingston University (2025)
Introduction to Zines: From Science Fiction to Feminist Futures Lecture & Zinemaking Workshop, Imagined Worlds, Lewisham Libraries (2024)
Amplifying Diverse Voices panel, London College of Communication (2024)
Guest Lecturer, BA Fine Art, Kingston University (2024)
Press & FeaturesIt’s Nice That, ‘On Crip Time challenges the ableist systems that are “preventing disabled people from accessing the future”’(2024)
An0ther Magazine, ‘The Indie Presses Leading London’s Thriving Underground Literary Scene’ (2024)
The BitterSweet Review, ‘BitterSweet reviews… Masturbatory Reader from Sticky Fingers Publishing’, (2023)
Metal Magazine, ‘Sticky Fingers Publishing - Crafting Community in an Anti-Genre’, (2023)
Tique: publication on contemporary art, ‘SIX QUESTIONS, interview with Sticky Fingers Publishing’ (2023)
Residency 11:11, ‘Sticky Fingers in conversation with Lola Ofolemi and Christie Costello of bare minimum collective’, (2023)
Hero Magazine, ‘Masturbatory Reader: Sticky Fingers Publishing are asking us to reconsider the power of the erotic in literature’, (2023)
Polyester Zine, ‘The (Bad) Taste Test: Radical Acts of Queer (Self) Pleasure in The Masturbatory Reader’ (2023)
GENERAZIONE CRITICA, ‘Sticky Fingers Publishing’, (2022)
BOMB Magazine, ‘BOMB Retrospective: Cookie Mueller Revisited by Sticky Fingers Publishing’ (2021)
NTS Radio, ‘HEREMA: A soundscape by Leyla Pillai’ (2021)
Spam Zine, ‘(REVIEW) Stretching time: Dead Lovers: Anaïs Nin’ (2021)
Writing‘Permanently Deferred: A Bibliographic Opera’, How To Sleep Faster #15 (London, UK: Arcadia Missa, 2024)
Oisín Roberts, ‘Closing the Gap: Libraries as Dream Work’, The Toe Rag Issue 3: Dream Work (London, UK: The Toe Rag, 2024)
‘Some (not very) sticky rules by Sticky Fingers Publishing’, Books Is Books: A Statement of Intent from Minimum Efficiency Press (London, UK: Minimum Efficiency Press, 2023)
Exhibtions
Five Years of Sticky Fingers Publishing, Maximilian William ‘The Shelf’, March – April 2024
IM BORED OF READING I WANT REVENGE, Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow, June – August 2023
Last Updated 24.10.31 Recent Events
Launch of Masturbatory Reading: A Conference Proceedings Remix
Buy the zineBookworkers & Beyond Winter Fair
The Royal George, 13th December 2025
With readings from Biogal, Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, & Lux Pyre.
On June 20th & 21st this summer, we coordinated a six-panel stream called ‘Masturbatory Reading: The Erotics of Knowledge Production’ at this year's London Conference of Critical Thought. This publication is a remix of the 15 presentations and workshops which took place across those two hot days, deep within the stuffy seminar rooms and lecture theatres of Birkbeck University. We have chopped, sampled, and recontextualised the work that was presented, to explore improvised and emergent themes from the weekend.
Launch of Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing #3
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Sticky Fingers’ Summer Party
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, August 28th 2025
With readings from Char Heather, Emil Woudenberg, Jack Clarke, & yasamin ghalehnoie, hosted by Donna The First.
LOOK HERE FOR: STRANGE HAUNTINGS, GIRL ADS, SPIT STAINING YOUR BEDSHEETS, TYRANNY, WEATHER REPORTS, THE BORDERS OF GOOD AND EVIL, A GET WELL SOON CARD, & HOW TO BEGIN WRITING.
Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing is a biannual periodical by Sticky Fingers Publishing, exploring how and where meaning is produced, maintained and distributed. This third issue gathers together work that is activated, is of use. Here, we recognise that while we study to achieve clarity, the use of that clarity is to allow us to agree to take on greater risks for and with each other. This issue explores strategies for doing so, from the surreal set up, to access theft, to putting the sentence into crisis. Featuring contributions from Char Heather, Emil Woudenberg, Evie H. Reckendrees, gervaise alexis savvias, Jack Clarke, Jan Daoudi & yasamin ghalehnoie.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: Feminist and Queer Newsletters at the Feminist Library with Sticky Fingers Publishing
The Feminist Library, 31st May 2025
Together, we looked at newsletters from the Feminist Library's collection spanning 1970s–90s, including Lesbian Connect, Pink Pages, Fat News, Black Lesbian & Centre Project, IN PRINT and much more.
Alongside this, we also looked at the entire archive of our own mail out (thats 61 issues!!), alongside some other contemporary newsletters we love, including Modern Queers, Dyke News Scotland, Another Subculture Punk Newsletter, Trans Femme Social Newsletter, & Colorama's Letter Subscription.
Discussing these histories and how contemporary practices build on them, we photocopied, collaged, & remixed all this material to create our own newsletter.
Comissioned by Valentina Cipullo and the CHASE Feminist Network.
Launch of Series of Attempts #3:☆LOVING WOMEN★☆LE PONEY★ by Jordan/_ Hell
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Sticky Fingers’ Spring Party
SET Social, 204th April 2025
With readings from Biogal, Claire Star Finch, Dora Maludi, Samra Mayanja, & Jordan/_Hell, hosted by Donna the First.
Part archival remix, part recruitment manual, this pamphlet’s cast of BAD HORSEY GIRLS will teach you how to neigh, dance and flirt until the vampires come home. A Series of Attempts #3 opens with Jordan/_Hell’s new manifesto ☆ LOVING WOMEN ★, that takes the Nomadic Sisters 1976 publication by the same name as a departure point. From here, ★ LE PONEY ☆ then follows a string of lesbian ponies through a dimensional split. A dimensional split that looks suspiciously like the L.A./Parisian+ queer scene…
To accompany the publication, Dr Hell and the Horsey Source features original songs all about QUEER YEARNING and is available as a limited edition cassette. A DELUXE digital release on Bandcamp contains additional bonus tracks. All proceeds from the DELUXE digital release go towards Save Jordan from Hell: ♡!!! A Visa Fund £$€♡.
Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair 2nd Ed.
St James Church, Goldsmiths University, 16th March 2025
The second edition of our Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair brought togther friends, collaborators and allies for a fair celebrating feminist, queer, disabled-led and local interdisciplinary publishing.
Featuring 56a Infoshop, The Alternative School of Economics, Burley Fisher Community Press, Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, Em—Dash, How to Catch a Pig, Hydra Bookshop, Intellitrash, Montez Press, The Mosaic Rooms Bookshop, PageMasters, Parapraxis, Scarlett Letters Bookshop, Shy Radicals Distro, Sold Out Publishing, TACO!, Tallfinger Press and Tommy Brentnall, plus a communal table featuring over 50 publishers and zine makers.
Alongside the fair, our public programme featured a drop in sticker printing workshop with Tommy Brentnall, TRANS SLASH MAD: A Virosexuals reading group with D Mortimer and Jessie McLaughlin, and a Lavender Pages donation booth running all say long.
Photography by Holly Revell
Launch of Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing #2
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Sticky Fingers’ Autumn Party
The Divine, 7th November 2024
With readings from amy etherington, Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, Gabrielle Sicam, Giulia Astesani & Louis Shankar, hosted by Donna the First.
LOOK HERE FOR: HOT AND DUSTY DESIRE, FUCKING THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM, DERRIDAAAH, 1979, QUEER WATERWAYS, THE WHORES DOING PRAXIS, PAINTINGS IN A ROOM, SISSY PORN… & more!
Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing is a biannual periodical by Sticky Fingers Publishing, exploring how and where meaning is produced, maintained and distributed. This second issue traverses bomba cinemas in the Philippines, the fourth-largest moon in the solar system, and a closet of winter coats. Together, these works provide strategies for surviving an intentionally nonsensical political landscape. Featuring contributions from amy etherington, Ⓐ DUDLEY Ⓔ, Francis Whorrall-Campbell, Gabrielle Sicam, Giulia Astesani, jade vine, Jordan/_ Hell & Louis Shankar.
Launch of Speed Glum Hero by D Mortimer
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Listen to the recordingSticky Fingers’ Summer Party
Hackney Showrooms, 17th September 2024
With readings from Oisín Roberts, Donna Marcus Duke, Kasra Jalilipour, Hesse K., Hannah Levene & Hasti, hosted by Donna the First.
Speed Glum Hero. Read it as an instruction: Speed, Glum Hero. Read it as an assertion of life, like, keep living, go on. It takes this kind of serious play to make any sense of this moment we are living through. This is a pamphlet about subjectivity splintering, substance, and legend. This is a pamphlet about complicity, tenderness, and distress. This is a pamphlet about what it takes to stay gripping to the earth. The only way out is through.
Launch of Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing #1
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Sticky Fingers’ Spring Party
The Divine, 9th May 2024
With readings from A. Lyons, Biogal, Donna Marcus Duke, Evelyn Wh-ell, Hugo Hagger & Sam Moore, hosted by Donna the First.
Get Rid of Meaning: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing is a new periodical by Sticky Fingers Publishing, exploring how and where meaning is produced, maintained and distributed. Here we conjure Kathy Acker, writing in Empire of the Senseless: “GET RID OF MEANING. YOUR BRAIN HAS BEEN EATING YOU. NOW EAT YOUR MIND.” Issue #1 gathers together initial responses to this provocation that interrogate systems of meaning-making. Exploring sites from the gallery to the community meeting place, and modes from fabulation to prayer, these works uncover intersections of meaning, materiality and marginalisation. Featuring contributions from A. Lyons, Biogal, Brooke Palmieri, Dáire Nic Cana, Donna Marcus Duke, Evelyn Wh-ell, Hugo Hagger, Kasra Jalilipour & Sam Moore.
Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair 1st Ed.
Lewisham Arthouse, 18th February 2024
The inaugural Sticky Fingers Publishing Fair, featuring bstract Supply, Arcadia Missa, BitterSweet Review, Em-Dash, Emily Pope, Intellitrash, Montez Press, PageMasters, Ruth Beale, Sissy Anarchy, Think Big Read Library, Toothgrinder Press, plus over 35 different publishers on our communal table.
Alongside the fair, we produced a series of panels exploring different aspects of publishing practice:
#1 ‘Trans Publishing Methodologies’ with Louis Shankar (The BitterSweet Review), P Eldridge (SISSY ANARCHY) and Donna Marcus Duke (TISSUE)
#2 ‘Library as Liberatory Practice’ with Jessa Mockridge, Ruth Beale, and Oisín Roberts (Think Big, Read Community Library)
#3 ‘Designer, Maker, Publisher’ with Ru Matiyani and Saundra Liemantoro (Em—Dash), and Bakhtawer Haider and Betty Brunfaut (Sold Out Publishing)
Listen, watch BSL interpretation, or download transcripts
Photography by Holly Revell
Five Years of Sticky Fingers Publishing 2019–2024 exhibtion & 5th Birthday Party
Exhibition Map
Listen to the recordingThe Shelf, Maximillian William Gallery, March 2024
‘Five Years of Sticky Fingers Publishing’ was a retrospective of the first five years of Sticky Fingers Publishing’s activities, and was shown as Maximillian William Gallery’s window exhibition ‘The Shelf’. The display included our whole back-catalogue of publications, a monthly risograph printed mail out, event ephemera such as posters and flyers, test prints, the residue of party games, open call posters, fair signage and our banner, stickers, film photographs, studio notes and lists.
Alongside the display, we celebrated our fifth birthday with a limited edition zine called A Potluck of Publishing Practises, featuring contributions in the form of recipie cards for publishing from Em_Dash, Minimum Efficiency Press, Sold Out Publishing, Soul Miles, Think Big Read Library, TISSUE, Toothgrinder Press, & ourselves.
This zine was available only at our fifth birthday party, featuring readings from Saundra Liemantoro & Aarushi Matiyani (Em–Dash), Soul Miles, Jack Clarke, Baki Haider & Betty Brunfaut (Sold Out Publishing), amy etherington, & Donna Marcus Duke.
Photography by Deniz Guzel
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