I am Alex, an artist local to Bacup. I moved here in 2022. I kickstarted this zine after taking a mini-zine workshop in Waterfoot (another town in Rossendale) thinking "Why not make a zine about/for Bacup, because Bacup doesn't seem to have anything like this at the moment." So here we are!

The idea for Bacup Zine is arts/crafts/writing workshops free to attend where people who live in/around Bacup can create (almost) anything they like that is somehow related to (life in/around) Bacup, past or present. These contributions will then end up in the zine. It's an opportunity for people to do some crafts, to do a bit of writing, to just play around with content creation in an informal and relaxed setting. It's also an opportunity to share memories, life experiences, interests, anecdotes and dreams for/about Bacup.

The zine is accessible online free of charge, and a limited number of printed copies will be available from public sites in Bacup. At the moment, the agreement is for printed copies to be available at The ABD Centre, Bacup Library, and the Bacup Museum. These are free of charge.

Finally, a little bit about me, the facilitator/editor/publisher. I moved to Bacup a few years ago and found the area could use something like a zine to get people involved and engaged in publishing, and to create something tangible that we can all be proud of. My professional background is in science and science writing, but I have always been active doing arts/crafts in my spare time (mainly fashion design, garment making, collage, acrylic painting on canvas, photography, and some other things I've dabbled in). My aim is to keep Bacup Zine going with two editions per year: an edition in Autumn/Winter and one in Spring/Summer. This way, we will have an ongoing record of life and the people in/around Bacup.