Con Zine

Submissions for the KiScon 2025 con zine are open now!

1lostone and Alice West are reprising their roles as zine editors and look forward to working with you.  While we know this is currently a contentious topic, please know that AI-generated works are not welcome here as AI-generated material is in diametrical opposition to artistic integrity, based on plagiarism, and a substantial consumer of valuable natural resources.

We are looking for new and never before seen art and writing (both fic and meta!) focusing on the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

• Fic (no minimum word count, drabbles welcome), poetry, dialogue, epistolary, meta. Maximum length for written works: 15,000 words. One submission per author (with the exception of short works like poems or drabbles – for these, you can submit multiple). Please have your text beta-read before submitting it! For transparency, we will include a style guide for authors to review before submitting written work. Look for that by March 1st. 
• Art: traditional (as a high-res scan or photo) or digital/computer-generated art. All styles are welcome. Photo manips are only allowed if they are clearly transformative (so not just a screen cap with filter applied). Art needs to feature Kirk and/or Spock in some way (one or both of them, additional characters welcome). Please submit your work as .png or .tiff file (300 dpi). The zine will be letter-sized, i.e. 8.5 by 11 inches (215.9 by 279.4 mm); your artwork can go up to this page size. Smaller-sized artworks are of course also welcome; larger artworks will be scaled down to fit. For special projects like multi-panel comics, please get in touch with us to discuss the details. Two submissions per artist are allowed.
• Podfic: New for this year, we are happy to announce that contributors can contribute podfic. It will appear in the zine as a link with exclusive access until the con is over. There are some specific guidelines to follow. The author you are podficcing must have given blanket permission, easily accessed (such as on their AO3 profile or on the fps). 1lostone will host the podfic under the KiScon account on archive.org, so please know that once that work is up there, it's up there for life. We ask that submitted podfic use only royalty-free music, and be fully edited before submission. If you have any questions, please reach out. 
• Ratings: All welcome.
• Universes: Any (TOS, reboot, DISCO/SNW, AU, mirror, crossovers), as long as K/S are the main pairing. K&S gen is accepted, but no Kirk or Spock pairings with Others! No RPF.
• We do not accept any kind of AI-generated fanworks, be it text or image.
• Contributions: You may not submit any work that has been published or posted elsewhere. It should be a completely new work for this zine. In the past, we have had to decline truly lovely works because the author had posted them publicly for beta review. If you plan on doing that, please do so via DM or some other method, so our zine readers get no peeks behind the curtain. 

This con zine will be given to all convention members and to all contributing authors and artists as a digital copy (pdf file). Please submit your work via this form; you can directly attach your file (.doc or .rtf for fic, .png or .tiff for art) or include a link (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive). If you have a strong preference for not logging in with your Google account, you are also welcome to send your submission to 1lostone at zine@kiscon.org. Please use this email also for any and all questions you may have about the zine. No zine contributions can be accepted without the Google form filled out accurately. If you have any questions please, please reach out to 1lostone. 

The hard deadline for zine submissions is August 1st, 2025.

The KiScon con zines have a long and beautiful tradition, going back to 1980.

Over 200 fanworks – fic, art, poetry, plays – were submitted to these zines over the years.

Some of these fanworks have since found their way to the AO3. We try to gather as many as possible in the dedicated AO3 collection: KiScon – The Official Zine. If you contributed to the KiScon con zine in the past, please add your work to this collection.

Details on the con zines throughout the years:

Aftermath (1980): print zine, published by the 1st K/S Con Committee (K/S Con = forerunner of KiScon), edited by Bonnie Davis, Merle Decker, and others.
The KiScon Zine 1999: print zine, edited by Jenna Sinclair (Beyond Dreams Press).
The KiScon Zine 2001: print zine, edited by Jenna Sinclair (Beyond Dreams Press), cover art by IM Mueller.
The KiScon Zine 2004: print zine, edited by Jenna Sinclair (Beyond Dreams Press), cover art by IM Mueller.
KiScon 2011 - The Official Zine: ezine (on CD), edited by arminaa, KiScon logo art by arminaa.
KiScon 2012 - The Official Zine: print zine, edited by arminaa, cover art by cannedebonbon.
KiScon 2013 - The Official Zine: print zine, edited by arminaa, cover art by cannedebonbon.
KiScon 2015 - The Official Zine: ezine (on CD), edited by Amanda Warrington and compiled by arminaa, cover art by Romanse.
KiScon 2017 - The Official Zine: print zine, edited by Amanda Warrington, cover art by Caren P, KiScon logo art by arminaa.
KiScon 2019 - The Official Zine: ezine (on USB flash drives), edited by Holly “Carleen” Brown, KiScon logo art by arminaa.
KiScon 2022 Online: ezine (download), edited by Carleen (first edition) / T'Lara and the concom (second, heavily revised edition), cover art by Purple Enma.
KiScon 2023 - The Official Zine: ezine (download), edited by 1lostone, cover art by Shelley Butler, KiScon logo art by Page of Wands.
KiScon 2024 - The Official Zine: ezine (download), edited by 1lostone and Alice West, cover art by Page of Wands.

For more information on the zine contents, please see the Fanlore article, or have a look at the following spreadsheet: