What started as poetry hummed over an out-of-tune guitar, echoing around the white walls of my family home, born out of anticipatory grief and over-the-top teenage angst…has transformed over the years into snapshots of imprints—proof we exist (or existed) in each other’s lives. A collection of connection.
To All My Friends, To All My Family is a collaborative zine run by Ellie Noti that celebrates connection in all forms. The first issue began as the final project for a college class on literary journals.
The theme and title chosen were recycled from the collection of personal letters and short stories Ellie wrote and never published her first year of college, whose theme and title were recycled from the EP she wrote and never recorded in high school. Mostly just intending to give the project a final resting place, Ellie began piecing together and revising what semi-salvageable poems and prose pieces she had from over the years, and on a whim, she took her professor up on collaborating with creative writing students as well.
Emboldened by the incredible responses she received from the creative writing students she was put in contact with, Ellie decided to dip into her existing pool of writer friends and ask whether they had any interest in contributing too—and was met with an enthusiastic yes from all of them. THUS, after years of pushing this shapeless project around like mushy peas on a dinner plate, the final form of To All My Friends, To All My Family was born (with the help of friends and family, of course).
To All My Friends, To All My Family 