A Million Birthdays

A Million Birthdays is a perzine put together by Kathee Birthday from Ohio. The first issue came out in the summer of 2002 and it's still being published.

Issues of A Million Birthdays

Issue One (The H Issue)

There were only 25 copies of the first issue of A Million Birthdays. Each issue had a hand-crafted cover constructed out of colored paper and vintage photos. The issue was themed around the letter H and featured short essays on the idea of home, haircuts, and other topics.

Issue Two

The second issue of A Million Birthdays combined recently written pieces with older writing intended for a zine that never saw the light of day. It was considerably more personal than the H issue, dealing with topics like depression and eating disorders. Issue two was the first issue of A Million Birthdays to be distro'd.

Issue Three (The Handwritten Issue)

The third issue of A Million Birthdays was handwritten and centered around the theme of growth - physical growth, emotional growth, the growth of new relationships. A somewhat tongue in cheek piece about Kathee's fascination with Sweet Valley High novels breaks up the monotony.

Issue Four

The fourth issue of A Million Birthdays was a change of pace in terms of both content and writing style. With this issue Kathee began to explore the idea of her life as a teen novel. The zine is written in a semi-narrative format and divided into short chapters. "Characters" culled from Kathee's real friends and family members are presented in the writing and usually provide the dialogue that each chapter begins with. Issue four was by far the most "successful" issue of A Million Birthdays with over 300 copies made and sold.

Issue Five

The fifth issue of A Million Birthdays continues the chapter format established in issue four. The writing in issue five continues to explore topics introduced in previous issues, particularly Kathee's relationships with her friends and family and her evolving body image.

Issue Six

Issue six of A Million Birthdays chronicles Kathee's senior year of high school. Like the previous two issues, its content is divided into short narrative "chapters". Topics addressed in previous issues are touched on with increasing depth and "characters" introduced in previous issues again provide starting points for many of the zine's "chapters".

Issue Seven (The Floating World Issue)

The most recent issue of A Million Birthdays uses the chapter format to tell stories about Kathee's transition from high school to college. The theme of "the floating world" is introduced through a quote from Cynthia Kadohata's novel The Floating World. In Kathee's case, the floating world is meant to refer to "change and the loneliness that change brings" as well as the space that exists between home and school.

Future Projects

Kathee is currently working on the eighth issue of A Million Birthdays which will most likely make use of the chapter format utilized in issues four, five, six, and seven. Kathee is also working on rewriting issues four through seven, as well as select pieces from issues one through three, in order to put together an A Million Birthdays retrospective.

External Links

AMB Online The A Million Birthdays website has information on issues one through six of A Million Birthdays. It also provides reviews of A Million Birthdays culled from various zine distros and review zines as well as information on where you can find issues of A Million Birthdays. The webpage has yet to be updated to include information on issue seven.