Marionette Lines: A Family History of Patriarchy and Puppetry is a perzine (or personal zine) by me, Mandy Shunnarah. It's a long, braided essay about my Appalachian family, ventriloquism, Greek mythology, and the dual cults of evangelicalism and anti-aging beauty standards.

Sound weird? It is!

It's also really, really good. I've sold this zine at some fairs recently and have it for sale in bookstores in 3 major cities––Chicago, NYC, and Columbus, Ohio, where I'm based––and I've been getting the loveliest feedback about how much readers are enjoying it. It’s sold out in multiple shops and I’ve had to do reprints to restock.

Price includes shipping!

You might be wondering, "Mandy, you're a professional writer who gets paid to be published in other outlets all the time, so if this essay is really that good, why didn't you find someone else to publish it?"

The answer is simple: Marionette Lines is too short to be a complete book and too long to be comfortably read on the internet. And the outlets for long-form personal essays in print are few and far between. After sitting on this story for years, I decided to take matters into my own hands and I'm so glad I did.

If you like weird literary but accessible creative nonfiction, you're going to love Marionette Lines.