zines

crossroads zine cover

crossroads is a visual narrative and an allegory about the 2020 summer events through the personification of the Oakland streets.

Price: $7

Available at these bookstores:

encinal nights zine cover

encinal nights follows the lives of four people living in a near future Oakland bay area. A cocktail waitress working in an underground casino, a botanist caught up in legal troubles, an overworked distillery owner confronting their criminality, and a vr hacker searching for his sister.

Price: $7

Available at these bookstores:

film

blends is about a business owner who is faced with a moral dilemma when they deliver their psilocybin spice blends to an underground restaurant that serves a unique cuisine. 

writer. filmmaker.

oakland, ca.

ioannis is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and zinester. He is driven to tell stories about working class immigrants, crime, and mental health. He illustrates these themes through surrealism with offbeat visuals--blending his love of Rothko's paintings and Cronenberg's films. ioannis adapted and directed his short film Blends, which has won multiple awards and has been selected in over ten festivals around the world. He's working on new short stories for his collection Encinal Nights. His work has been featured in the Kelp Journal, Coachella Review, and his zines are available in many bookstores along the West Coast (Powells, Silver Sprocket, Spectators). He holds a MFA in Creative Writing from UCR Palm Desert. You can find him urban cycling through Oakland while he thinks of new tattoos to add to his sleeves.

things he writes.

  • long & short fiction

  • zines

  • film

things he edits.

  • long & short fiction

  • comics

fiction

Short story published in Kelp Journal

U-Haul

by ioannis argiris

“Damn. Jimmy’s got to keep this shit on the low,” Jules says. The U-Haul truck’s suspension seems lower than what he remembers from the other night. The port lights lead a path to the exit. The smell of coal drifts in the air.

“Go slow over the tire spikes,” Athan says. “The last shift fucked up the cargo.”

Jules stares at him like he doesn’t know his job. Every night for the past month they’ve been hauling shit out of the port. [read more on Kelp Journal]

interviews & literary reviews

Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Committed

I had the privilege of connecting with Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author Viet Thanh Nguyen to discuss his new literary spy thriller The Committed. In speaking with Nguyen, we discussed his assimilation as a refugee in the Bay Area and living between two worlds, which can be felt of the protagonist in both novels. He shared insights into how setting shapes character, specifically crime’s impact on identity and mental health. Nguyen also discussed other genres he enjoys and where the third book in his trilogy may take us. [read more on The Coachella Review]

Literary review in The Coachella Review

Parakeet

The opening of Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino starts off as a wild dream state for Luna, a young bride-to-be. Her dead grandmother manifests as a parakeet in a hallucinogenic vision and urges Luna to reconcile with her brother before her wedding day. We meet Luna at a dilapidated hotel on Long Island, trying on her wedding dress, as her grandmother inquires about family and traditions. But when Luna brushes off her grandmother’s request that she make amends with her brother, her grandmother—the parakeet—defacates on the wedding dress, forcing Luna to plunge into an unusual journey. [read more on The Coachella Review]

Literary review in The Coachella Review

Blue Ticket

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh is set in an alternate reality where teenage girls are sent to a lottery building to receive a white or a blue ticket. If the ticket is white, the girl is destined to marry and have babies. If the ticket is blue, the girl has an IUD installed, and she is not allowed to have babies. Instead, blue ticket women are free to live their lives, becoming independent. [read more on The Coachella Review]

“I exaggerate a lot and I get fiction and reality mixed up, but I don’t actually ever lie.”

— a manual for cleaning women by lucia berlin