Back On the Road Again: Wayfaring stranger Enola Dismay visits the Denver Zine Library

​Zine author Enola Dismay doesn't like to stay in one place too long; she's 26 and just now "realizing that it's becoming harder and harder to stay in one place. The main reason," she adds, "is because when I settle down somewhere, I overload myself with projects, overextend myself and get stressed out."

Traveling, on the other hand, is easy and cheap for Enola, whose Gothic and punk tendencies belie her little girl voice: "Usually, I just travel to places where I've already been where I have friends who are dear to me. I don't really use money -- I'm crusty; I'm not opposed to sleeping outside or eating out of a dumpster."

Enola started her zine, No Gods, No Mattress, a couple of years ago, based on writing from her travel journals. She writes about having to deal with traveling alone as a woman and other things: gender and body image, anarchy, things she likes. "My zine is a personal zine; I write about anything I want in there," she says. Now, she's traveling to Denver on a zine tour and will stop over for a reading at at the Denver Zine Library, 27 Social Centre, on Sunday January 16 from 4 to 6 p.m. "It's just a good excuse for me to travel," she says of the tour-in-progress. "Another thing that helps me feel great about travel is to have a purpose. I'm not a person to go somewhere for no reason."

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She'll be joined in reading by some local zinesters during the appearance, which also includes Enola's original songs, played on the ukulele, and in the spirit of the DZL, which hopes to launch a zine workshop series this year, Enola might encourage people to create their own zines. "I hope that anyone who ever feels like writing a zine will just do it," says Enola, "and share it with their friends."