bird mail

Bird Mail is a monthly mail club delivering winged messages from my mind to your door.

In the same way that birds carry seeds, these zines carry my ideas and reflections on both the universe and daily life—from the nature of reality, living in a queer and chronically ill body, consciousness, my family’s ancestry, artificial intelligence, the wellness industry, experiences in the spiritual realms, quantum mechanics, Buddhist philosophies, and more.

For the first year of Bird Mail, my memoir and lyrical essay “Two Birds One Stone” will be split into twelve smaller books and delivered each month, carrying on a 19th century tradition of writers serializing their novels in magazines.

How it works

Pre-orders for Bird Mail will open on June 9th, 2026 and will close August 15th, 2026. The first zine will be mailed out in September 2026.
If you sign up after the 15th of the month, you can order previous zines to catch up, and subscribe to receive the rest as usual.
For the first year of Bird Mail, you’ll receive my memoir and lyrical essay “Two Birds One Stone,” divided into twelve smaller books. You can either purchase the entire year upfront, or subscribe for 12 monthly installments. Please choose your option in the Store.
If Bird Mail continues, you’ll have the choice to sign up again after the first year.
You’ll receive a 5’ x 7’ 10-page zine designed, written, stamped, and labeled by Maggie O’Brien, with illustrations by Carolina Porras-Monroy. There will also be other surprises in the envelope: little notes, bookmarks, and poetic treasures.
For the first year, you also have the option of buying a hardcover or paperback book sleeve, made and bound by myself. The idea is that you can slot in each zine into the interior elastic bands as you receive them—and by the end of the year, you’ll have a complete book.
The mission of Bird Mail is to move slowly, use sustainable materials, follow the cycles of earth’s seasons, honor process and experimentation, be an antidote to the attention economy and fabrication of AI, center art over profit, and share wisdom outside of the gatekeeping and constraints of the corporate publishing industry.
Do you mail internationally?
I’m going to try! It’s significantly more expensive and slow, so be prepared to receive your Bird Mail 4+ weeks after it’s sent out.
When will I receive my Bird Mail?
I’m aiming to ship out zines the first week of every month, so if you’re in the U.S., you’ll receive it no later than the end of the month (hopefully sooner, though!)
What happens if I don’t get my mail?
Pigeons aren’t perfect. Just kidding—I don’t actually use birds! Just the USPS, which isn’t perfect. If you’ve waited until the 15th of the following month to no avail, you can email me and I’ll send a replacement.
Can I just buy one?
It’ll be a little funky to do that the first year because each zine is part of a whole book, but yes, you can! Just go to the Store and select which one you want.
Will Bird Mail continue after the first year?
I hope so! That’s essentially why I’m creating it—I want to keep the skies open after I release my book to the world, and Bird Mail feels like the right way to do that.
I’m confused. When I go to checkout, there isn’t an option to sign up for Bird Mail. What should I do?
You’re on the right track. For the first year of Bird Mail, you’ll just be buying my book Two Birds One Stone (in either one payment for the full year, or 12 monthly installments). It will be delivered via Bird Mail 1x/month between September 2026-August 2027.