Two birds one stone
Planetarium Press, September 2026 - August 2027
a memoir of ghosts
We all have ghosts—spirits that trail us and tail us, mark our befores and afters, animate and organize our lives: childhood’s menagerie of confusing memories, a relative who looms large despite estrangement, nagging intuitions and late-night fears—but few of us have been as haunted as Maggie O'Brien, the author of Two Birds One Stone. This memoir, written in lyric essay and released serially in slim volumes over the course of a year, documents a series of possessions: a brain tumor, the killing of a namesake bird, Lyme disease, environmental sensitivities, ruminations, obsessions, concussions, dreams, visions, queer love, quantum physics, Virginia Woolf, and a violent visitation by a very real ghost.
Together these vignettes coalesce a reality where there is no division between the body and mind, the spiritual and material—it is only perception that insists on separateness, only culture that pedals in contradiction, only that human invention, the clock, that demarcates time. Whether the ghosts are in our house or in our heads in Two Birds One Stone, O'Brien asks us to consider: what if art is an experiment to study the divine?
Pre-Order the book
Two Birds One Stone is a memoir by Maggie O’Brien, written in lyric essay and released serially in smaller books/zines over the course of a year through an experimental project and mail club called “Bird Mail.”
What you get:
You’ll receive 5’ x 7’ 10-page zines (12 total) designed, written, stamped, and labeled by Maggie O’Brien, with illustrations by Carolina Porras-Monroy. There will also be occasional surprises in the envelope: little notes, bookmarks, and poetic treasures.
You also have the option of buying a hardcover 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 (see photos).
If you don’t choose the hardcover, you’ll just receive the individual zines with a 5’ × 7’ print of the cover art.
How it works:
Choose your subscription: Full Year or Monthly
Choose your cover:
Hardcover (a handbound cover designed to “hold” each zine you receive, so by the end you have a complete book)
No Cover (you’ll just receive the individual zines + a print of the cover art)
Order by August 15th to receive the first zine in September. After that, order by the 15th of the month to receive the following month’s zine.
You will be mailed one zine monthly (12 total) from September 2026 through August 2027.
Although the zines can be standalone pieces, they are meant to be read sequentially as an entire set as they’re released.
Two Birds One Stone is a memoir by Maggie O’Brien, written in lyric essay and released serially in smaller books/zines over the course of a year through an experimental project and mail club called “Bird Mail.”
What you get:
You’ll receive 5’ x 7’ 10-page zines (12 total) designed, written, stamped, and labeled by Maggie O’Brien, with illustrations by Carolina Porras-Monroy. There will also be occasional surprises in the envelope: little notes, bookmarks, and poetic treasures.
You also have the option of buying a hardcover 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 (see photos).
If you don’t choose the hardcover, you’ll just receive the individual zines with a 5’ × 7’ print of the cover art.
How it works:
Choose your subscription: Full Year or Monthly
Choose your cover:
Hardcover (a handbound cover designed to “hold” each zine you receive, so by the end you have a complete book)
No Cover (you’ll just receive the individual zines + a print of the cover art)
Order by August 15th to receive the first zine in September. After that, order by the 15th of the month to receive the following month’s zine.
You will be mailed one zine monthly (12 total) from September 2026 through August 2027.
Although the zines can be standalone pieces, they are meant to be read sequentially as an entire set as they’re released.
Two Birds One Stone is a memoir by Maggie O’Brien, written in lyric essay and released serially in smaller books/zines over the course of a year through an experimental project and mail club called “Bird Mail.”
What you get:
You’ll receive 5’ x 7’ 10-page zines (12 total) designed, written, stamped, and labeled by Maggie O’Brien, with illustrations by Carolina Porras-Monroy. There will also be occasional surprises in the envelope: little notes, bookmarks, and poetic treasures.
You also have the option of buying a hardcover 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 (see photos).
If you don’t choose the hardcover, you’ll just receive the individual zines with a 5’ × 7’ print of the cover art.
How it works:
Choose your subscription: Full Year or Monthly
Choose your cover:
Hardcover (a handbound cover designed to “hold” each zine you receive, so by the end you have a complete book)
No Cover (you’ll just receive the individual zines + a print of the cover art)
Order by August 15th to receive the first zine in September. After that, order by the 15th of the month to receive the following month’s zine.
You will be mailed one zine monthly (12 total) from September 2026 through August 2027.
Although the zines can be standalone pieces, they are meant to be read sequentially as an entire set as they’re released.
Two Birds One Stone is a memoir by Maggie O’Brien, written in lyric essay and released serially in smaller books/zines over the course of a year through an experimental project and mail club called “Bird Mail.”
What you get:
You’ll receive 5’ x 7’ 10-page zines (12 total) designed, written, stamped, and labeled by Maggie O’Brien, with illustrations by Carolina Porras-Monroy. There will also be occasional surprises in the envelope: little notes, bookmarks, and poetic treasures.
You also have the option of buying a hardcover 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 (see photos).
If you don’t choose the hardcover, you’ll just receive the individual zines with a 5’ × 7’ print of the cover art.
How it works:
Choose your subscription: Full Year or Monthly
Choose your cover:
Hardcover (a handbound cover designed to “hold” each zine you receive, so by the end you have a complete book)
No Cover (you’ll just receive the individual zines + a print of the cover art)
Order by August 15th to receive the first zine in September. After that, order by the 15th of the month to receive the following month’s zine.
You will be mailed one zine monthly (12 total) from September 2026 through August 2027.
Although the zines can be standalone pieces, they are meant to be read sequentially as an entire set as they’re released.
Book Cover Tutorial
If you’ve bought a hardcover copy of Two Birds One Stone, watch this video to see how each zine gets slotted into the elastic bands along the spine. There are twelve bands grouped in sets of two—so just make sure you only use one band per zine. By the end, you’ll have a completely bound book.
