Links & Upcoming Events
Howl & Hold Presale
BUY IT HERE
THANK YOU SO MUCH
This is a pre-order for Howl & Hold Issue Volume #2, which will be printed and mailed in late December 2025. This item will NOT arrive in time for Christmas 2025, so please do not count on that. This item will not arrive in time for holiday gifting. Pre-sales help me make this happen, thank you for your consideration and support! Cover image is proposed and subject to change. This price is a pre-sale only — a.k.a. A DISCOUNT — and is likely to change when printing occurs.
Part lit mag, part flea market, part coping tool box, this zine is a patchwork altar to all the ways we keep going.
This isn’t your grandma’s grief manual—unless your grandma was a punk witch with a tarot deck and a trauma degree. Howl + Hold is a tender, gritty little zine for anyone learning to live with loss while still showing up to brunch, group texts, and the unbearable miracle of being alive.
Inside: collage, paintings, photographs, mini rituals, prompts, poetry, prose, psychoeducation, and weird little wisdoms to help you hold your grief without letting it eat you alive. Cry on it, write in it, throw it across the room—it can take it.
TBD number of pages, somewhere between 30-40 pages
Full color design
35+ artists and authors included
100 lb paper
Locally printed by Fireball Printing
Saddle-stitch binding
About pricing:
Each H&H zine costs just over $4 to print. The shipping materials are $1 each. I spend 24-36 hours designing each issue and another 8-10 hours on marketing and gathering submissions. That doesn’t include the hours and effort each contributor poured into feeling their feelings and creating their work. I say all of this to be transparent and to illustrate that this isn’t a get-rich-quick situation—it’s a labor of love. And I hope you love it.
About shipping:
All items will be shipped weekly on Fridays via USPS. Depending on when you order, there may be up to a week before your item is shipped. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but it’s how I make the hustle sustainable. Rush orders are not a thing. Grief is slow and I invite you to join its pace.
My shipping and return policies are here at the bottom of the page.
MoonVine Circles | Winter Arc
A seasonal circle for grief, rest, and gentle reawakening.
Winter is a season that invites the body to slow down, soften, and listen beneath the surface of things. Some of us welcome that. Some of us resist it. Many of us feel both.
For those living with grief — whether the grief of a person, a relationship, an identity, a future you thought you’d have, or a version of yourself that is no longer here — winter can bring a particular kind of ache. The cold draws us inward. The dark asks us to sit with what we carry. The quiet has a way of making our feelings more audible. The post-holiday drop is very, very real.
MoonVine Circles are a place to gather inside that quiet.
Not to push through it. Not to fix it.
But to tend it — slowly, gently, and in community.
This Winter Arc unfolds across three months — January, February, and March — moving through themes of rest, love and absence, and emergence. We meet every other week in a small, closed group, which means we move together, learn each other’s rhythms, and build trust across time — rather than starting over each session.
Gatherings will include:
grounding practices for the nervous system
poems and reflections to open the heart, as well as opportunities to take our own hearts to paper
somatic and creative exercises (gentle, adaptable, no experience needed)
space to share and connect with other grievers
rituals to mark what has moved and soothe what might not
This is not therapy, and I am not your therapist here. This is community care — grief held in shared dignity and softness. There is no requirement to speak. There is no pressure to be “doing better.” You get to be exactly where you are.
Who this Circle is for:
People who are grieving a loss (recent or decades-old), navigating identity or relationship transitions, or simply feeling the quiet heaviness of this season and wanting to move with it instead of against it. You do not need to have language for your grief to belong here.
Access and structure:
Meets live on Google Meet, open to participants worldwide
Closed group — same people all season, no drop-ins
Captions provided; movement/writing invitations are fully adaptable
90 minutes each, every other week
Gentle sliding scale available
Winter Arc themes:
January: Rest & Stillness — tending winter grief, listening to the quiet body
February: Love & Absence — continuing bonds + heartbreak held tenderly
March: Emergence — grief as fertile ground for becoming
If you’ve been longing for somewhere to bring your grief — not to convince anyone of it, justify it, translate it, or tuck it away — but to be met in it… you are welcome here.
Full registration details are available here: www.lorizaspel.com/shop
If your body exhaled reading this — save your place.
There will be room for you.
🌙
Elle
Bound By Loss | December
This December, we’ll be reading The Grief Cure by Cody Delistraty — a memoir and cultural critique that traces the medicalization of grief, from Freud’s early theories to the rise of pharmaceutical solutions like Prozac. Delistraty explores how grief became pathologized and the costs of living in a culture obsessed with quick fixes and moving on too fast.
If you’ve ever felt pressure to “get over it” or fix your sadness, this book may name something sacred in your experience — the parts of grief that refuse to be rushed or erased.
Theme: Medicalization of Grief, Pharmaceutical Culture, and the Search for a Quick Fix
Mini Practice: Grief and Control Journaling
Before or during the circle, consider these questions:
What parts of my grief have felt unacceptable to others?
What am I tired of hiding?
What do I want to keep close, no matter what the world says?
Register for the event here: https://forms.gle/i9136BbCRtZA8DPN8
PolyAm Holiday Blessings & Blues
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/polyam-holiday-blessings-blues-a-discussion-on-enm-and-grief-tickets-1966803052876
The holidays can bring joy and ache for non-monogamous people (and grievers of all stripes—maybe you’re both). Family gatherings may highlight who is welcome and who is excluded. Some partners may be openly celebrated while others remain hidden. Breakups can ripple out through entire networks, resurfacing grief during a season that emphasizes togetherness. Traditions may be lost or reshaped as relationships shift, while old wounds can re-open around belonging, secrecy, and identity.
And yet, the season can also hold blessings—chosen family dinners, new rituals, unexpected moments of intimacy and connection, and the reminder that love does not fit into a single mold.
This gathering creates a space to name both the blessings and the blues, holding the fullness of what holidays can mean in polyam communities. Join us for PolyAm Holiday Blessings & Blues, a drop-in virtual gathering with grounding ritual, education, and open sharing space. Together we’ll honor both the light and the heaviness of the season.
December 5th | 7–8:30 pm ET | $10–$20 sliding scale (no one turned away)
Facilitated by Lori of @MoonvineGrief, Catherine of @DeathProjectManager, and Rowan of @UncommonThreadsTherapy.
Bring your grief, your blessings, and your whole self. We’ll meet you there.
#Polyamory #NonMonogamy #GriefWork #ChosenFamily #HolidayGrief #MoonvineGrief #DeathEducation #QueerCommunity #BlessingsAndBlues #PolyamCommunity #Polyamorous #EthicalNonMonogamy #ENM #PolyamSupport #QueerHealing #GriefSupport #CollectiveCare #QueerPolyamory #PolyamLife #HealingTogether #SeasonalGrief #RadicalLove #GriefRitual #QueerGrief #GriefCommunity #RitualAndHealing #TransformingGrief #GriefAndLove #EndOfYearReflections
Come See Me In the Good Light | Movie Screening
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe103cSTCVp5DL9Jett7oFESPGiuAN5ao-WS8Wjs1AagnfGSw/viewform
In an interview with director Ryan White following the screening of “Come See Me in the Good Light” at Independent Film Festival Boston, Andrea Gibson talked about how they used to hope they would die alongside everyone they loved at the same time. They’d since come to realize, however, the magic of “taking turns.”
“It’s one thing that we all share, and I don’t want to shy away from the raw truth of it and how it sort of just pummels you into the heart of love…
“Right when they told me I had ovarian cancer, I remember just, like, my jaw dropping at this world, and I suddenly knew I was going to die and I could not believe I had spent my life not knowing I was going to die, and I suddenly could look at everyone in my life and see that they were going to die. There’s something about this that’s magic as painful as it is. It’s the magic of life. It’s the brevity of it.”
Come honor Andrea’s too-brief yet brave, generous and magnificently human life with us as we screen “Come See Me in the Good Light” the day it premieres.
We’re excited to offer this opportunity to experience the light they were and to gather around the many gifts they left us, including permission to make space for our big feelings.
The film journeys with Andrea and their partner Megan Falley as they face Andrea’s incurable cancer in what might be their final year together.
We look forward to being with you on Friday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Harmonie Hall, 4372 Fleming St., Philadelphia.
🎟️Donations welcome. Register to attend at bio link.
Thank you @harmoniehall_1891 for offering the space.
Philly Zine Fest
I’m thrilled to be hosting a full table at Philly Zine Fest, showcasing a collection of zines and creative works that explore grief, death, and the ways we navigate loss. Whether you’re curious, seeking connection, or looking for creative ways to hold and process grief, there’s something here for everyone.
On the table, you’ll find:
Howl & Hold – my own zine, our own zine, a companion for those walking the tender terrain of grief.
Mortality Workbook by Death Project Manager – a reflective guide to engaging with our own mortality.
Works by Cindy Milstein on anti-fascist grief and grief as activism – exploring how grief intersects with collective care and social justice.
Seasons by Christine Blystone – navigating miscarriage and the grief of what’s lost.
Herbal Deathcare Vol 1 by Chthonic Apothecary – an offering of botanical care for those engaging with death and dying.
Mourning Pug’s Pet Grievers Club – honoring the deep bond and grief we carry for our companion animals.
Two cool offerings by Tending Becomings — 53 Things to do for a Griever and Death Prep 101. Zine duo guides you through preparing for your own death AND offering practical ways to support the grievers in your life, creating a roadmap for both giving and receiving care in times of loss.
Two comics by Christina Tran – Aging and It’s Ok That It’s Not Ok, reflecting on life transitions, grief, and acceptance.
Decades of Confusion by Justin Duerr – a visionary Philly artist explores the story of the Cromwell twins.
Grief at the Table — curated by BACII is a compilation of short stories, poems, prose, recipes, and artwork from voices of color, created by members of the inaugural PAUSE Starlight Development Residency Program.
Maybe more? We’ll see who else I can rope into my scheme.
I hope you’ll stop by to browse, hold, and read — and maybe even find a new zine to take home as a companion on your grief journey.
Bound By Loss | The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel
The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel
Theme: Grief as Ceremony, Grief as Praise
📅 Circle Date: October 16
In October, we’ll gather around a mythic and devotional text: The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martín Prechtel. This book is part prayer, part plea — a call to let grief flow freely as an act of beauty, of praise, of love. Prechtel reminds us that grief is a communal language that modern life has forgotten, and it’s time to remember.
If you’ve been longing for a way to make your grief sacred again, this book may feel like a door creaking open.
🌀 Mini Practice: Make an offering to your grief. Place something on your altar or outside — a flower, a leaf, a handwritten note. Say to yourself: “This is for what I’ve lost. This is for what shaped me.”
Join us for a circle full of ritual, story, and reverence: https://forms.gle/hxyjkEQwgAg2Anz67
Carrying Our Grief Together
On October 11, 1–3 pm in Vernon Park (Germantown, Philadelphia), we’ll gather for the 5th annual Grief Processional — a community ritual of walking together in remembrance, solidarity, and care.
The grief keeps on coming. Wars, losses, extinctions, ruptures, heartbreaks both public and private. We were never meant to carry it alone.
Through movement, music, and the presence of one another, this processional creates space to honor what feels too heavy to hold by ourselves. This year, we’re joined by the Philadelphia Threshold Choir, whose voices will help weave song and care into our shared path.
All are welcome. You don’t need prior experience with ritual or group grief work — just a willingness to show up as you are. Feel free to “wear your grief” in whatever way feels meaningful.
📍 Vernon Park, Germantown PA
📅 Friday, October 11 | 1–3 pm
🎶 Supported by Threshold Choir & The Thread
Details here: https://www.salttrailsphilly.com/
Singing Our Grief | Companion Animals @ Op Barks
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.
— Henry Beston, “The Outermost House”
💜
We’re thrilled to partner this month with @opbarks for Singing Our Grief.
The loss of our animal companions is like no other loss. The grief we feel when they’re no longer a part of our everyday is one that’s often misunderstood and minimized by those who haven’t loved and been loved in this way.
Join us on Friday, September 19, as we make space to honor these family members who have died or are ailing.
Whether you’re grieving the loss of a pet or not, all are welcome, as are all griefs.
🎶 Singing Our Grief
🗓️7 to 8:30 pm Friday, Sept. 19
📍Opportunity Barks, 3510 Scotts Lane, Suite 3112, Philadelphia
💲Donation: $10-$30 (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Bound By Loss | September
🌾 September – Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss by Juliet Hooker
Theme: Political Grief, Racial Justice, and Whose Loss Gets Mourned
📖 A searing analysis of how grief operates differently across race and power structures in America. Hooker challenges narratives of national unity and explores how Black grief is pathologized while white grievance is weaponized. A vital read for collective care work and political mourning.
🌀 Mini-Practice: Grief and Power journaling prompt.
Ask yourself: Whose grief do I see honored? Whose pain gets dismissed? What does my grief demand of the systems I live within?
📅 Event: September 18
Register here: https://forms.gle/g2MJXdb3H2KcstwZ8
Gone But Still In My Google Calendar | Sept 13
The heart wants what the heart wants. So does grief. Both are messy, primal, and difficult to reason with.
Join psychotherapist and death educator Lori Zaspel of Moonvine Grief and Catherine of Death Project Manager for Gone But Still in My Google Calendar: a discussion on polyamory / ENM and grief.
All griefs welcome - whether from death, or living losses like breakups, change, the heartaches that come from being alive.
Lori is a psychotherapist, grief activist, death educator, and content creator who was a founding member of the Philly Death Doula Collective, is a current member of Salt Trails Philly (an art collective working to honor grief as a vital and sacred part of the human experience).
Catherine is the creator of the Mortality Workbook, a toolkit to collect what your loved ones should know before you go, so that you can rest in peace. She has hosted death education events around the globe in multiple languages.
Saturday, September 13, 7PM EST / 4PM PST; 90 minutes over GoogleMeet.
$10-$20 sliding scale suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.
We'll open with a grounding exercise, share information on relational grief, then create space for your thoughts on non-monogamy, grief, breakups within breakups, changes, endings, new beginnings.
Bring all your feelings, even the ones you’re embarrassed to feel. We’ll meet them, and you, on the internet.
Submissions CLOSED | Howl & Hold Issue II
Hello grievers, thank you for being here. Due to unanticipated and enthusiastic response, it is necessary to close submissions at this time (9/10). If you wish to support the continued existence of this zine, I encourage you to share and purchase the first issue, which has already been released: https://www.lorizaspel.com/shop This endeavor is entirely funded by those sales! Thank you again for being here and for sharing the creative expressions of your feral grief.
It’s that time again! Submit your work here: https://forms.gle/zSWjAuFNPT5WJteM9
Grief builds shrines in the unlikeliest of places: a jacket never worn again, a half-empty cup on the kitchen table, a saved voicemail. Some altars we build with intention—candles lit, photos framed, stones carefully placed. Others assemble themselves slowly, without our permission or awareness. Howl & Hold Issue II invites you to explore the sacred spaces of your grief—those built, stumbled upon, or refused.
This issue, ALTARS, asks: What do you return to again and again in your mourning? What objects or spaces have become charged with meaning? What cannot be held, even here?
Prompts for this issue include:
Grief Talisman – If your grief could take physical form—if you could carry it in your pocket, wear it on a chain, keep it tucked in a drawer—what would it be? Describe it in vivid detail or sketch it, paint it, sculpt it. Is it heavy or weightless, glowing or dull? What textures, sounds, or scents does it hold? Do you have an actual grief talisman?
Altar of the Everyday – What quiet rituals or objects have become sacred since your loss? Photograph or write about an “altar” that has formed unintentionally—your nightstand, a cluttered shelf, the inside of your glovebox. What meaning does it hold?
What the Altar Cannot Hold – Create a piece (poem, prose, collage, etc.) about the things too large, too raw, or too unnameable to fit on any altar. What truths or feelings spill off the edge? What gets left behind?
Vestiges & Visions – Grief often leaves traces—images that haunt, symbols that return, colors we can’t stop painting with. What visions rise when you give grief form without words? Create an image, comic, painting, or collage that channels your mourning through texture, line, shape, or shadow. What visual language does your grief speak? What ghosts appear when you draw from memory? What remains when words fail?
We welcome submissions across all mediums: writing (poetry, prose, hybrid), visual art, photography, collage, or anything else that gives form to the feral, the sacred, the unspeakable. And, as always, submissions that do not precisely fall within these guidelines but are pertinent to your grief are WELCOME.
Let this be a place to remember, to rage, to resist forgetting. Let this be your altar.
Bound By Loss | August
Theme: Grief, Ritual, and Embodied Justice
📅 Circle Date: August 14
In August, we’re slowing down with Tending Grief — a soul-nourishing offering from Camille Sapara Barton that blends grief work, social justice, and somatic practice. This book feels like a balm: it doesn’t rush you. It offers gentle, grounded tools for making space for loss in the body, the collective, and the ancestral line.
If you’re seeking a more embodied relationship to your grief — one that doesn’t pathologize or fix, but tends and honors — this one’s for you.
🌀 Mini Practice: Create a grounding altar.
Gather a few meaningful, natural items — a stone, a feather, a leaf. Spend a minute each day connecting with one through your senses. Ask your grief: what do you need right now?
Register here: https://forms.gle/iMjzu1Uuec9LNg8C6
Howl & Hold Grief Zine & Stickers NOW ON SALE
🖤 IT’S HERE 🖤
https://www.lorizaspel.com/shop
The very first issue of Howl & Hold: A Feral Grief Zine is officially live + for sale on my website — alongside a glorious pile of griefy, gritty, magical stickers.
This was a massive labor of love, featuring 30+ contributors sharing art, words, rituals, weird wisdoms, and soft spots for anyone trying to survive loss without losing themselves.
✨ Part survival guide
✨ Part scream into the void
✨ 100% not your grandma’s grief manual (unless she was a punk witch creature with a tarot deck and a social work degree)
Inside: poetry, prose, collage, photographs, grief rituals, prompts, and reminders that your pain belongs — and so do you. Cry on it. Write in it. Throw it across the room. It can take it.
32 full-color pages
Locally printed by Fireball Printing
Saddle-stitched like a dream
$19 — because grief deserves beautifully designed and printed things
Bundles of goodies available
🖤 Tap the link in bio to get your copy + support the next issue (because funding this one just came straight out of my pocket, let's be real)
🖤 Stickers also available, because sometimes you need to advertise what's going on with you on your car or laptop
Singing Our Grief
Singing Our Grief is a communal gathering of music, ritual, and shared remembrance — an invitation to honor our losses through the healing power of voice and presence. Whether you're grieving a person, a relationship, a season of life, or the state of the world, come as you are. No singing experience needed — just a willingness to show up with your tender heart.
💛 Suggested donation: $15-25
🎶 Venmo: @Naila-Francis
All are welcome.
Bound By Loss | Renegade Grief
Bound By Loss is a thoughtfully facilitated book circle for those navigating loss who feel ready to engage with their grief through reading, reflection, and discussion. This circle will provide a supportive, non-pathologizing space to explore grief-related literature — offering insight, validation, and connection outside the structure of formal therapy and with a return to community in mind.
📖 Second Meeting: June 12th, 6–8 PM
📚 Our Book: Renegade Grief by Carla Fernandez
This group will meet via Google Meet. Auto-generated captions will be available, and I am open to discussing alternative accessibility options as needed. While cameras on is preferred (because we wanna see your beautiful face), no one will be required to do so. Please note that listening to audio books is reading in this group. Braille is reading in this group.
Participation is offered on a sliding scale of $10, $15, or $20 per session, payable via Venmo.
Links & Resources
-
An interdisciplinary group of healers, artists, ministers, and activists who are united by a shared commitment to honoring grief as a vital and sacred part of the human experience. We hold grief events across the Philadelphia area.
-
Sign up for my newsletter! A tender, truth-telling monthly missive exploring grief, longing, and the strange light that lives inside sorrow.
-
An invitation to explore mortality, meaning, and remembrance through books that illuminate our relationship to death and dying. From 2023.
-
An insightful series of interviews with end-of-life doulas working in the US and abroad. Mitzi's four-question interviews usually run between 20-35 minutes.
-
Browse and buy from the Bound by Loss reading list (as well as other books I love) via my Bookshop.org affiliate link—support independent bookstores while exploring books that speak to grief, memory, and meaning.
-
Open Path is a nonprofit network connecting clients with therapists offering sessions at significantly reduced rates, typically between $40–70. It’s a great resource for finding quality, accessible care.
-
My go-to directory for finding socially aware, culturally responsive care. It centers 2SLGBTQ+ folks, neurodivergent communities, and people of color, making it easier to connect with therapists who affirm and celebrate your full identity.
-
A directory of professionals who are knowledgeable about and affirming of polyamorous identities. It really does make a difference when your therapist understands the dynamics of consensual non-monogamy—without judgment or needing a crash course.
-
What’s Your Grief – A creative, practical grief resource hub.
The Dinner Party – Community for 20- and 30-somethings navigating life after loss.
Reimagine – Events and resources to explore grief, death, and end-of-life with creativity and community.
Healing in Community – Radical mental health tools and community-based resources for collective care.
-
Trans Lifeline – Peer support hotline run by and for trans people.
The Trevor Project – Crisis intervention and suicide prevention for queer youth.
QTPoC Mental Health — A community-run resource hub centering the mental health of queer & trans people of color.
FOR THE GWORLS — A grassroots org raising money for Black trans people to afford rent, gender-affirming surgeries, and travel for medical care.
-
Therapy for Black Girls – A space to find culturally competent mental health professionals for Black women and girls.
Therapy for Black Men – Therapist directory plus community-building and mental wellness content.
Latinx Therapy – Mental health resources and a directory of Latinx therapists.
Asian Mental Health Collective – Therapist directory and community support for Asian diaspora communities.
National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN) – A healing justice resource and network of QTBIPOC therapists.
How to find a grief group
1. For ages 20-40s: www.dinnerparty.org. They offer virtual and IRL tables, as well as a buddy program.
2. Local hospice. Hospices are required to offer groups, many will open them to the community but they are not advertised. If the person who died was served by a hospice, start there.
3. Organizations associated with a disease process. For example, Cancer Support Community is for all cancers, many oncology centers also host grief groups. Reach out to the social work department to inquire. Alzheimer’s Association, breast cancer org, etc.
4. Loss of a child — https://www.compassionatefriends.org/
5. Suicide loss — https://afsp.org/find-a-support-group/
6. Substance use related loss — https://www.phila.gov/.../grief-support-for-drug-related.../ (Philadelphia County only) and https://grasphelp.org/about-us/ (chapters all over)
7. Loss due to violence (Philly specific) — https://avpphila.org/families-of-murder-victims/ At last check, AVP has been pretty overwhelmed and has a waitlist.
8. Support groups for children and their caregivers, all losses — https://upliftphilly.org/, https://bereavementcenter.org/ (up in Skippack), and https://petersplaceonline.org/. https://supportingkidds.org/ in Delaware. If you are not in Philly, you can Google to find the nearest children’s grief center.
9. Death doulas and grief coaches. Connect with local doulas and grief workers for a wide variety of community support options. The Salt Trails Collective is one such group (full disclosure, I am in that group). To locate local doulas, try NEDAlliance.org or INELDA.org.
10. My Instagram stories and highlights are full of local and virtual grief events, many offering community grieving.