email: zina (AT) zinasaunders (DOT) com
tel: 212 777 1201

I've been a writer-illustrator for more than 15 years. My work can be seen in national magazines and newspapers like Mother Jones, The Utne Reader, The Progressive, The Nation and The New Republic.

My editorial animations, riffing on the political news and current events of the week, can be seen every Tuesday on Mother Jones; here's a link to my author page there; they can also be seen on the smartest and funniest site on the web, The Final Edition.

In June 2005, my focus shifted from general illustration to reportage illustration, when I wrote a story for Time Out New York magazine about the Puerto Rico Schwinn Club, an outgrowth of the Overlooked New York website, my series of interviews and portraits of impassioned New Yorkers which regularly attracts more than 35,000 hits a month. I wrote and illustrated another feature in the August 4th issue of Time Out New York magazine, profiling Central Park portrait artists. Overlooked New York is now a book available on Amazon.

My series of political satires about the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign, The Party's Over, is a 40-page full color book available here.

My series profiling an AIDS orphan living in Zimbabwe can be seen on my Africa Close up website. Blackboard Heroes, my series of portraits and interviews with dedicated teachers across the US, was featured in Scholastic's Instructor Magazine.

I'm the daughter of pulp magazine artist Norman Saunders, who painted some of the most popular bubblegum cards from the 60's and 70's, including Mars Attacks, Batman, and Wacky Packages. As a child, I got my first taste of being a professional illustrator when I would "correct" my father's paintings when he was away from his drawing board. Many an eyelash on Norm Saunders' damsels in distress was painted by a nine-year-old Zina.

I live and work in New York City, where I grew up and attended Music and Art High School and The Cooper Union. I left Manhattan in my teens to be a levitating lady with a traveling circus in upstate New York, but eventually returned to my senses and my beloved city.

If you'd like tohear me blather on about illustration and all that jazz, here's a podcast interview with me on the estimable Escape from Illustration Island. If you're interested in knowing more, I maintain a blog on blogspot, that features my works-in-progress and outside projects.

If you're interested in commissioning me or buying limited edition prints of my work, please email me at zina (AT) zinasaunders (DOT) com.

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Click here to read The Unbiased Eye, the best blog in the blogosphere, authored by Barry Schiffman