The Fantasy Amateur Press Association, or FAPA, was founded in 1937 and continues operating to the present day. An amateur press association is a group of writers who share their work through regular mailings. There is typically a limit on the number of members, and a requirement that members contribute a minimum number of pages each year. A member serving as “editor” handles the collating and mailing of contributions to the rest of the group. FAPA has a limit of 65 members (up from 50 in its early decades) and sends out mailings four times a year. Eight pages of content per year are expected of each member.

The members of amateur press associations are sometimes aspiring authors who want to share work-in-progress with a pool of willing readers, but members may also be drawn together through shared interests or having friends in common. Members’ content may include personal news, opinions about current events, or observations on the group’s common interest. As the name suggests, most FAPA members enjoy fantasy and science fiction. Nearly all are actively involved in fantasy and science fiction fandom as members of fan groups, organizers of fan events, and/or writers of commercially published fiction.

The Fantasy Amateur Press Association collection at MSU includes the group’s quarterly mailings from 1976 to 1991.