ZYZZYVA’s first issue was published in 1985, under founding editor Howard Junker. In 2011, Laura Cogan became ZYZZYVA’s first new editor in more than 25 years. She and Managing Editor Oscar Villalon make up ZYZZYVA’s editorial team. Then as now, ZYZZYVA is located in San Francisco. And then as now, ZYZZYVA continues its mission of fostering culture on the West Coast, publishing the region’s best writers and artists, and being an engaged member of the Bay Area’s literary community.
- “The one journal I read cover to cover as soon as it arrives—ZYZZYVA is that smart, that brilliantly curated …” —Junot Diaz
- "Zyzzyva is a snouted beetle, as any dictionary kid knows. It's a word that nearly can't be played in Scrabble, on account of all the Z's. But those are novelty uses. The real meaning is this superb literary journal, which has real meaning. If you want to learn the things that literature can do with language, read it." —Ben Greenman
- Almost an embarrassing embarras de richesse. —TLS
- A veritable menagerie of West Coast talent. —Vanity Fair
- There are hundreds of small magazines on the West Coast, but this is one of the best. —Library Journal
- Unusually pleasing to the sensibilities. —USA Today
Peter Orner, Edie Meidav, David Guterson, Tom Bissell, Tatjana Soli, Ron Carlson, Luis Alberto Urrea, D.A. Powell, Karen Joy Fowler, John Freeman, Matthew Dickman, Adam Johnson, Vanessa Veselka, Herbert Gold, Daniel Sada, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Wendy MacNaughton, Sandow Birk, Malena Watrous, Will Boast, Troy Jollimore, Robert Mailer Anderson, Lucas Foglia, Carolyn Miller, Andrew Foster Altschul, Richard Misrach, Robin Ekiss, Katie Chase, Stephen Elliott, Owen Smith, Elena Mauli Shapiro, Aimee Bender, Diego Enrique Osorno, Cristina Rivera Garza, Don Waters, Katy Grannan, Sherman Alexie, Floyd Skloot, Dean Rader, Po Bronson, Daniel Handler, Adam Hochschild, Adrienne Rich, Kay Ryan, Carter Scholz, Ada Limon, F.X. Toole, Octavio Solis, Robert Hass, Czeslaw Milosz, Wanda Coleman, Doug Dorst, Brendan Constantine, Quincy Troupe, Raymond Carver, Jennifer duBois, Michael McClure, Francisco X. Alarcon, Kate Braverman, Tamim Ansary, Rudolfo Anaya, Blair Fuller, Brenda Webster, Richard Rodriguez, Tom Barbash, Sallie Tisdale, Tim Farrington, Victor Davis Hanson, Tess Gallagher, Culture Clash, Marilyn Chin, Dorianne Lux, Justin Chin, William T. Vollmann, Greg Sarris, Dorothy Allison, Rae Armantrout, Frances Mayes, Dagoberto Gilb, Jane Hirshfield, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Denise Levertove, David James Duncan, devorah major, Charles Johnson, Kathy Acker, Peter Coyote, Martin Cruz Smith, August Kleinzahler, James D. Houston, Dennis Cooper, Jess Mowry, Victor Villasenor, Philip Levine, Vikram Seth, Kobo Abe, Elizabeth Tallent, Isabel Allende, Molly Giles, Dodie Bellamy, Barry Lopez, Gilbert Sorrentino, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ed Ruscha, Richard Diebenkorn, Michelle Latiolais, Cherrie Moraga, Nathaniel Mackey, Gary Soto, Leonard Michaels, Howard Goldblatt, Maxine Hong Kingston, Ishmael Reed, John L’Heureux, W.S. Di Piero, Philip Kan Gotanda, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Neeli Cherkovski, Gina Berriault, Juan Felipe Herrera, Haruki Murakami, Judith Freeman, Thom Gunn, Lynn Freed, Amy Hempel. Ursula K. Le Guin, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Jessica Hagedorn, Tom Clark, Michael Wolfe, Alice Walker, Barry Gifford, M.F.K. Fisher
