A new chapter for ZYZZYVA

Dear ZYZZYVA readers,

After more than a decade as editor, Laura Cogan is handing over the duties of her role to Oscar Villalon, the journal’s managing editor. Laura will stay on as editor at large. Oscar is now only the journal’s third editor since its founding in 1985.

During Laura’s tenure, work published in the journal was regularly acknowledged and reprinted in the Best American series and in the Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Prize anthologies. ZYZZYVA was also awarded the Council of Literary Magazine and Presses’ Firecracker Award in 2019 for Best Magazine, General Excellence, and in 2022 was awarded a Whiting Literary Magazine Prize.

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In further staff news, John McMurtrie, the former book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, has joined ZYZZYVA as senior editor. And Zack Ravas, our former assistant editor, has become a contributing editor.

Also, we welcome to our board longtime champions of the journal Daniel Handler, Paul Beatty, Kevin Smokler, Jessica Powell, and Scott M. Gimple.

For a detailed press release on all this news, click here.

ZYZZYVA’s goal has always been to keep evolving and finding new ways of serving our readers and the literary community. We hope you’re as excited as we are for what comes next, and that we can count on your continued support and subscriptions. We also invite you to celebrate this new chapter at our upcoming events at the Booksmith (on May 25th) and at City Lights (on July 25th).

Gratefully yours,

The ZYZZYVA Staff

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