Category: News

ZYZZYVA news.

Letter from the Editor

by Oscar Villalon

Posted on by John McMurtrie

The following letter appears in the newest issue of ZYZZYVA. It’s the first issue of the journal that bears Oscar Villalon as editor on the masthead. The issue is available in bookstores and can also be ordered here. And you can subscribe here. Dear Reader, This is the 125th issue of ZYZZYVA. It’s a remarkable milestone when you consider all of the things that have to go right for a literary journal, one absent the shoring of a munificent college or regal institution, to make it that far. Firstly, there has to have been a steady and passionate readership. Our […]

Continue Reading

A new chapter for ZYZZYVA

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by 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 […]

Continue Reading

Remembering Book Editor Pat Holt

by Regan McMahon

Posted on by John McMurtrie

When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area in 1989, Pat Holt remained at her desk, ignoring a co-worker’s urgent plea to take cover—choosing instead to stay on a phone call, making her passionate case to an author or publisher while her office swayed and rattled and books fell off the shelves around her. Such was Pat’s dedication to her work as the former book editor, critic, and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Pat, who devoted her career to her love of books, died December 3 at her home in San Francisco following a brief battle with cancer. […]

Continue Reading

Announcing our next Writers’ Workshop: Lori Ostlund on 3rd-Person Close Perspective

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by Zack Ravas

We’re pleased to announce our next Writers’ Workshop: Lori Ostlund on 3rd-Person Close Perspective. This Zoom-based Writers’ Workshop will take place on April 22nd from 11am to 2pm PST. Purchase your ticket today (and please feel free to spread the word to any of your writer friends!). “I’ve found that often people think that 3rd-close is just a variation on 1st-person, or that widening the distance from the character means that the narrator becomes invisible or neutral, even bland,” says instructor Lori Ostlund, “but I think of 3rd-person close as a way to have the best of both worlds: to […]

Continue Reading

ZYZZYVA Holiday Gift Guide

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by Zack Ravas

Dear Friend,  It’s that time of year! The holidays are upon us and, with them, the pressure to procure the right gift for our loved ones. We’d like to offer our assistance to those desiring to shop small, shop local, and shop mindfully. With this in mind, here is a helpful list of gift suggestions that might just fit the bill. And we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and happy new year. Yours, the ZYZZYVA team For the Poet: Even us ardent fans of fiction have a friend or family member who is most moved by poetry and […]

Continue Reading

Deadline Approaching for our next Workshop: Writing Across Cultures with Vanessa Hua

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by Zack Ravas

Our next remote Writers’ Workshop is Writing Across Cultures with Vanessa Hua on September 17th, 2022. (11am to 2pm PST via ZOOM). The deadline to purchase a ticket is September 15th. “Can I write about that?” The question of cultural appropriation is a complicated one, and so too its answers. In this discussion-based Writers’ Workshop, students will examine strategies for researching and portraying lives unlike our own, that reflect social and historical context and the fullness of a character’s humanity. Students will work on writing exercises and discuss texts by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Toni Morrison, Elaine Castillo, among others, along with […]

Continue Reading

‘Blithedale Canyon’ by Michael Bourne: On the Ragged Edge of Hope

by Emma Tavangari

Posted on by Zack Ravas

Michael Bourne’s first novel, Blithedale Canyon (292 pages; Regal House Publishing), is in many ways a story about California. It is a treatise on the nature of class in one of Marin County’s wealthiest cities, the psychological costs of gentrification, and the harrowing trials of a young man in the throes of addiction. Bourne finds an unlikely hometown hero in Trent Wolfer, an alcoholic and ex-convict who returns home to Mill Valley following a stint in jail. Trent is twenty-nine years old, flipping hamburgers, and spending his work breaks downing miniature bottles of vodka and gin in his car. Thoughts […]

Continue Reading

Watch Our Booksmith Event for Issue 123: The Poetry Issue

by ZYZZYVA Staff

Posted on by Zack Ravas

In case you missed it: you can now watch our recorded live event with The Booksmith from last week! This event celebrated the launch of Issue 123, the Poetry Issue. Enjoy readings by contributors Colin Winnette, Heather Altfeld, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Troy Jollimore, and Victoria Chang. The event was emceed by Zyzzyva’s Managing Editor, Oscar Villalon. You can watch it via the embedded video below. […]

Continue Reading

The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize

by ZYZZYVA Staff

Posted on by Zack Ravas

Dear Readers, We are elated to announce that ZYZZYVA has received the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. The Prize is a major validation of the journal’s decades-long work to showcase the most exciting poets, writers, and artists from our home region, as well as from across the country and beyond. “ZYZZYVA has for years been a shepherd to a capacious community of West Coast writers,” the judges’s citation states. “Masterfully edited and sharply cerebral, this place-based journal dazzles readers with formal innovation and an appetite for adventure, diving deeply into its regionality while ushering the world onto its pages. As a […]

Continue Reading

Catch up on two of our most recent events, including an interview with Vanessa Hua

by ZYZZYVA Staff

Posted on by Zack Ravas

In case you missed it: we’ve got handy Youtube links for two of our most recent ZYZZYVA-related events, including our Q&A with Vanessa Hua about her latest novel Forbidden City that happened at San Francisco’s The Booksmith on May 18th; as well as our May 19th Q&A with Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán about her new collection, titled Family Album: Stories, that occurred at City Lights Bookstore. What could be better than free literary-world entertainment, no? (And if you’re interested in reading more work from Alemán, do secure a copy of our latest issue, Issue 122, to read her story “School […]

Continue Reading