Get the best literature from coast to coast this Memorial Day Weekend with ZYZZYVA & Ploughshares! Subscribe now and get two great literary journals –– ZYZZYVA & Ploughshares –– for one low price of $49.99. That’s 35% off the cover price! Beginning with the next issue of both Ploughshares and ZYZZYVA, subscribers will receive: 4 issues of Ploughshares (print and digital) 4 issues of ZYZZYVA Free submissions to the Ploughshares regular reading period Don’t delay –– subscribe now before this offer ends!* *Offer valid though May 28th, 2019. […]
Category: News
ZYZZYVA news.
‘What My Mother And I Don’t Talk About,’ edited by Michele Filgate: A Complex Bond
by Casey Jong
In What My Mother And I Don’t Talk About (288 pages; Simon & Schuster; edited by Michele Filgate), fifteen writers grapple with the unexpected developments and shortcomings of their relationships with their mothers. In her introduction, Filgate explains that while each individual essay is an achievement in itself, together they work to address the ways we tend to idealize our mothers, as well as reflect honestly on the imperfect relationships we forge (and sometimes end) with them over the course of our lives: Acknowledging what we couldn’t say for so long, for whatever reason, is one way to heal our […]
In the Spring Issue
by ZYZZYVA
In this issue: On Art Nonfiction Sallie Tisdale on touring the antiquities of Rome, Glen David Gold on tracking down a Gorey original, Heather Altfeld on the enduring gaze of John Berger, Paisley Rekdal on erasure and Paul Klee. Fiction Ben Greenman’s “Polyptych” (a divorced man and a painting that must be observed just so), Toni Martin’s “Director’s Cut” (a woman’s life as reconfigured through a foreign filmmaker’s sensibilities), and Peter Orner’s “Pacific” (an elderly couple—a sculptor and a potter—and the very end of things). Poetry Dan Alter, Denver Buston, Troy Jollimore, Rusty Morrison, Mira Rosenthal, and Alexandra Teague. In […]
On Creating the Orcas Island Lit Fest
by Scott Hutchins
When my friend Jule Treneer asked me if I wanted to start a literary festival, we were standing in a park, watching his son bounce up and down on a trampoline. It was summer, and I felt, like the boy, that I had excess energy to burn. The festival’s shape and focus were amorphous, but the location was definite. Orcas Island, a beautiful, two-lobed protrusion of volcanic plate in the San Juan archipelago in Washington State, but so far north the island is tucked into Canada. Orcas was a key place for Jule growing up, and his mother had recently […]
Make a Patron-Level Donation and Receive an Amazing Incentive Gift
by ZYZZYVA Staff
Become a supporter of ZYZYVA at the Patron level today, and receive an amazing incentive gift as our thank you! For a donation of $200 or more, not only will you get a complimentary subscription to ZYZZYVA, but thanks to our friends at Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, you’ll get copies of Lucia Berlin’s Evenings in Paradise: More Stories and Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photography and Letter plus a Lucia Berlin tote. You’ll also get a copy of Lydia Kiesling’s acclaimed novel, The Golden State (named one of the Best Books of 2018 by NPR, Bookforum, and Bustle), and A.G. Lombardo’s novel, Graffiti Palace (praised by David L. Ulin as […]
A Tote & Subscription Bundle brings you our new Winter Issue just in time for the holidays
by ZYZZYVA Staff
Looking for a gift for the holidays? How about our Tote & 4-Issue Subscription bundle, or even our Tote & 8-Issue Subscription bundle (Or perhaps as a gift for yourself? You’ve earned it!) Order a Bundle by Tuesday, December 18, and have it delivered in plenty of time for your lucky recipient. We’ll start off the subscription with our newest issue, No. 114, featuring Tales of the Uncanny from Kate Folk, Jim Ruland, Shawn Vestal, and David Drury; a Q&A with Michael Ondaatje by Caille Millner, poetry by Bruce Snider, Austen Leah Rosenfeld, and Heather Christle, the art of Kate Ballis, and much more. […]
Rock ‘n Roll Suicide: ‘Destroy All Monsters’ by Jeff Jackson
by Zack Ravas
To the young, music can be a religion. Destroy All Monsters (357 pages; FSG), the latest novel from Charlotte-based author Jeff Jackson, trades in the kind of punk fervor that inspires teenagers to thrash in mosh pits, raid merch booths, and obsessively listen to the same album. The power of what a few kids and some amped instruments can do is clearly a subject near to Jackson’s heart; not only does he perform in the self-described “weirdo pop band” Julian Calendar, but he’s allowed the vinyl single format to influence the design of the novel itself: Destroy All Monsters features […]
Your Support Makes a Difference – Please Donate Today
by ZYZZYVA Staff
Dear Friends, As we close in on the end of the year, we have so much to be thankful for. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to produce good work and to be of service to our community. We hope that you feel ZYZZYVA is a meaningful part of your life, both as a reader and as someone who wants to see culture thrive, especially in these days of turmoil. So we ask: Will you help us continue our work? We do need your support. No gift is too small. Every dollar counts. Thanks to the generosity of […]
How we can help those affected by the California fires
by ZYZZYVA Staff
Raging wildfires have devastated both Northern and Southern California over the last several weeks. The situation has been impossible to ignore here in the Bay Area, as smoke from the fires has led to tremendously poor air quality. We feel for those more immediately impacted by the fires –– the numerous missing and displaced –– and have assembled a list of places seeking donations. 7×7 has compiled a list of local causes we can contribute to, including Disaster Relief funds and donation collections. The San Francisco SPCA has set up a fundraiser, specifically to provide care and treatment for animals affected […]
In the Winter Issue
by ZYZZYVA
In this issue: Tales of the Uncanny “Shelter” by Kate Folk: the concrete vault in the basement of a rented house exerts a strange pull on the woman living above it. “Take the Water Prisoner” by Shawn Vestal: when the sins (and pains) of the father are visited upon the son. “The Canyon” by Jim Ruland: the struggle for sobriety leads Lindsay to a confrontation she couldn’t have imagined. “The Lake and the Onion” by David Drury: “There once was a lake who fell in love with an onion. This is merely what we 100 percent know.” Interview Michael Ondaatje […]
Secretly Wishing for Impossible Futures: ‘Her Mouth as Souvenir’ by Heather June Gibbons
by Caleigh Stephens
Her Mouth as Souvenir (88 pages; University of Utah Press), winner of the 2017 Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, is a breathtaking and lyrical debut collection from Heather June Gibbons. Gibbons’ voice is a strong one, as she leads the reader through well-crafted and captivatingly honest free verse. Pressingly urgent and timely, Her Mouth as Souvenir is a study of action in the face of anxiety. The poems’ context includes larger societal trends, such as the technologizing world that presents “a strange kind of convenience, / to access at the tap of a fingertip / so much information without […]
Welcome Fall in Style with ZYZZYVA’s Tote & Sub Bundle
by ZYZZYVA Staff
Whether you’re heading back to school or merely bracing for the BART commute, ZYZZYVA has you covered with our special Tote & 4-Issue Subscription Bundle. For little more than the price of a regular subscription, you’ll also receive one of our new and beautifully designed tote bags, handy for both taking several books (or issues of the journal) with you on the go, and letting those on the street know you Always Get the Last Word. Your Subscription will begin with Issue No. 113, our special issue centered around themes of Environmental concerns & conservation. Our first issue featuring full-color artwork […]