Issue: Volume 36, #2, Fall-Winter 2020

Fiction

“Odd Jobs” by Jonathan Escoffery: A college grad living out of his car can’t be too finicky about what a young woman asks him to do for a bit of cash.

“Panda Express” by Francisco Gonzalez: Far from the eyes of family, a student allows himself to savor what he truly hungers for.

“Jello Sees” by Kathleen Mackay: “Jello had come to hate the celebrities. Funhouse faces that looked familiar and disappointing in their ordinariness, but always beautiful, always remarkable for their familiarity. This seemed unfair.”

Plus stories from Michelle Latiolais, Siel Ju, Andres Reconco, and Perry Janes. And in honor of Ray Bradbury’s centenary, a republication of his classic story “The Pedestrian.”

Nonfiction

“Postcard from L.A., April” by Nina Revoyr: When you’ve long been attuned to life’s precariousness, what does the growing threat of pandemic mean?

“Alterations” by Wendy C. Ortiz: “I write to you, craving. I know there are music and texts I won’t gravitate toward in these next few fragile weeks of newness, because they threaten to drive me back to pleasure …”

Plus essays by Joe Donnelly (on the enduring legacy of the wolf known as OR-7) and A. Kendra Greene (on the museum that is the Holyland Exhibition).

Interview

The late Wanda Coleman on writing for TV, running in the same circles as Charles Bukowski, and being “a poet, about as valueless as anyone in this nation can be. But maybe I save a life.”

Poetry

Victoria Chang, David Hernandez, Genevieve Kaplan, Douglas Manuel, Dan Murphy, and Mary Otis.

Art

Henry Lara

You can purchase a copy of No. 119 here, or order a subscription to ZYZZYVA now and we’ll start you off by shipping you the L.A. issue.

Messiah Wolf

by Joe Donnelly

Posted on by Zack Ravas

When I was a boy, my imagination was ripe for wolves. But, it wasn’t the usual folktales and fables that got to me, or the scenes of wolf packs airbrushed onto the panel vans of my suburban youth. At six years old, my wolf was a companion, not a cautionary tale or a signifier of

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National Poetry Month: Twenty-Seven Objects of Explicit Wonder

by L.A. Johnson

Posted on by Zack Ravas

1. house with lawn gone yellow 2. no matter which direction, the wind 3. swimming pools and dreams of pools 4. coyotes that shriek like children 5. naked intruders 6. scent of honeysuckle through a sunroof 7. dish, broken, never thrown away 8. half-lidded sentences that ramble on 9. swimsuits drying on balconies 10. water even a seahorse would swim in 11. the clear circles a hawk makes in the air 12. reservoir, with a lover’s name 13. confessions heard over the ocean’s waves 14. two eggs cracked, each with two yokes 15. fingerprints on mirrors 16. fire danger warning: […]

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The Golden State Bundle, Now Available

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by Zack Ravas
ZYZZYVA Golden State Bundle: No. 117 & No. 119

Within the realm of literature, there is no need to choose one region over the other. Get the Bay Area Issue and the Los Angeles Issue in our Golden State Bundle and enjoy the work of some of the best poets and writers that California has to offer. Together, the issues in the Golden State Bundle boast many of the West Coast’s finest writers, with fiction by Charlie Jane Anders, Jonathan Escoffery, Rita Bullwinkel, Michelle Latiolais, Chia-Chia Lin, Perry Janes, Ingrid Rojas Contreras; essays by Tom Bissell, Lydia Kiesling, and Wendy C. Ortiz; poetry by sam sax, Victoria Chang, Meg […]

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The L.A. Issue: Letter from the Editor

by Laura Cogan

Posted on by Zack Ravas
ZYZZYVA Volume 36, #2, Fall–Winter 2020 (No. 119) - Night Version

The following is Laura Cogan’s Letter from the Editor in our new L.A. Issue. You can purchase a copy of Issue 119 from our Shop page: Dear Reader, Though Los Angeles occupies an outsized space in America’s (and even the world’s) cultural imagination because of the film and television industries, its literary culture is comparatively overlooked or minimized. Here on the West Coast we are busy enough going about our work that it is easy to forget for long stretches at a time the still significant East Coast bias in publishing. And then every so often someone in New York sends […]

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The L.A. Issue

by ZYZZYVA

Posted on by ZYZZYVA
ZYZZYVA Volume 36, #2, Fall–Winter 2020 (No. 119) - Day and Night Versions

The L.A. Issue. Fiction: Ray Bradbury, Siel Ju, Jonathan Escoffery, Perry Janes, Francisco González, Andrés Reconco, Kathleen Mackay, and Michelle Latiolais. Nonfiction: A. Kendra Greene, Wendy C. Ortiz, Steve Ryfle, and David L. Ulin. Interview: Steve Ryfle talks to the late Wanda Coleman. Poetry: Victoria Chang, David Hernandez, Genevieve Kaplan, Douglas Manuel, Dan Murphy, and Mary Otis. Art: Henry Lara. You can purchase a copy of No. 119 here, or order a subscription to ZYZZYVA now. […]

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