Zyzzyva

I love zyzzyva and the writers and writing community it supports. it doesn’t feel fussy; it feels charming and engaging and intimate, like a good and true and sassy friend. i didn’t realize there was a Unilocal page for it until i belatedly read howard junker’s blog asking for people to Unilocal it, so here i am.
when i lived in l.a. (before coming back to the City), i caught a reading of zyzzyva writers at the awesome skylight books, and howard was even there. it was a great night. not just because of the free wine and cheese. it felt familial in a literary way. the wine and cheese did help. i admit it.

This literary journal represents! The west coast, that is, and I feel good knowing that Howard Junker and his litmag, ZYZZYVA (imagine this in all caps, italics – bc Unilocal isn’t allowing that) is making sure to provide a forum for West Coast writers and artists, especially in a field that leans heavily right, er, I mean East. :) And doing it well – because for the snobs, (and I mean it affectionately) ZYZZYVA is one of the best litmags in the U.S. – both in my opinion and in the opinion of those worthier than I.
I’ve been reading ZYZZYVA since 1994, back when all the current established writers were up and coming: Justin Chin, Peter Bacho, Jessica Hagedorn, and the awesome F.X. Toole… Howard prides himself on going through the slushpile of submissions himself and it’s amazing to be a part of the discovery process because litmags are usually where writers first publish. You’ll see many of the great writers of tomorrow here, before they come out with their first book. The work is sometimes uneven, sometimes odd, but always very very fresh. What you see here, you haven’t seen anywhere else.
Noteworthy: What’s unique to this litmag and always provides a good chuckle are the quotes excerpted from cover letter submissions. I wish more litmags did this, but as far as I know, Howard/ZYZZYVA’s the only one to do so. Those excerpts in and of themselves are a reason to pick up an issue.
Anyway. My subscriptions to litmags have come and gone and come back again, but I’ve gone steady with ZYZZYVA for some time.
If your’e not sure, check out the blog (
) – sometimes Howard gives out free copies.
As for the current 25^th anniversary issue – it’s a foray from the usual, and focuses on «text image.» It’s an interesting experience, and I recognize art and covers from previous issues, but not my cup of tea although it may very well be yours (I want my litmag to have more words than pictures). Kind of a cool experience to thumb through it in one issue. But I hope ZYZZYVA returns to it usual programming soon.

With stories and poems that both your anarchist-​genderbending-​all-​black-​wearing-​comparative-​literature-​grad-​school-​attending friends and your Oprah’s-Book-Club-reading relatives can enjoy,
ZYZZYVA is San Francisco’s best literary journal that doesn’t include DVDs, combs, stories by Icelandic authors, and color pages. It’s also the city’s best literary journal that comes out on time. Yeah, McSweeney’s, you know I’m talking to you.

«the last word.» the magazine looks great. and the name is oh so fun to say. oh dear. i’m trying to get published. i’ll let you know if they’re nice about what they do. update: i got rejected. i don’t know if this is true, but their rejection letter says they reject 99% of all submissions. their rejection letter was so charming. call me perverse, but i like them even more now.