ZYZZYVA Literary Magazine

Join us (virtually) at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers this Thursday (6pm PST) for the first of our celebrations of Issue No. 119. With readings from contributors Jonathan Escoffery, Wendy C. Ortiz, Siel Ju, Andrés Reconco, Kathleen Mackay, and Nina Revoyr. Event is free but registration is required...!

From our review of "Antkind" (Penguin Random House) by Charlie Kaufman: "A reader might not expect such a massive book about (apparently) so little to compact anything, but the laughs are dense. (Best practice: do not read 'Antkind' somewhere you should be quiet). Many laughs spring from Nabokov-esque wordplay, like hearing 'meteorologist' as 'meaty horologist.'"

From our review of "Bestiary" (One World/Random House) by K-Ming Chang: "...suffused with lyricism, a multigenerational, mythological, and magical-realist retelling of one family’s fraught history. 'Bestiary's' three narrators are referred to only as Daughter, Mother, and Grandmother. Their narratives are interwoven, and converse and collapse upon each other."

A 'comfort' read about the comforts of baking during the pandemic by friend of the journal Beth Bich Minh Nguyen: "When quarantine times began, everyone around me started making sourdough. I baked cakes. Nothing against bread; I just crave the precision of a layer cake, the fiddly work, as it’s called on The Great British Baking Show, a comfort series that I rewatched while making comfort cakes, tarts and galettes. Bread is a staple, but cake brings joy."

Don't miss the Nob Hill Gazette's profile of the San Francisco literary scene, including our friends at Litquake and City Lights Booksellers & Publishers: "From City Lights Bookstore, ZYZZYVA, Chronicle Books and Crown Point Press to literary events produced by Porchlight, Literary Death Match, Alta Magazine Book Club and Litquake, which concluded its annual festival last month, the literary beat by the Bay goes on."

We're happy to announce that Karl Taro Greenfeld's story "The Golden Age of Television" (Issue No. 114) received a Pushcart Prize and Carl Phillips' poem "Little Shields, in Starlight" (Issue No. 116) got an Honorable Mention. Congratulations to Carl and Karl!

Up for a spooky read? Enjoy "Photisms" by Juan Pablo Villalobos (originally published in Issue No. 99). And Happy Halloween!

This month's Staff Recommends is a real grab bag, featuring We Are Who We Are HBO, an Eighties movie favorite, music by Nilüfer Yanya, words on music from 33 1/3, fiction by a Nobel Prize winner, and more...!

Join us (virtually) at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers on Thur., Nov. 12 for the first of our celebrations of Issue No. 119.: the L.A. Issue. With readings from contributors Jonathan Escoffery, Wendy C. Ortiz, Siel Ju, Andrés Reconco, Kathleen Mackay, and Nina Revoyr.

Twenty-three contributors. Two covers. One singular place.... Order your copy of Issue No. 119: The L.A. Issue https://www.zyzzyva.org/pr/zyzzyva-no-119-fall-winter-2020/

Twenty-three contributors. Two covers. One singular place. Order your copy of Issue No. 119: The L.A. Issue.

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers: "Bookstores like us need your help and this holiday season is a good time to support us. More readers of good books = more engaged people, and the cycle continues. Create the good vibes. Shop early for the holidays as well!"

Join us today for our Lit Crawl San Francisco 35th Anniversary event, with Jessica Hagedorn, Anthony Marra, Charlie Jane Anders, Manuel Munoz, and Carl Phillips. Starts at 4:45 p.m. PST.

'So while people were asking what was wrong with America, how something this horrific and devastating could happen...Some of us already knew the answer'from Dana Johnson's story in the Resistance Issue. Today is the last day to purchase your copy of Issue 111 for half off...!