Blog – Page 40 of 116

35th Anniversary Issue: Letter from the Editor

by Laura Cogan

April 13, 2020

Posted on April 13, 2020 (May 4, 2020) by Zack Ravas

ZYZZYVA Volume 36, #1, Spring 2020 (No. 118)

The following is Laura Cogan’s Letter from the Editor in our new 35th Anniversary Issue. You can purchase a copy of the new issue from our Shop page. Dear Reader, This year marks the centennial of women’s suffrage, and while it remains a source of national shame and outrage that we came by this expansion of voting rights so disgracefully late, it will nevertheless be natural for many to take the anniversary as a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come. But the passage of time has (or should have) also shifted our perspective and broadened our lens, so that […]

National Poetry Month: ‘A Moment in Time’

by John Freeman

April 10, 2020

Posted on April 10, 2020 (April 20, 2020) by Zack Ravas

The following is an excerpt from John Freeman’s forthcoming book of poetry The Park, out May 2020 from Copper Canyon Press. You can also read more of John Freeman’s poetry in Issue 115. On a windy day I come upon a woman crying to herself on a bench. The park has hidden her in its embrace and I must decide how to be, to stop or keep walking by, to pretend not to see? Or should I flinch at her pain, even as she, so dedicated to caroling her despair, does not. How pain does this, makes us its instruments. […]

‘You Will Never Be Forgotten’ by Mary South: Life in Front of the Screen

by Zack Ravas

April 8, 2020

Posted on April 8, 2020 (April 6, 2020) by Zack Ravas

Under typical circumstances, it’s likely the literary community would be celebrating the release of Mary South’s first book, You Will Never Be Forgotten (240 pages; FSG Originals), a collection of ten dark and crystalline stories that announces the arrival of a distinct voice in contemporary fiction. But these are not normal circumstances, and it’s difficult for any author to garner attention right now, let alone one making their debut. Yet the mordant wit and biting irony in You Will Never Be Forgotten, and its complex understanding of reality’s often cruel reversals, resonates with launching the book when the world is […]

The Intimacy of Breath

by Tess Taylor

April 7, 2020

Posted on April 7, 2020 (April 6, 2020) by Zack Ravas

Here is the strange thing: I was already writing poems about the precariousness of California. I’d been writing them for ten years, since I moved back from New York and came back to the East Bay after two decades away. That was 2011. I had just had a baby. At first, it seemed like I was only trying to make sense of the difference between the California I’d grown up in and the California I came back to, but as I wrote, it seemed like I was also trying to make sense of the world, how it had abruptly shifted under […]

National Poetry Month: ‘We Californians’

by Meg Hurtado Bloom

April 3, 2020

Posted on April 3, 2020 (April 20, 2020) by Zack Ravas

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’ll be sharing a poem a week from our archives. The following poem, “We Californians” by Meg Hurtado Bloom, is from our recent Bay Area Issue. You can read more poetry from Meg Hurtado Bloom in the issue itself, which is currently available from our Store. We never admit we have a problem. We compress. We knead. We withdraw toxins. Sun-blind and blond-hearted, we hang around Valhalla, keeping old warriors alive. It’s all super-casual. Our host, the spectral Spanish king— whose every vein burned blue as winter wind, who left us names for every hillside— has betrothed […]

Shelter in Place Compatibility Quiz

by Christine Sneed

April 2, 2020

Posted on April 2, 2020 (April 1, 2020) by Zack Ravas

For this period of forced togetherness and self-quarantine, take this quiz to determine if you and your mate really are suited to spend so much time together. 1. Fill in the blank: I am a ________ person A. Dog B. Cat C. Horse D. Carp E. Squirrel 2. If you chose “carp,” you did so because A. It is a difficult word for your Uncle Jeff, the family bully, to pronounce B. You are indifferent to cats, dogs, and horses, and squirrels are imbeciles C. As an anagrammable word, it is subpar, but you’re crap at Boggle anyway D. Carp […]

‘Born Slippy’ by Tom Lutz: Unchecked by Moral Scrutiny

by Michelle Latiolais

March 31, 2020

Posted on March 31, 2020 (March 30, 2020) by Zack Ravas

With great guilty pleasure I left off reading A Journal Of The Plague Year by Daniel Defoe and picked up Born Slippy (310 pages; Repeater Books) by the critic and scholar Tom Lutz. This is Lutz’s first novel, and on show are the wild and woolly qualities of the best first novels, I am happy to report. There is no bubonic plague to drive the narrative and to provide the agar within which we observe human behavior, no. Instead, there is in Born Slippy a character named Dmitry, a one-man plague. Frank, the novel’s central intelligence, regrets many, many times […]

ZYZZYVA Recommends March 2020: What to Read, Watch, & Listen to

by ZYZZYVA Staff

March 27, 2020

Posted on March 27, 2020 (March 27, 2020) by Zack Ravas

There’s no doubt March has been an incredibly stressful time for our community—it’s our hope with this Staff Recommends that we can, at the very least, recommend some books, graphic novels, films, and other works that might offer welcome relief or distraction as we all Shelter in Place: Alicia Long, Intern: On the upside of things, if you’re stuck at home there’s likely ample time to delve into the ever-accumulating list of shows you’ve been meaning to watch. And with only two seasons and twelve short episodes between them, Fleabag is the perfect series to ease your way into binge-mode. […]

Limited Time Offer: 3 Issues for $35

by ZYZZYVA

March 25, 2020

Posted on March 25, 2020 (April 13, 2020) by Zack Ravas

With our milestone 35th Anniversary issue shipping soon, the best way to ensure you promptly receive it is if you have a subscription. To make that much easier to do, we’re offering a special deal till this Sunday: Get our next three issues for only $35! The 35th Anniversary Issue features fiction by Bryan Washington, Lysley Tenorio, Kristen Iskandrian, and Peter Orner; poetry by Meg Hurtado Bloom, Troy Jollimore, and Jennifer Richter; nonfiction by Lauren Markham; an interview with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton; and much more. So be safe. Mind the six feet of distance.And get ready for a wonderful issue! […]

35th Anniversary Issue

by ZYZZYVA

March 23, 2020

Posted on March 23, 2020 (October 24, 2020) by ZYZZYVA

Our 35^th Anniversary Issue. Fiction: Bryan Washington, Lysley Tenorio, Elizabeth Reichert, Santiago José Sánchez, Mark Chiusano, Peter Orner, and Kristen Iskandrian. Nonfiction: Lauren Markham, Dave Madden. Interview: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton talks to John McMurtrie. Poetry: Meg Hurtado Bloom, Lisa Higgs, Troy Jollimore, Debora Kuan, Jennifer Richter, Dujie Tahat, John Sibley Williams, and Emma Winsor Wood. Art: Anne Siems. You can purchase a copy of No. 118 here, or order a subscription to ZYZZYVA now. […]

‘Barn 8’ by Deb Olin Unferth: A Comically Extreme Heist

by Zack Ravas

March 20, 2020

Posted on March 20, 2020 (March 19, 2020) by Zack Ravas

The premise of Deb Olin Unferth’s latest novel, Barn 8 (252 pages; Graywolf Press), involves the heist of a comically extreme number of chickens—yet to label the novel a mere comedy would be tantamount to calling Kurt Vonnegut a “humor writer.” Sure, the book is funny, quite funny, but it is much more. Unferth is tackling, with great wit and technical skill, topics as pressing as Big Agriculture, the humane treatment of animals, and the impossibility of maintaining ideological purity in any social movement. The reality is that Americans love eggs: free range or not, we will eat as many […]

New Book Releases to Read During Shelter in Place

by ZYZZYVA Staff

March 18, 2020

Posted on March 18, 2020 (March 18, 2020) by Zack Ravas

Readers and friends, we hope you are staying safe during these trying times. We are all adjusting to the societal changes that are taking place due to the impact of COVID-19. It occurs to us that many new book releases have not received the coverage they would have during a normal news cycle, and their authors’ book tours have been cancelled due to safety concerns. As such, we thought we would collect a list of such books here in the hopes of giving them their due attention, with a reminder that you can order from Bookshop.org to support your local […]