Zyzzyva Magazine – WINTER 2025-2026
Tag Archives: Zyzzyva
Literary Arts: Zyzzyva Magazine – Fall 2023
Fiction
“Thinking Ahead” by Joan Silber:
“How does a person behave when he knows he’s dying? There’s a myth that people go off and do what they’ve always wanted to do—sail to Spain, buy a horse, eat at the world’s most famous restaurant. ‘They never do that,’ my mother said, ‘that I’ve seen. They don’t even remember why they wanted to do it.”
“Seabreeze” by Korey Lewis:
Jojo and Jaz wait for The Defendant to pick them up from their mother’s place and take them to Seabreeze. “If Disney is where dreams come true, then Seabreeze is where they give up.”
“Eau de Nil” by Chloe Wilson:
“It was a website called Geriatrix. On it were women my age, in various states of undress. I saw breasts droopier and flatter than mine, necks that were crêpier, bellies that bulged and hung. But what really struck me was how happy they looked.”
“Country Furnishings” by Earle McCartney:
The equilibrium in a tetchy blue-collar workshop gets jostled with the arrival of Frank Wonderwood—future son-in-law of the business’s new co-owner and future woodworking graduate from Del Tech.
Poetry
Karen Leona Anderson, Stuart Dybek, Johanna Carissa Fernandez, Mike Good, Cleo Qian, Sarah Lynn Rogers, Joel M. Toledo
Nonfiction
Laura M. Furlan her birth parents, identity, and butterflies. Adam Foulds on the home-turned-museum of one of England’s greatest architects, Sir John Soane. Sam McPhee on the singular fascination hands have on his attention. Jessica Francis Kane on her lifelong affinity with the fascinating James Boswell. And Devon Brody’s “Beth”: “I’m glad to be with only Beth and her long hair that meets the hair on my arms, and the hair on her arms that meets the hair on my arms.”
In Conversation:
Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo delves with Justin Torres into Torres’s career and his new novel, Blackouts, a finalist for the National Book Award.
Art
Wangari Mathenge
Literary Arts: Zyzzyva Magazine – Spring 2023
Fiction
- The Mysteries of the Universe by Anna Badkhen:
“I see now what this is about. I’m a professor and author in America, she’s in a war zone: to her, I’m rich and happy. How is she supposed to know about the cancer, the medical debt, Ksyusha’s student loans? So, I try to deflect.” - Encyclopedia of Botany by Jane Marchant:
A daughter’s closely observed catalog of the flora around her Bay Area home, and of her family’s complex history of identity. - Glint of Sport by Angie Sijun Lou:
“I don’t know if this story is true. You can’t divide truth from kitsch in this place…” - Eulogy by William Hawkins:
In the wake of a funeral, a dead father’s legacy hangs over his surviving adult sons as they trudge into the lukewarm waters of the lake by the family pier. - The Eye by Elodie Saint-Louis:
“When Theo spoke, she thought, you could see all of these places on his body. Vyros, Hymettus, Loutro, Parnitha. The land was in him. It was the river running out of his mouth. The words that bumped into each other gently but never spilled over, petering out into a gentle sway.” - Plus more fiction by Perry Janes, David Hayden (there be strange happenings in a dilapidated insurance building in Chicago), and Wendy Elizabeth Wallace.
Nonfiction
- Jane Marchant on the flora around her Bay Area home—and her family’s complex history of identity.
Poetry
- Jason Allen-Paisant, Dan Alter, Allison Benis White, Ricardo Cázares, E.G. Cunningham, Peter LaBerge, Joyce Mansour, Maria Zoccola
Art
- Sofia Bonati
Journalism: 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes
2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes.
By Emily Temple – Lithub, July 14, 2022, 9:01am
Today, the Whiting Foundation announced the winners of its 2022 Literary Magazine Prizes, which honor “the most innovative and essential publications at the forefront of American literary culture.” The five winners were chosen—from an initial pool of more than eighty applicants —based on their “excellence in publishing, advocacy for writers, and a unique contribution to the strength of the overall literary community.”
“This prize was designed to create cohorts capable of tackling shared challenges with mettle and imagination, and it’s thrilling to picture the conversations that these terrifically varied magazines will have,” said Courtney Hodell, director of literary programs, in a statement. “We look forward to learning with and from them.”
The 2022 print winners are:
ZYZZYVA (San Francisco, CA), a stalwart West Coast publication with national reach, an exquisitely curated reading experience, and top-notch design.
Medium-Budget Print Prize Winner ($150,000–$500,000 budget)
Total prize: $60,000
Bennington Review (Bennington, VT), a relaunch of an eminent university publication—a visually stunning journal with an imaginative and sophisticated vision that offers hands-on experience to the next generation of editors.
Small-Budget Print Prize Winner (under $150,000 budget)
Total prize: $30,000
American Chordata (Brooklyn, NY), a budding independent magazine full of thought-provoking interplay between text and visual art—a careful assemblage of young writers and artists alongside recognized talents.
Print Development Grantee (under $50,000 budget)
Total prize: $15,000
And the 2022 digital winners are:
Apogee Journal (New York, NY), an incubator for multicultural writers with a finger on the pulse of the literary landscape and an established reputation for publishing stellar up-and-comers.
Digital Prize Winner (under $500,000 budget)
Total prize: $19,500
Electric Literature (Brooklyn, NY), a buzzing concourse for news and ideas publishing compelling essays, short stories with insightful context, and incisive critical coverage of the literary world.
Digital Prize Winner (under $500,000 budget)
Total prize: $19,500
Boomers Daily 