ZYZZYVA

ZYZZYVA publishes the best prose, poetry, and visual art produced by West Coast writers and artists—along with the occasional piece from east of California. Since 1985, we’ve published such writers as Sherman Alexie, Raymond Carver, Aimee Bender, Po Bronson, F.X. Toole, Haruki Murakami, Richard Rodriguez, and Daniel Handler; poets such as Kay Ryan, Adrienne Rich, Matthew Zapruder, Czeslaw Milosz, W.S. Di Piero, and Francisco X. Alarcon, and we’ve featured work from such artists as Ed Ruscha, Sandow Birk, Laurie Anderson, Richard Diebenkorn, and Wayne Thiebaud.

Standard

Howard Junker is no longer editor of ZYZZYVA, but while he was, the hand-written inscription "Onward!" was standard on all rejections. There was no tiered rejection slip. Whether this has changed under the new editor is unknown.

Standard [2011]

Gentle writer:

Thank you for offering your work for consideration at ZYZZYVA. I regret to say that we do not have a place for your work at this time. Please forgive us for returning your work, and for doing so without further comments or suggestions.

I would like to say something to make up for this ungraciousness, but the truth is we have so little space, we must return almost all of the work that is submitted, including a great deal that interests us and even some pieces we admire. Inevitably, too, we make mistakes.

So the important thing is this: we hope you won't be discouraged, by this or any other momentary setback.

Wishing you all the best with your work.

Yours, Laura Cogan

Higher Tier

Handwritten comments by editor on letter.