City Lights celebrates 40 years of ZYZZYVA!
Join us in celebrating the newest issue of ZYZZYVA, and while you’re at it, help the journal kick off its 40th anniversary with a festive hangout and a compact reading. Featuring Issue 129 contributors Katherine Franco, Dominica Phetteplace, Marian Palaia, D.A. Powell, Kim Samek, and emceed by ZYZZYVA Editor Oscar Villalon.
This event will be held in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe. Admission is free, but seating is limited.
Katherine Franco is the author of Displays (Pilot Press, 2023). Her work appears in Social Text, Jacket2, Chicago Review, MUBI Notebook, and others.
Dominica Phetteplace is a writer and a futurist. Her honors include a MacDowell Fellowship, the Pushcart Prize, and the Rona Jaffe Award.
D.A. Powell is the author of many collections of poetry, including Useless Landscape, or a Guide for Boys (Graywolf), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry.
Marian Palaia is the author of the novel The Given World (Simon & Schuster), which was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize. Her work has appeared in VQR, Joyland, Triquarterly, and other journals.
Kim Samek is the author of the forthcoming story collection I Am the Ghost Here, which will be published by Dial Press in 2026. Her fiction appears or is forthcoming in Guernica, Electric Literature, and The Threepenny Review. She lives in Los Angeles.
ZYZZYVA was founded in 1985 in San Francisco with the goal of publishing a superb literary journal shining a spotlight on West Coast poets, writers, and artists from a wide range of backgrounds, many of whom were otherwise overlooked by established publications, and providing them with a much needed platform. Since then, the organization has evolved: the journal is now a nationally distributed, widely acclaimed publication showcasing contributors from across the country and around the world, and Zyzzyva’s impact extends far beyond the printed page. Zyzzyva hosts or participates in more than two dozen readings, panels, book festivals, and other events each year, and publish dozens of book reviews, author interviews, and original works of poetry and prose on our website annually. Zyzzyva also offers writing workshops, speak with college and graduate classes, and donate back issues to schools.
Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.