Spend Cinco de Mayo with the staff of ZYZZYVA and Issue 132 contributors Carolyn Burke, Anita Felicelli, and Sarah Matsui.
Drinks, eats, and a short reading are all part of the merriment as ZYZZYVA toasts its first issue of 2026.
Hosted by ZYZZYVA Editor Oscar Villalon.
Sarah Matsui is a 2025–2026 Steinbeck Fellow and the winner of the Sewanee Review Nonfiction Contest. Her work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, The Offing, The Sewanee Review, Pleiades, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Southern Review, Jacobin Magazine, and the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. She is currently at work on her debut essay collection, Care Directive.
Anita Felicelli is the books editor at Alta Journal and the author of the story collection How We Know Our Time Travelers, which was shortlisted for the Northern California Book Awards. Anita’s other books include Chimerica: A Novel and the award-winning Love Songs for a Lost Continent. Her stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Midnight Breakfast, Air/Light, The Normal School, and elsewhere.
Carolyn Burke, who is Australian by birth and American by adoption, lived in Paris for many years before relocating to Santa Cruz, California, where she wrote biographies of MIna Loy, Lee Miller, Edith PIaf, and most recently, Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury (Knopf).
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.
This event is made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.