The winter literary quarterlies are hitting bookshelves in San Francisco. The new issue of Zyzzyva, the second under the leadership of new editor Oscar Villalon, was released a couple weeks ago after a launch party at Booksmith in the Haight. It features a play by Barry Gifford, essays by Gary Soto and Carter Scholz, and new fiction by Andrew Foster Altschul (books editor of The Rumpus and author of Deus Ex Machina).

Last night, the winter issue of 14 Hills (SFSU’s graduate writing program’s journal) was released at a party at the Space Gallery on Polk Street in the Tenderloin. This issue features work by acclaimed S.F. poet D.A. Powell, whose most recent book Chronic received the Kingsley Tufts Award, along with a slew of emerging writers.

Issue #39 of McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern also came out recently, and with writing by Elmore Leonard and Roberto Bolaño shouldn’t be ignored.