Howard Junker (born 1940) is a writer, editor, and founder of the literary journal ZYZZYVA.

Howard Junker
Born1940 (age 83–84)
Port Washington, New York
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Writer and editor
Years active1961-
Known forZYZZYVA

Early life and education edit

Howard Junker was born in 1940 in Port Washington, New York, and educated at Canterbury School (Connecticut). He graduated from Amherst College in 1961,[1] and earned an M.A. from the University of San Francisco in 1978.[citation needed]

Career edit

Junker's work as a journalist appeared in a range of American magazines from the mid-1960s, including Art in America, Artforum, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, The Nation, The New Republic, New York, Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Vogue.

His 1965 article in The Nation about Andy Warhol's work as a filmmaker—among the first articles on the subject—is anthologized in a collection of notable film writing from the magazine.[2][3] Junker's production notes on the Maysles Brothers/Charlotte Zwerin film Salesmen (1969), included in a contemporaneous book about the film, lend insight to the methods of these pioneering documentarians.[4]

In 1985, Junker founded the literary journal ZYZZYVA. The journal initially emphasized west coast writers and later broadened to focus on new work from around the United States and internationally. Under Junker's editorship, ZYZZYVA published early works by Po Bronson, Chitra Divakaruni, F.X. Toole, David Rains Wallace and Sherman Alexie, among others.[1] ZYZZYVA also presented Haruki Murakami's first English-language publication.[5] Junker retired from ZYZZYVA in 2010 and was succeeded by Laura Cogan.[6] He has edited several anthologies of works published in ZYZZYVA, as well as a multi-volume memoir and an oral history, "Lord Jeff & The Closet." He resides in San Francisco.

Selected bibliography edit

  • Junker, Howard (1991). Roots and Branches: Contemporary Essays By West Coast Writers. San Francisco: Mercury House. ISBN 978-1-56279-014-1.
  • Junker, Howard (1995). The Writer's Notebook. San Francisco: HarperCollinsWest. ISBN 978-0-06-258618-6.
  • Junker, Howard (1995). Strange Attraction: The Best of Ten Years of ZYZZYVA. Reno: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0-87417-275-1.
  • Junker, Howard (1999). Lucky Break: How I Became A Writer. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-325-00156-2.
  • Junker, Howard (2005). AutoBioDiversity: True Stories from ZYZZYVA. Berkeley, CA: Heyday. ISBN 978-1-59714-007-2.
  • Junker, Howard (2011). An Old Junker. San Francisco: IF SF Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4537-1719-6.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Acker, Jennifer (2010). "Literary Locavore". Amherst College Magazine. Amherst College. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  2. ^ Junker, Howard. "Andy Warhol, Movie Maker". The Nation (22 February 1965): 206–207. ISSN 0027-8378.
  3. ^ Bromley, Carl, ed. (2000). Cinema Nation: The Best Writing on Film from The Nation, 1913-2000. New York: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books. ISBN 9781560252863.
  4. ^ Maysles, Albert; Maysles, David; Zwerin, Charlotte (1969). Salesmen: A Film by the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zerwin (1 ed.). New American Library/Signet. ISBN 9780451039668.
  5. ^ "History". zyzzyva.org. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  6. ^ Edan, Lepucki (21 April 2014). "Best Coast: ZYZZYVA's 100th Issue - The Millions". The Millions. Retrieved 1 November 2017.

External links edit