Dear readers,

Well, it’s been a few months since the Scrub Jay Flyer had a little somethin’ to say. So, let’s start this update by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Scrub Jay editorial team has a lot of exciting news in store for you in 2026, stay tuned.

Let’s get this volume started with a little recap of our accomplishments from the past year. Then, check out our latest call for submissions below.

– Jefferson Beavers

2025 revisited: Wild Blue Zine vol. 2 launch

March marked the release of Wild Blue Zine volume 2, co-edited by Marisa Mata and Taylor Seals. The zine marks the first Scrub Jay Press publication in 15 years, and it includes writing and art from 13 contributors.

If you’d like to revisit the zine’s launch event, the good folks at CMAC TV have you covered through their Fresno Art Beat series. Also, we still have about a dozen copies left at $10 apiece, available on our website.

2025 revisited: Yosemite Poets anthology love

May brought some unexpected attention to the press through Fresno writer Mike Cole’s appearance at the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest. Mike, who has several poems in our 2010 anthology Yosemite Poets: A Gathering of this Place, read on the panel “Adventures and Inspiration from the Sierra.”

We brought 10 copies of the anthology to the bookfest’s pop-up book shop, hoping for the best — and we sold out! This was a nice surprise, and it yielded a new connection with the excellent Judging by the Cover bookstore, which is currently stocking Wild Blue Zine and will carry our future titles too.

2025 revisited: Soreath Hok broadsides

November led us to Reedley College in support of Fresno writer Soreath Hok, for her featured reading at the beautiful new McCarty Center for the Fine and Performing Arts as part of the long-running RC Literary Arts series.

With the help of the folks at Professional Print and Mail, we produced a broadside of Soreath’s essay “My Father’s Apple Fritters,” which was published in Wild Blue Zine volume 2. If you’d like to buy a broadside, email the editors at scrubjaypress@gmail.com (local drop-offs only; no mail).

2025 revisited: New anthology work begins

As we’ve mentioned, the first book-length publication for the newly revived Scrub Jay Press will be a fourth-generation Fresno writers anthology. The book will be co-edited by Jefferson Beavers, Angela Chaidez Vincent, and Ronald Dzerigian. It is due out this fall.

The editors spent this past spring imagining the book. After taking the summer off, they spent this past fall soliciting submissions by invitation only. Reading and scoring is now nearly complete, and notifications to writers will be going out this month. More updates are forthcoming.

Call for submissions: Wild Blue Zine vol. 3

Scrub Jay Press is currently accepting poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, photography, and art for volume 3 of Wild Blue Zine, forthcoming in April 2026.

Deadline to submit: February 13, 2026.

Invoking the spirit of its namesake, Fresno’s Wild Blue Yonder nightclub, Wild Blue Zine creates a space for Central California writers and artists to share and archive their work and lives with one another.

Questions? Email wildbluezine@gmail.com