Dear readers,

Thank you for following our Instagram campaign throughout the month of September, as day by day we revealed the contributors to the new Scrub Jay Press anthology Deep Vines: 60 Fresno Writers for the 21st Century.

Here’s the fourth and final screenshot from our Insta feed, featuring the final week’s writers:

As we cap off a whirlwind month for Scrub Jay, we offer here for the first time the full alpha list of our anthology’s storytellers, vital voices both new and familiar, whose writing we know you’ll love:

Megan Anderson Bohigian, Mark Arax, Roda Avelar, Marisol Baca, Jefferson Beavers, Sara Borjas, Mariah Bosch, Michelle Brittan Rosado, Angela Chaidez Vincent, Ethan Chatagnier, Sarah A. Chavez, Corrinne Clegg Hales, Anthony Cody, Mike Cole, Isabella De La Torre, Ronald Dzerigian, Margarita Engle, Kathy Fagan, torrin a. greathouse, Cynthia Guardado, John Hales, C. G. Hanzlicek, J.J. Hernandez, Hermelinda Hernandez Monjaras, Juan Felipe Herrera, Lee Herrick, Soreath Hok, Gabriel Ibarra, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, Phoua Lee, Suzanne Lummis, Mike Maniquiz, Marisa Mata, Devoya Mayo, Aideed Medina, S. Bryan Medina, Michael Medrano, Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Maceo Montoya, Lena Mubsutina, Manuel Muñoz, Samina Najmi, Delaney R. Olmo, Michelle Patton, Shelby Pinkham, Monique Quintana, Joseph Rios, Sasha Roque Pimentel, Brynn Saito, Dixie Salazar, Jeffrey Schultz, Taylor Seals, Von Torres, sami h. tripp, Brian Turner, James Tyner, Mai Der Vang, Soul Vang, Vuong Vu, Jer Xiong

Stay tuned for pre-orders opening soon, as well as opportunities throughout the fall to help the Scrub Jay Press team as it prepares to launch the first full-length book of its new era.

Thank you for following along!

Q&A: How the anthology came together (so far)

The co-editors of Deep Vines — Jefferson Beavers, Angela Chaidez Vincent, and Ronald Dzerigian — compiled answers to five commonly asked questions they’ve been receiving, with the hope of reflecting on the anthology process so far, as well as looking forward to the months ahead.

Why publish a new anthology of Fresno writers, and why now?

The last Fresno anthology, How Much Earth: The Fresno Poets, was published in 2001. It’s now a quarter of a century later, and so many new and diverse writers have come up since then, publishing extraordinary work and adding their voices to Fresno’s song.

After all this time, the city deserves a new collection. It is long overdue. We wanted to create a book that would contain echoes of the past 25 years since the last anthology, but also point readers to the future, ultimately expanding the universe of Fresno writers.

What was your process for imagining the book?

In our earliest conversations, we set ambitious intentions for the anthology. Our goals included having a majority of women writers, and wide-ranging inclusion of writers of color, queer writers, and disabled writers. We also hoped for a selection of writers across generations, and we agreed to focus on living writers.

We knew, because Fresno is the capital of poetry in the world, that we’d include a lot of poetry. But we also hoped to include fiction, creative nonfiction, and a variety of stylistic approaches: visual poetry, spoken-word, flash pieces, longer essays and stories, and nontraditional forms.

Each of the editors has an intersectional identity and eclectic artistic interests, so representation matters to us. We wanted to make a book that looks like the diverse writing communities we know are thriving here.

How were writers selected, and why wasn’t there an open call for submissions?

With our goals in mind, the editors each nominated writers to a collective list, which totaled nearly 100 recommendations. Over multiple conversations, we painstakingly trimmed the list to a little over 70, and then sent out personal invitations to submit. In the end, we selected a substantial 60 writers to include.

We’ve received some constructive criticism that an open call could at least have given folks who’ve wanted to see an anthology like ours for many years an opportunity to submit. With so many talented Fresno writers out there, we thought an open call might lead to an avalanche of submissions that we’d struggle to handle. In hindsight, while an open call would have taken longer and made our job even harder, we do recognize our choice as a missed opportunity for a more inclusive process, especially among fellow Fresno writers we care about.

That said, Scrub Jay Press is an all-volunteer operation early in its revival, and we still have limited capacity. All three of the anthology’s editors have full-time day jobs, so that’s why we chose the invitation route. We are very proud of the anthology we’ve made.

Why do a monthlong campaign for revealing the 60 writers, two at a time?

Part of the reason for revealing our anthology contributors two-by-two each day on our Instagram for the full month of September was simply to hype the book and the press. Except for publishing a couple of zines, joining a few existing events, and getting one notable mention in the local media, Scrub Jay has mostly been in silent mode since restarting in 2024.

But the biggest reason: the extended rollout created a space to give each of the 60 writers their own moment in the spotlight. By sharing all their beautiful faces and impressive bios—which include not only their credentials but also glimpses of their literary journey stories—we envisioned the campaign as amplifying the richness and scope of the book that’s to come.

What happens next, between now and the anthology’s March 5, 2027 release?

We are now in the final stages of production. We hope to reveal the anthology’s cover and open preorders the week of October 12.

The rest of this year will include proofreading and finishing touches, as well as sending out advance review copies of the book for blurbs and reviews. Also, we’ll be looking for secondary teachers and college instructors who’d like to contribute to a teaching guide.

In 2027, we’ll produce a promotional campaign ahead of the March 5 release date. For events, we hope to start with a Zoom reading in February, a Fresno launch in March, appearances at Reedley College in April and the San Joaquin Valley Bookfest in May, and hopefully a trio of dates with Judging by the Cover bookstore over the summer.