Molly Giles Recalls Literary Editor's Visit to her SF State Writing Class

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Novelist/short-story writer Molly Giles, first up on the program, recalled having a story accepted in 1986. Shortly thereafter, she said, she invited then-editor Howard Junker to speak to her writing class at San Francisco State. “He tore students’ stories apart like a happy puppy,” she said, and then told her students that he slapped rejection notices on manuscripts before he started to read them. This was the perfect story to raise the spirits of most every writer in the room. You’re nothing in the Bay Area literary community if you haven’t been rejected by Zyzzyva.