Inquisitive. Vocal. Assertive. Among birds, the California Scrub Jay is an intelligent, high-flying songbird, always on the lookout for adventure. Among independent book publishers, Scrub Jay Press aspires to live up to the spirit of its name: curious, outspoken, and almost always up to something.
Contact: scrub jay press at gmail dot com
Masthead
Jefferson Beavers / Publisher
Jefferson (he/him) holds an MFA in creative nonfiction and a bachelor’s degree in journalism, both from Fresno State. For more than 25 years, he has held leadership positions in editing, publishing, media, and arts administration. A Chicano born and raised in California’s central San Joaquín Valley, he lives in Fresno with his wife and their longhaired chihuahua. [learn more]
Ronald Dzerigian / Associate Editor
Ronald’s poems have appeared in the Australian Book Review (as a finalist for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize), Prairie Schooner, RHINO, Salamander, South Carolina Review, Zone 3, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in poetry from Fresno State, and his first book, Rough Fire (Finishing Line Press), was published in 2018. He lives in a small rural town just outside Fresno with his wife and two daughters. [learn more]
Angela Chaidez Vincent / Associate Editor
Angela has a background of livelihoods in engineering, mathematics, and programming. She holds an MFA in poetry from Fresno State, and her debut collection, Arena Glow (Tourane Poetry Press, 2024), features poems about women with a daredevil oblique. With works appearing in Oxford Review of Books, North American Review, and 32 Poems, among others, Angela lives and writes in Fresno. [learn more]
Marisa Mata / Associate Editor
Marisa is an eldest daughter, writer, and educator from Fresno, California. Her work has appeared in Entropy Magazine, Brave Voices magazine, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in creative writing from CalArts, where she was the inaugural Irene Borger Scholar. She is the founding editor of Wild Blue Zine.
Taylor Seals / Assistant Editor
Taylor (she/her) is a second-year MFA poetry student at Fresno State, with an emphasis in literary editing and publishing. She serves as an editorial assistant for the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry contest and is an assistant poetry editor for The Normal School magazine. Previously, she was a prose editor for the San Joaquin Review. Taylor’s works have appeared in Zaum, Flies, Cockroaches and Poets, and elsewhere.
Chris Henson / Publisher Emerita
Chris was an educator at Fresno State from 1984-2020 and retired as a professor emerita of English. She taught courses in 20th Century American literatures, including topics courses on Saroyan, Faulkner, James and Wharton, American Women Poets, American Modernist Poets, and Central Valley Writers. She is the co-founder of Scrub Jay Press, and she lives in the Fresno County foothills.
History
Founded in 1996 by Eugene Zumwalt and Chris Henson, the first incarnation of Scrub Jay Press published 7 books between 1996 and 2010. The press was based in Tollhouse, California, and it independently distributed works from the San Joaquín Valley as well as works of national significance.
Restarted in 2024 by Jefferson Beavers and Ronald Dzerigian, the second incarnation of Scrub Jay Press aims to publish and promote the creative works of emerging writers and artists from Central California. We are now based in Fresno, and our books remain independently distributed.
The forerunner of Scrub Jay Press was The Zumwalt Press, founded in 1973 by Eugene Zumwalt and Roger D. Chittick. The Zumwalt Press — based in Tollhouse, California, with books distributed by APR Publishers, Inc. — published 7 books and 2 music compositions between 1973 and 1982.
Scrub Jay Press 