Call for Submissions: Mini-Anthology on Experiences of the Taiwanese Diaspora

Calling all Taiwanese American writers and artists! Interested in submitting work that reflects on the experience of living in between identities? See this call for submissions for a new mini-anthology started by a group of Taiwanese Americans!

Call for Submissions: Mini-Anthology on Experiences of the Taiwanese Diaspora

Our vision

We are curating a print collection of diverse visual and written work by young Taiwanese Americans that shares fresh, new takes on the Taiwanese diasporic experience. This project is driven by our desire to have a gathering place for ideas and insights our socially-conscious peers are generating, and to reach young Taiwanese Americans and other Asian Americans who find common threads in our experiences. It is our way of showcasing emerging writers and artists and, in doing so, encouraging our audience to ask questions and explore new perspectives and topics in this globalizing world.  

Call for submissions (writers and visual artists)

For cohesion, this collection’s central theme is “liminality,” or in-betweenness. Robert S. Chang writes that, for many Asian Americans, “identity is understood […] as relational and contingent” and there are many intersecting changes in this concept for Taiwanese Americans. We would like submissions to reimagine what it means to be in the liminal space between identities, times, places, and stages.

For this mini-anthology, we encourage you to be creative, offbeat, and dynamic. We are looking for personal storytelling that is bold but nuanced and that exemplifies current critical thought about social and political issues and shifts in identities. Think along the lines of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, The Atlantic (Ta-Nehisi Coates, in particular), Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu, Bloodchild by Octavia Butler, Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, and Ujoma Power (on Medium).

Content will be separated into three sections: fiction, non-fiction, and poetry/verse, with 2-5 pieces in each section. Writers may submit up to three pieces, 2,000 words maximum each, that have not been published elsewhere (with the exception of personal blogs or websites). A group of editors will review each piece to help with clarity, direction, and general copyediting.

Artists may submit up to two pieces of 2-D work in black and white. Selected pieces will be featured in the book as section cover pages; one piece will be selected as the cover art. Works should consider both Asian and Western aesthetic influences and combine them in a way that reflects the theme of liminality and generally be in of portrait (rather than landscape) orientation.

Compensation

We believe that it is important to pay writers and artists for their work, but as this is a self-funded project, our resources are currently limited. At present, we are offering $10 commission for contributions ($5 on agreement, $5 upon publishing) and a copy of the book. We are only able to compensate one piece per author/artist. If we break even on the costs of self-publishing this first book, we hope to create more and compensate more.  

Please send full works to achu190(at)gmail.com by February 19, 2017. If your work is accepted, further information will be emailed to you. Please email any requests for extensions to the email above. Any graphic designers, marketers, and sponsors interested in collaborating should also send emails to the same address above.