Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Photo: Poet Srikanth Reddy and novelist Ed Lin exemplify the diversity in the Asian American writing community and at a recent Asian American literature symposium. Photo by Kira Wisniewski.

Eight amazing Asian American writers gathered at the University of Maryland this past Saturday to read their work and talk about the state of Asian American literature. Kira Wisniewski of 826DC was on the scene for Hyphen to report on the day-long festivities:  

Entries are pouring in for the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest, brought to you by Hyphen and the Asian American Writers' Workshop, but we want more! So, we've decided to extend the deadline until Monday April 12th (postmark deadline), so you can get that story in and maybe even win $1000!

Check out all the details here.

Here are a few FAQs we've been encountering:

A few years before filmmaker Leena Pendhakar finished Raspberry Magic -- playing this weekend at the SFIAAFF -- she wrote a commentary for Hyphen (Issue 12) about her dream to make an independent film about a little South Asian American girl. I guess dream do come true. 

Movie dreams come true

A fledgling filmmaker learns how to stop worrying and just make her movie.

By Leena Pendharkar (Illustration by Ameet Mehta)

Over the last several years, I’ve made it my point on this blog to assess the South Asian American aspects of the SFIAAFF: the good, the bad and the Bollywood. While the festival always has an amazing range of films and stories from global South Asia – it is the South Asian American stories that I find missing.

I am SUPER excited to announce the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest, co-sponsored by Hyphen and The Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW)! This is the nation's only contest dedicated to Asian American voices and an opportunity for you to win $1000.

Exciting news everyone: A new literary journal dedicated to Asian American writing -- the Asian American Literary Review (AALR) -- is mere months away from hitting the stands. As a writer, I think that the pulse of American writing is found in its literary journals. Sure, they may not be as sexy as The New Yorker, or even get top billing at bookstores, as Stephen King wrote about a few years ago, but it's the place where you find the real writing, both from established writers and emerging ones. Even in this hyper-connected world, journals continue to be a place where literary arts can be both showcased and discussed with abandon. My very first creative publication was in the pages of the Asian Pacific American Journal, the literary journal of the Asian American Writers' Workshop, back in 1998. I remember how exciting it was to have my poem be a part of this collection of writings from Asian Americans all over the country. Now, the AALR hopes to create these kind of creative connections for a whole new era of Asian American literature.   

Congratulations to Hyphen co-founder, blogger and contributor Claire Light on the publication of

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