In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Canada’s Ricepaper Magazine has teamed up with Dark Helix Press to bring you Belief, a collection of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction by writers of Asian descent from across the world.
This new anthology, the third in the Ricepaper Magazine series, includes a wide range of stories all connected by the theme of “belief,” a notion personal to each individual sharing a piece of themselves in their works.
This book is a platform for both established and new writers to share their voices in a publishing landscape that is often difficult for racialized writers to navigate.
-Allan Cho, co-editor
Reading through Belief, it doesn’t take long before you get a sense of the not only the incredible and rich history the Asian community of course has, but that like so many other cultures, their experiences are unique and not at all monolithic. It’s as diverse as any other, and romantic notions aside, these stories and poems are an important account of a people’s history that we should all take note of.
With a rise in hate crimes and bigotry directed towards the Asian community as of late, co-editor JF Garrard feels this book couldn’t come at a better time saying, “In light of anti-Asian hate which has been occurring throughout the years and is only newsworthy now; we hope that this book allows people to better understand and feel empathy with the Asian community and to make a connection, since we all want to transform our society to be a better place.”
Within the Belief anthology, the honorable Joy Kogawa shares her lifelong lessons scribbled in her diary, Carmen Chan shares the trauma experienced by the women in her family in the new world, Felix Wong shares a strange, serendipitous experience of witnessing a wedding of strangers, and Garry Engkent describes how introducing the egg roll at his family’s restaurant causes a heated controversy in Thibeault Falls. The late Jim Wong-Chu reflects on what the first railway workers would have thought about the ritual of Christmas.
Each author contributing to this new collection shares a conviction of truth shaping the reality of life in the Asian diaspora. Contributors to Belief include:
Nastasha Alli – Moni Brar – Carmen Chan – Taeyin Cho-Glueck – Steven Chua – Ingrid Cui – Erica Dionara – Garry Engkent – Ken Lem, translated by Lei Jin – Daisy Kioko Moriyama – Joy Kogawa – Janika Oza – Kathy Pham – Cindy Phan – Emi Sasagawa – Karen-Luz Sison – Bianca Weeko Martin – Kevin Wong – Felix Wong – Jim Wong-Chu – Christine Wu – Kailin Yang – Peter KS Yu – Michelle Zhang
Belief is out now so click HERE to order a copy today!
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