Issue 1: Belonging
Belonging may be present in a moment, a place, or even a person. Our inaugural issue explores this theme through poetry, creative essay, and short story.
We are a brand new biannual literary magazine publishing short fiction, essays, and poetry. Each issue will publish writings inspired by a theme relevant in the intersectional feminist community. We aim to give a platform to women of color whose multitude of voices and experiences have so often been silenced, warped, or disregarded by the dominant literary landscape.
Winner of the 2018 Writing Prize
Mai C. Doan is the author of WATER/TONGUE and the winner of our first ever writing prize. She is a queer, Mexican and Vietnamese writer from Los Angeles, Ca. Mai holds an MFA from Mills College, where she attended as a Community Engagement Fellow. Her full-length poetry book, water/tongue, is forthcoming from Omnidawn Publishing in 2019. For more visit maicdoan.com.
JUDGES
We are honored for the opportunity to work with these four incredible women. They were kind enough to volunteer their time and professional skills to ensure the highest quality submissions were accepted into our first issue and decided on our writing prize.
JOY FRANCIS
Joy Francis is executive director of Words of Colour Productions, a creative communications agency for writers of colour - of all genres, co-founder of Digital Women UK and The Black Love Project, co-director of the Synergi Collaborative Centre and, in an independent capacity, project manager for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships, a partnership between Arts Council England and Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Her diverse career spans journalism, academia, film, literature, strategic communications, PR, and civil rights.
FARHANA SHAIKH
Farhana Shaikh is a writer and publisher born in Leicester. She edits The Asian Writer, an online magazine championing Asian literature and runs the small press Dahlia Publishing which publishes regional and diverse writing. Farhana hosts the popular Writers Meet Up Leicester as well as Leicester Writes Festival of New Writing. In 2017, she won Travelex & Penguin’s The Next Great Travel Writer competition and is currently part of Curve’s Cultural Leadership programme.
ERIKA T. WURTH
Erika T. Wurth’s publications include a novel, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend, two collections of poetry and a collection of short stories, Buckskin Cocaine. Her novel You Who Enter Here is forthcoming from SUNY. A writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, she teaches creative writing at Western Illinois University and has been a guest writer at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals including Boulevard, Drunken Boat, The Writer’s Chronicle, Waxwing and The Kenyon Review. She is represented by Peter Steinberg. She is Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee and was raised outside of Denver.
NORA DE HOYOS COMSTOCK
Dr. Comstock is the national and international founder of Las Comadres Para Las Americas. She retired from the President/CEO position but maintains a position on the board. Nora is an entrepreneur, business leader, and pioneer in utilizing social media to build a community for Latinas. She currently leads a business development consultancy known as Comstock Connections and is an elected official serving as Austin Community College Trustee for a 6 year term.
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