The theme, “Around the Table,” for issue 46.1 was always part of this desire and hope to create safe spaces for all Asian artists and writers. When issue 46.1 presented itself as an issue in need of a theme, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to curate a platform to spotlight and uplift Asian voices and stories, especially as Anti-Asian hate was, and still is, on the rise.
“Around the Table” will be edited by Michelle Ha, alongside assistant editors Isabella Wang and Asna Shaikh, and shadow Shristi Uprety. The team will be looking for fiction and nonfiction prose, poetry, black-and-white art and photographs, and mixed-genre/hybrid writings, so submit in whichever form you feel tells your story the best.
I wanted to choose something within my own creative wheelhouse, so at first I was thinking something around “shame.” But then I realized shame isn’t actually what I’m interested in; the really good stuff has to do with anti-shame. So I went down a thesaurus hole and threw some options out to the team, like “brazen,” “scandalous,” and “exposed,” but audacity seemed to be the word everyone connected with the most. I also like that when you say “The Audacity Issue” it sounds like an exclamation as well as a title.
We invite you to submit your unpublished work to the “Audacity” issue of Room—an issue we hope will dare to risk normalcy and politeness in the name of bold and uncompromising truth. “Audacity” will be edited by Molly Cross-Blanchard (author of Exhibitionist) and...