Cha's March 2013 Issue (#20) Launch Reading at AWP

There will be a launch reading for the March 2013 issue of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal at AWP. The event will be hosted by guest editors Kaitlin Solimine and Marc Vincenz and co-hosted by the Fairbank Center forChinese Studies at Harvard University.

Feature readings by past and current Cha contributors Eleanor Goodman, Bill Lantry, Kim Liao, Mai Mang (Yibing Huang), Tracy Slater, Marc Vincenz, and Nicholas YB Wong. 

[Facebook event page]

Cha wins Million Writers Award for best publication

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We are very happy to announce that Cha is the winner of this year's Million Writers Award for best publication! We had five stories in the list of notable pieces. Congratulations to the writers (listed below) and thank you to everyone who nominated a work from the journal. 

• "Catching Iguanas" by Shivani Sivagurunathan. Published in the November 2011 issue.

• "Ah" by Genevieve Yim. Published in the November 2011 issue.

• "Broken Numbers" by by Sharon Hashimoto. Published in the November 2011 issue.

• "Improvisation" by John David Harding. Published in the November 2011 issue.

• "Snow Romance" by Gun G. Ayurzana (translated from the Mongolian by Gun and Matthew Davis). Published in the November 2011 issue.

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Back in 2008, Cha was named Million Writers Award best new online magazine.  
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What do people on Twitter say about the new issue of Cha?

The March 2012 issue of Cha was launched yesterday. What have people on Twitter said about it so far?

@trueboat
talks about this.

@TightropeBooks 
talks about this.

@sgliterature 
talks about this.

@TCFSAcademic 
talks about this.

@gardenofedits 
talks about this.

@thebowlerhat
talks about this.

@careyz 
talks about this.

@JAPak 

talks about this.

@RimesWriting
talks about this.

@tadbo
talks about this.

@tung_angela
talks about this.

@JeromeBouchaud 
talks about this.

UPDATED: More tweets here and here.

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Cha contributor Elizabeth Weinberg selected as finalist for Best of the Net 2011

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Congratulations to Elizabeth Weinberg! Her short story "The Earth That Stands Before Us", first published in Issue #12 of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, has been named one of the finalists of Best of the Net 2011. 

See here for Cha's Best of the Net history.
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Sushma Joshi in Birds Singing in English

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Sushma Joshi's short story, "Betrayal", first published in Issue #3 of Cha, is now translated into Japanese in Birds Singing in English. Both versions are available here. 

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Tai Dong Huai in Birds Singing in Englishes

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Tai Dong Huai's short story, "New Babies", first published in Issue #5 of Cha, is now translated into Japanese in Birds Singing in English. Both versions are available here. The story was discussed by Cha's consulting editor Reid Mitchell on A Cup of Fine Tea. 

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Cha's co-editor Tammy Ho in King's College London's In Touch

Cha's co-editor Tammy Ho is featured in the Spring 2011 issue of King's College London's In Touch (p. 42).  

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Cha contributor Lillian Kwok selected as finalist for Best of the Net 2010

Lillian Kwok

We are very happy to announce that Lillian Kwok's poem "Departure", first published in Issue #8 of Cha, was selected as a Finalist for Best of the Net (2010). "Departure" was the very first poem we discussed on A Cup of Fine Tea. Apart from "Departure", we also published Lillian's "Yilan" in Issue #9 of the journal. 

Last year, Iris A. Law's poem "Circumnavigation", first published in Issue #7 of Cha, was a Winner for Best of the Net  (2009). The poem was also discussed on A Cup of Fine Tea.

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Stories published in Cha named storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Story of 2010

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Congratulations to Kimarlee Nguyen, whose "Love Story" (first published in Issue #10 of Cha; read it here), & Gwen Florio, whose story "Crossing Over" (first published in Issue #11 of Cha; read it here), are both selected as a storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Story of 2010.

The top ten stories of the year will be released around May 20th, with the public vote for the top story beginning then. Good luck, Kimarlee and Gwen!

[2009]
[2008]
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Sapling interviews Eddie Tay

Eddie Tay, Reviews Editor of Cha, is interviewed by Sapling, a weekly newsletter about the world of independent publishing published by Black Lawrence Press. Each issue of Sapling is packed with useful information including

a literary contest currently accepting submissions; a profile of a literary journal or magazine; a profile of an independent press; an interview with a writer or editor (topics range from how to craft a convincing pitch to whether an MFA is integral to becoming an established author); a Q&A, where BLP editors will answer questions submitted by readers (recent example: What should poets look for in a contract?); and a closing note featuring the successes of our subscribers. 

You can subscribe to Sapling here.

In Eddie's interview (see below -- courtesy of Sapling), he talks about what he looks for in book reviews, the Hong Kong literary scene, A Cup of Fine Tea, his opinion on 'real Asia', the important thing about Cha for him, his different roles as reviews editor, events organizer, academic and poet, and lastly, the books that impressed him in 2010. 

Cha is in The China Daily

Back in August (Sunday 29th August), I was contacted by China Daily. Today, finally, there is an article on Cha in the paper [Link]. China Daily is the only official English-language national newspaper in China. The article also appears in their US Edition.

Unfortunately, they made one typo which completely changed the meaning of one of my quotes. The quote reads: "I am sure that we will see more books from mainland writers written in English" but it should have been: "I am NOT sure that we will see more books from mainland writers written in English". Please also note that the cover image appearing in the article is by Alvin Pang. 

The article mainly focuses on our forthcoming "China Issue", due out in June 2011. (See the Call for Submissions.) We hope many of you will submit works to the edition.
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Lantern Review reviews CHA: AN ASIAN LITERARY JOURNAL, ISSUE 12

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Henry W. Leung, reviewer for Lantern Review, has written an extensive review of the current edition of Cha (Issue #12); the review is now available on the LR blog.

Henry emphasises, among other things, the Asian-themed poetry ('Most of the poems in this issue fit the "Asian" label easily enough[.]') and the translations ('I laud Cha for being international and diglossic, because the presence—or shadow—of other languages encourages us to confront our own more objectively.') in the issue as well as our critique column, A Cup of Fine Tea:

If you followed the links to these poems, you’ll know that many are paired with commentary or reviews in the correlating blog, A Cup of Fine Tea, emphasizing the dialogue that small-press literary journals are intended to be.

In the review, works by Annie Zaidi, Clara Hsu, Eddie Tay, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Helle Annette Slutz, Kim-An Lieberman, Marco Yan, Inara Cedrins and Peters Bruveris, Phill Provance, Steven Schroeder and W.F. Lantry are discussed, some very favourably. 

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Henry also poses an important question to Cha editors in his review: as an Asian journal, should we be more aware of publishing pieces that fit the "Asian" label? Of course, "Asian" can be roughly interpreted at least two ways: 1) Asian-themed works and 2) works by Asian writers/artists. However, in his discussion, Henry suggests that content comes before authors' racial make up or current location, as he points out that Annie's and Marco's poems, "Diaphragm" and "Remembrance" respectively, 'don’t immediately fit any distinct cultural categories', despite the fact that Annie is from Mumbai and Marco lives in Hong Kong. Henry reminds us, then, that a piece of work by an Asian-born or Asian-based writer does not by default make it "Asian". I agree there is a distinction.

The discussion of "Asian-ness" reminded me of Jeff's editorial written for the second anniversary issue of Cha (Issue #9), in which he contemplates on the notion of "Asian writing community" in today's globalised world:

I also had no sense of the diversity of the Asian writing community. When we began, I assumed that Asian writers were those found on the continent, locals, maybe a handful of expats. I have come to realise that this definition was far too narrow—that in a globalised world the idea of Asian writing must be more inclusive and fluid, must encompass the perspectives of writers from the diasporas, travellers to the region, even people with an interest in the continent. Asia it turns out is everywhere. All you have to do is open your doors. How else can one run a Hong-Kong based journal from a house in London?

Admittedly, the passage above does not cover works by 'foreigners' that are not in any way thematically relevant to Asia -- a concern raised by Henry in his review of Cha. Looking through the journal's archive, I can say that the prose pieces are all Asian-related while in other categories we have not been as strict. For example, in our selection of poetry, "Asian" is far from the first criteria that we use to judge a piece. Why is that? Henry has drawn our attention to a point that we will certainly be thinking some more. What are people's thoughts on this?

Thank you, Henry and Lantern Review, for reading Cha so attentively and sharing your thoughts with us!

Also read "Cha A Literary Review Debate". 

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Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies

In an article entitled "Language Policy, 'Asia's World City' and Anglophone Hong Kong Writing", published in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Professor Elaine Ho of the University of Hong Kong has the following to say about Cha:

• Cha "remains the only online creative writing journal that claims a Hong Kong base". (p. 435)
• Cha has a "[high] proportion of Asian and Asian-based contributors [...] with occasional appearances by Asian diasporic artists in the West and also Anglo-Americans. It instantiates Hong Kong's recognition of English as an inter-Asia creative medium and Hong Kong as an Asian platform of creative interactivity in words and images". (p. 437)

Source: Ho, Elaine Yee Lin (2010) 'LANGUAGE POLICY, 'ASIA'S WORLD CITY' AND ANGLOPHONE HONG KONG WRITING', Interventions, 12: 3, 428 — 441.

The article also discusses poetry by Cha contributors Arthur Leung, Jason Lee, Eddie Tay and Tammy Ho.

We are very grateful that Cha is mentioned in the article.

Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

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Cha is mentioned on the blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind. See the post here.
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Asia Education Foundation

We are very pleased to say that Cha is listed by the Asia Education Foundation as one of the Asia-related websites for teachers of English and Literacy. Read the rest of the list here.

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CHA – A literary journal from Hong Kong

Margaret Lim, whose essay "Portrait of a Children's Book Author as a Young Reader" is published in the twelve issue of Cha, writes in her blog:

CHA is Chinese for tea, and CHA is also a laudable literary Online Journal based in Hong Kong. Read the rest of the post here.

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Vouched

"Bones" by Rumjhum Biswas, published in the twelve issue of Cha, is singled out by Vouched. Read the post here.

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Asia Book News

Asia Book News is an online newsletter "looking at Asia's publishing industry as well as international publishing news from the Asian perspective".

In a recent post, "Poetry on the screen, Asian Cha no. 12', two poems from the new issue are mentioned. Read the post here.

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ADOPTIONTALK

ADOPTIONTALK, a website that talks about "adoption, birth parents, abandonment, race, and China", among other subjects, has a post on Cha contributor Tai Dong Huai's fiction. In it, "A Cup of Fine Tea: Tai Dong Huai's "New Baby"", written by Reid Mitchell, is mentioned.

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Tai Dong Hui's short story "New Baby" was published in issue#5 of Cha and discussed on A Cup of Fine Tea.

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Cha in The Lonely Comma

Cha makes an appearance on The Lonely Comma, a blog dedicated to Asian American authors and writers. See the post here.

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