Friday 1 July 2016

Cha "Addiction" Poetry Contest






ADDICTION

A Cha Poetry contest




This contest is run by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal on the theme of "Addiction".

Rules:
  • Each poet can submit up to two poems (no more than 80 lines long each).
  • Poems must be previously unpublished
  • Entry is free.
Closing date:
  • 1 August 2016
Prizes:
  • First: HK$500, Second: HK$300, Third: HK$150, Highly Commended (up to 5): HK$100 each. (Payable through Paypal.)
  • All winning poems (including the highly recommended ones) will receive first publication in a special section in Issue 33 of Cha, due out in September 2016.
The prizes were generously donated by an anonymous patron who loves Cha
Submission:
  • Submissions should be sent to t@asiancha.com with the subject line "Addiction".
  • Poems must be sent in the body of the email.
  • Please also include a short biography of no more than 30 words.
Judges:
PREVIOUS Cha CONTESTS/SPECIAL CALL



Thursday 16 June 2016

Cha - Call for Submissions - Ninth Anniversary Issue (December 2016)

due out in December 2016.
-




Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
is now calling for submissions for the Ninth Anniversary Issue, scheduled for publication in December 2016.

Please send in (preferably Asian-themed) poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, photography & art for consideration. Submission guidelines can be found here. Deadline: 15 September 2016.
.
Arthur Leung (poetry) and Royston Tester (prose) will act as guest editors and read the submissions with the editors Tamara Ho and Jeff Zroback. Please contact Reviews Editor Eddie Tay at eddie@asiancha.com if you want to review a book or have a book reviewed in the journal. (Please note that we're working with a 2-3 issue backlog with reviews.)
.
We love returning contributors - past contributors are very welcome to send us their new works.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write to any of the Cha staff at editors@asiancha.com.



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Friday 10 June 2016

Issue 32 of Cha is HERE.



Issue 32 of Cha is now available. 

We would like to thank guest editors B.B.P. Hosmillo (poetry) and Mag Tan (prose) for reading the submissions with us and helping us put together ​the new edition. We would also like to thank Eddie Tay for the fine selection of book reviews and Reid Mitchell for co-editing (with Tammy Ho Lai-Ming) the special "Distance" poetry section, which is in collaboration with Health in Action, a Hong Kong charity that promotes community health and wellbeing through the empowerment of the underprivileged. The issue also features an editorial entitled "Observations" by Tammy Ho.

The following writers/artists have generously allowed us to showcase their work:

 POETRY: Henry Wei Leung​, Chip Dameron​, ​Abner Dormiendo​, ​Gopika Jadeja​, ​Bo Schwabacher​, ​Laura Jew​, ​Bob Bradshaw​, ​Antony Huen​, ​Anthony Tao​, ​Jonathan Louis Duckworth  
DISTANCE: Nick Admussen​, ​Paola Caronni​, ​Desirée Jung​, ​Troy Cabida​, ​Jedd Ong​, ​Cameron Morse, Reid Mitchell
FICTION: Rosie Lee​, ​Siddharth Dasgupta​,​ Karen Kao​, ​Damyanti Biswas​, ​Xylene Tandoc
CREATIVE NON-FICTION: Melissa De Silva
PHOTOGRAPHY & ART: Rushda Rafeek​,​ Suzanne Lai​,​ Ana Prundaru (cover artist)​, ​Chris Galvin Nguyen
REVIEWS: Michael Tsang​, ​Lia Dun​,​ Andreas Winardi​,​ Dragoș Ilca​, ​Reto Winckler
INTERVIEW: Usha Akella interviews Keki Daruwalla


"Observations" — ASIAN CHA Issue 32 Editorial






My love for you is not like new linens—nice for the first week but shrinking after the first wash.


“If” is the French for yew. A coniferous tree.


I wish I knew who sent me this dream: “Tammy (or Lai-Ming?), I had a dream about you last night. You were managing a restaurant and were very busy. I couldn't understand why you would become a restaurateur in addition to all the other things you do—teaching, editing, writing, loving—but I figured it is best not to interfere. I went to the opening, you and your colleagues were working and I just tried to be quiet. But there was a big mistake with the food, the cook had not prepared the potatoes right. It did not seem like such a good restaurant. At some point you and a friend of yours (who was also one of the restaurant owners) and I went to buy candy. I hesitated to pay for the candy, because I didn't want to subsidise your failing restaurant business. But then it turned out that you wanted the candy for yourself, so I cordially offered to pay after all. But you had already paid. You didn't need my money (and what else could I offer?) Then your friend got shot for no reason. And we needed to catch a train, but we were late. And we got into the wrong train or bus. And then I woke up.



“Good night, my little Brussels sprout.”



I wear the world map as though it's a dress. You can touch me on Hong Kong.

On the street where his gym is there is a bookshop called Le Merle moqueur (The Mockingbird) and a café called Le Colibri (The Hummingbird) though this odd coincidence might be lost on French speakers.

“We are fucked” is not very difficult English to master.



“I am going to bed now, my little miraculous medal.”



The horrible thought that one can walk past any number of people without knowing any of their names. The narcissism of this thought.

Making proving people wrong our goal.

Did you know? Humans are the only mammals that can’t breathe and swallow at the same time. Did you know? Mosquitoes prefer biting people who are inebriated. Did you know? There are tongue prints.


“Good night my little duffel bag.”


It is not misunderstanding but partial understanding. One has to guard one's story, one's history, so much, these days. 

Your games are so small I need a microscope to see them.

Some say distance makes the hearts fonder. Some say out of sight, out of mind.

On language fluency: I know it when I hear it.

I sometimes feel like I am a yew tree whose roots have been cemented.
.

The Chinese government hasn't censored the temperature in Hong Kong yet.

“I am going to bed now, my little doubloon.”



I should have been born with bigger breasts. I am the kind of woman who would ask people to describe me in five adjectives.

In a Chinese restaurant in Europe. I imagine all is a cover up for some illicit business. The entire family fled China. Duck tongues. Aubergine. Like a film by Jia Zhangke. Takeaway, not good. The sauces congeal quickly. The woman is like a gangster woman. You are the only foreigner when we get in. And I am the only Chinese when we leave. I order chicken feet, thinking they were going to be chilied but they were chilled. The woman who speaks exaggerated accented Italian. The husband knows nothing.

An old Cantonese pop song can be the music that ignites my memory when I am old and have dementia.



“I am off to bed now. I love you, my little artichoke heart.”


It is exhausting when you deal with walls.

My father wanted to be more handsome, perhaps. But the mole, after it was removed, left a faint dent. Where was it? On his right cheek... if I remember correctly. It only now exists in memory and old photos that you cannot zoom in to. When I was small I was myself made fun of because of the mole that sits in my philtrum. If I die, my mole will tell you it's me.

Should I give you an old pair of high heels to remember me by? Of course not.

Slept for a bit and dreamt of naked us in a room of empty frames; we are mid-conversation, not an argument, but somehow you are hurt and I console you. I ask “Look at me. Do you know?” You give a non-smile, like you sometimes do. And then I woke up. I am sleepy again now.

Will I dream once more of your eyebrows?

“I must sleep. Good night, my little pumpkin seed.”



Tammy Ho Lai-Ming / Co-editor
Cha
10 June 2016

Monday 28 March 2016

Issue 31 of Cha is HERE.

We are very pleased to announce that Issue​ 31​ of Cha is now available. We would like to thank guest editors Jason S Polley (poetry) and Sreedhevi Iyer (prose) for reading the submissions with us and helping us put together ​the edition. We would also like to thank Eddie Tay for the fine selection of book reviews. The issue also ​features an editorial entitled "​Peculiar Imperatives" by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming.

The following writers/artists have generously allowed us to showcase their work:

 Poetry: Mang Ke​,​ Lucas Klein​, ​Andrea Lingenfelter​,​ DeWitt Clinton, Shuli de la Fuente-Lau​, ​Lian-Hee Wee​,​ Luisa A. Igloria​, ​Jason Wee​, Miho Kinnas​, Ariel Francisco​, David Farrah​, Mantz Yorke​, Karen An-hwei Lee​, Kate Rogers​, Matthew James Friday​, Kerong Chen

Fiction:​ Raphael Chim​, Douglas Penick, Bashir Sakhawarz

Creative non-fiction: ​ ​Elisa Jay

Interview: Jhilam Chattaraj

Photography & art: Chak (​cover artist),​ Shara K. Johnson, Jia Dong

Reviews: Lucas Klein​, Michael Tsang​, Grant Hamilton​, Karen Ma, Kathy Wong​, Kerri Lu, Collier Nogues​, See Tshiung Han​, William Noseworthy

Our next issue i​s scheduled for publication in June 2016. We are currently accepting submissions for Issue 33, due out in September 2016. If you are interested in having your work considered for inclusion in Cha, please read our submission guidelines carefully.


--
tammy ho lai-ming

Wednesday 23 March 2016

"Peculiar Imperatives" — ASIAN CHA Issue 31 Editorial



I am a proud, obsessive aunt. I ask my sisters to tag me whenever they post pictures and videos of my niece and nephew on Facebook. These are the notifications I love to receive the most. I play the videos over and over and I often have a few pictures of my little relatives open on my laptop when I am preparing for a lecture, agonising over research or reading Cha submissions.

My favourite picture of the past few weeks is one of my niece wearing a red top that I bought her for Lunar New Year. She's smiling and looking contentedly at an empty rice bowl. The bowl, bigger than her head, is made of plastic and has several traditional Chinese characters on it. Three jubilant bunnies dance on her blue bib. Like her "Big Aunt Mother" 大姨媽 (me!) her eyebrows are thick and well-shaped, while her hair is dark, sleek.

I am infatuated by that utterly sweet, satisfied smile on her face. Why is she so happy holding an empty bowl? What is the secret? What is on her mind?

I wish I could be happy so easily.

Instead, I find myself gloomier and more sullen by the month, by the week, by the day. I sometimes get annoyed at the smallest things. I sometimes really do not want to smile at people. Sometimes, on the worst days, I carry a face that announces "I am not impressed" wherever I go. I think it is not an exaggeration to say that I project a negative aura which wipes out the joy of others. This is partly why I worry about going to public events or being in a crowd. I'll only murder your happiness!

But that doesn't mean that I am down or bitchy all the time. I do appreciate minor amusements and there are many moments when I suddenly realise that I am contented, that I have been engrossed by something I am reading or a face in front of me. That life, after all, does not have to be an aggressive trial of the spirit. No longer looking for constant excitement and laughter, these little moments sustain my days—a moderate rather than a gluttonous diet.

Looking at the picture of my niece, I hope she can remain this innocent, this happy, for many years to come. One day, she will learn that she has to put food in the bowl herself and that those who love her however deeply can’t give her everything that she needs. But most importantly, I hope she will learn to be able to just let "The hours flow… amiable, carefree, almost happy."* 

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming / Co-editor
Cha
23 March 2016
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*Claudio Magris, Microcosms (translated from the Italian by Iain Halliday), p. 12.
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Monday 21 March 2016

Cha — Call for Submissions — Issue 33 (September 2016)

due out in September 2016.
-

http://www.asiancha.com


Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
is now calling for submissions for Issue 33, scheduled for publication in September 2016.

Please send in (preferably Asian-themed) poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, photography & art for consideration. Submission guidelines can be found here. Deadline: 15 June 2016.
.
Dorothy Chan (poetry) and Reid Mitchell (prose) will act as guest editors and read the submissions with the editors Tamara Ho and Jeff Zroback. Please contact Reviews Editor Eddie Tay at eddie@asiancha.com if you want to review a book or have a book reviewed in the journal. (Please note that we're working with a 2-3 issue backlog with reviews. 

We are also accepting submissions of poetry on the theme of "Distance" for a special section in the June 2016 Issue of Cha. Deadline: 1 May 2016.
.
We love returning contributors - past contributors are very welcome to send us their new works.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write to any of the Cha staff at editors@asiancha.com.-



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Tuesday 9 February 2016

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Poems on the theme of “Distance” for the June 2016 issue of Cha



http://www.asiancha.com





In collaboration with Health in Action, a Hong Kong charity that promotes community health and wellbeing through the empowerment of the underprivileged, Cha is publishing a special section of poetry on the theme of “Distance” in its June 2016 issue.

The publication of the special section will coincide with Health in Action’s Refugee Week Art Movement (week of 20 June 2016) to raise awareness for asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong. (Note: 20 June 2016 is World Refugee Day.)

Please send your submissions (no more than three previously unpublished poems) to t@asiancha.com by 1 May 2016. Subject line: "Distance—Your Name". The editors of the section are Cha’s co-editor Tammy Ho Lai-Ming and consulting editor Reid Mitchell.

Writers (particularly those in Hong Kong) who are interested in collaborating with refugees can also contact us for more information. 


Monday 28 December 2015

Cha's nomination for Best Small Fictions anthology

http://www.asiancha.com/content/view/2019/490/

Cha has nominated Henry Wei Leung's short fiction "Getting There", published in the March 2015 issue, for inclusion in the Queen's Ferry Press anthology, The Best Small Fictions 2016, which seeks flash of 1000 words or fewer published in 2015.


We are bulbous and abundant and may one day find a form in language for eternal presence. I teach my students in Hong Kong to write wish poems using the subjunctive the conditional the retrospective but this is wrong, this is corrected English and is wrong for them. They write their wishes into the same present tense as the wishing itself. (I wish my mom is a magician.) (I wish I have a silly sister.) (I wish people don't think I'm weird.) The wish is desired and is.

To read the whole piece, please visit here. We thank the editors of Queen's Ferry Press for the invitation to nominate work and we wish Henry the best of luck!

Cha — Call for Submissions — Issue 32 (June 2016)

due out in June 2016.
-



Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
is now calling for submissions for Issue 32, scheduled for publication in June 2016.

Please send in (preferably Asian-themed) poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, photography & art for consideration. Submission guidelines can be found here. Deadline: 15 March 2016.
.
B.B.P. Hosmillo (poetry) and Mag Tan (prose) will act as guest editors and read the submissions with the editors Tamara Ho and Jeff Zroback. Please contact Reviews Editor Eddie Tay at eddie@asiancha.com if you want to review a book or have a book reviewed in the journal. (Please note that we're working with a 2-3 issue backlog with reviews.)
.
We love returning contributors - past contributors are very welcome to send us their new works.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write to any of the Cha staff at editors@asiancha.com.-



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Thursday 24 December 2015

The Eighth Anniversary Issue of Cha is HERE.


http://www.asiancha.com


The Eighth Anniversary Issue of Cha is here. We would like to thank guest editors Arthur Leung (poetry) and Royston Tester (prose) for reading the submissions with us and helping us put together yet another anniversary edition. We would also like to thank Eddie Tay for the fine selection of book reviews and Jason Eng Hun Lee for co-judging (with Tammy Ho Lai-Ming) Cha's "Hong Kong" Poetry Contest and writing a commentary. The issue also includes finalists of Peel Street Poetry Slam Contest 2015.

The editorial, entitled "Eight Years, Eight Lessons", is by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming.

The following writers/artists have generously allowed us to showcase their work:

 Poetry: Michael Tsang, Tegan Smyth, Reid Mitchell, James Shea, Jason S Polley, Jennifer Feeley, B.B.P. Hosmillo, Michael Carlo C. Villas, Matthew James Friday, Christian Benitez, Rey Escobar, Charlotte San Juan
Hong Kong Contest: May Huang, Mantz Yorke, Janice Ko Luo, Piera Chen, Boris But
Peel Street Poetry: Henrik Hoeg (introduction), Keisha Siriboe, Blair Reeve, Denis Tsoi, Megan Hills
Fiction: Bashir Sakhawarz, Lily C. Fen
Creative non-fiction: Rose Draper, Nicky Harman
Lost Tea: Travis Lee
Photography & art: Suzanne Lai (cover artist), Chris Song, Sanchita Chatterjee
Reviews: Austin Long, Michael Tsang, Kerri Lu, Shiqin Chen, Lia Dun, William Noseworthy, Dragoș Ilca, Flora Mak

Our next issue is scheduled for publication in March 2016. We are currently accepting submissions for the June 2016 issue. If you are interested in having your work considered for inclusion in Cha, please read our submission guidelines carefully.
 

"Eight Years, Eight Lessons" — ASIAN CHA Issue 30 Editorial

http://www.asiancha.com

Thank you for joining us for our Eighth Anniversary Issue. I am not sure that neither my co-editor Jeff Zroback nor I would have imagined at the beginning that Cha would have lasted this long.

But here we are.

When we started, we knew very little about running a journal, and to be frank, we still have a lot to learn.

Even the slowest student will pick up a few lessons in eight years—in my case, it has been about one a year.

1. Without hard work—especially that of your editors, writers, artists and webmaster—you would have long ago ended up an abandoned page on a forgotten server. But, on this of all anniversaries, you must also admit that it has taken a lot of good luck too.

2. As much as you would like to think that you are still a start-up, after eight years online, you need to admit that in Internet years you are decidedly middle-aged.

3. There are three ways of coping with rude emails.

4. You will be happy every time you hear about a past contributor's success. Sometimes you might even congratulate yourself for having spotted their talent.

5. As soon as you put out an issue, you will start worrying about the next one …

6. even though you know it will come out just fine.

7. As much as you may complain, you find deep satisfaction in the work—even dealing with rude emails.

8. You know that, like most things in life, your efforts will be fleeting and one day may end up on a forgotten sever. But you also know that you are not ready for that day yet.

Thank you so much for having been with us for the past eight years. I hope you will stay with us and help our fleeting efforts last many more.

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming / Co-editor
Cha
24 December 2015

Saturday 19 September 2015

Cha — Call for Submissions — Issue 31 (March 2016)

due out in March 2016.
-

http://www.asiancha.com


Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
is now calling for submissions for Issue 31, scheduled for publication in March 2016.

Please send in (preferably Asian-themed) poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews, photography & art for consideration. Submission guidelines can be found here. Deadline: 15 December 2015.
.
Jason S Polley (poetry) and Sreedhevi Iyer (prose) will act as guest editors and read the submissions with the editors Tamara Ho and Jeff Zroback. Please contact Reviews Editor Eddie Tay at eddie@asiancha.com if you want to review a book or have a book reviewed in the journal.
.
We love returning contributors - past contributors are very welcome to send us their new works.

If you have any questions, please feel free to write to any of the Cha staff at editors@asiancha.com.-



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