Call for Submissions: Growing Up Filipino

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

This is a call for submissions of short stories for an anthology tentatively titled, GROWING UP FILIPINO II - Stories for Young Adults. The book will be edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and will be published by both Anvil and PALH. Contributors will receive copies of the book as compensation for the use of their work.

The manuscript should be approximately 8-10 pages long, typed, double-spaced (approximately 1,800-2,300 words). This should be emailed to CBrainard@aol.com . You may also send it by air mail to:

Cecilia Brainard
c/o PALH
PO Box 5099
Santa Monica , CA 90409
USA

This book project is a follow-up of an earlier short story collection entitled Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults (published by PALH 2002, and Anvil). The following review describes the 2002 collection:

>From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-These 29 short stories offer a highly textured portrait of Filipino youth and an excellent sampling of creative writing. Thematically arranged, most of the pieces have been written since the turn of the 21st century. Each story is introduced by a thumbnail sketch of the author and a paragraph or two about some element of Filipino culture or history that is relevant to the story. Authors include those born and continuing to live in the Philippines, emigres, and American-born Filipinos. Tough but relevant topics addressed include a gay youth's affection for his supportive mother, the role of religious didacticism in the formation of a childhood perception, consumer culture as it is experienced by modern teens in Manila, and coping with bullies of all ages and stations in life. The high caliber and broad but wholly accessible range of this collection, however, makes this title a solid purchase for multiple reasons.

The 29 stories in the 2002 edition of Growing Up Filipino were written before 9/11 ( September 11, 2001). The editor would now like to collect a second volume that continues to address the young adult audience. The stories in the collection will still be about the Filipino experience in the Philippines or any part of the world. But in this second volume, the editor is seeing contemporary stories, or post 9/11 stories. The editor is seeking the best stories about growing up Filipino. The editor is not looking for stories written by young adults, but about Filipino young adults. The editor envisions the stories dealing with relationships, family, falling in love perhaps, and other issues that the young adults deal with. Character-driven stories are encouraged. Those interested in submitting are encouraged to read the first volume of Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults, to get an idea of the kind of stories the editor is looking for.

Deadline for submission is September 30, 2007. Early submissions are welcome. Please send your bio (approx. 150 words) in people-friendly narrative form.

ABOUT THE EDITOR : Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the author/editor of over a dozen books. She has a website at www.ceciliabrainard.com and a blog at cbrainard.blogspot.com

Circle of Asian American Literary Studies -- Special Issue Journal Call for Papers in MELUS

Alien/Asian: Imagining the Racialized Future

This special issue of MELUS invites original article-length submissions (6,000-10,000 words, MLA format) addressing the racialization of the Alien/Asian subject in works of science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, or other such similarly aligned textual genres. The so-called "Asian" has been the site of multiple anxieties that have marked this subject as the inscrutable immigrant alien (Immigration Act of 1924), the subhuman monster (as embodied by the evil machinations of Fu Manchu), or the eerily agreeable "model minority." This special issue seeks innovative, dynamic readings on the perennial "alienness" of the Asian that draws inspiration from these historical developments and stereotypes which now cast the Asian as cyborg, robot, alien species, perhaps inhabiting a post-apocalyptic world in which race takes on complicated new formations and intersectionalities.

We broadly define Asian/American narratives and texts. Papers will dialogue with each other through broad theoretical, thematic and analytical methodologies including but not limited to "post" critiques ( e.g. postmodernism and posthuman), hybridity and contact zones, allegories of empire and colonialism, cell and tissue theory, materialist approaches that consider scientific studies, new media studies and hypertext, just to name a few. Articles might examine the configuration of dystopic and fantastic futures in texts such as Cynthia Kadohata's In the Heart of the Valley of Love , Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange and Through the Arc of the Rainforest, Sesshu Foster's Atomik Aztex, Alejandro Morales's Rag Doll Plagues, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Hiromi Goto's The Kappa Child, Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl, Amitav Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome, Vandana Singh's and Yoon Ha Lee's short fiction, the work of Lawrence Yep, Tess Gerritsen's Gravity, Minsoo Kang's Of Tales and Enigmas, the vampire fictions of Cecilia Tan, among many others. Not to be overlooked, we hope to solicit articles that address experimental, avant-garde poetic works that interrogate the Alien/Asian in relation to science, technology, and/or the future such as Cathy Park Hong's Dance Dance Revolution, Brian Kim Stefans's Before Starting Over, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's Four Year Old Girl, and Shanxing Wang's Mad Science in Imperial China. In addition, articles might examine Greg Pak's screenplay and adapted movie Robot Stories, which uses an almost entirely Asian cast to play overtly with categories of humanity and machinery, while leaving loudly unspoken the representation of race. Alternately, submissions might compare Asian American textual productions with the rich implications of Grace Park's "colorblind" casting as the humanoid Lt. Sharon Valerii, a Cylon in the current Sci-Fi original series, Battlestar Galactica, or other recent casting choices in LOST and Heroes, television shows which continue to draw on the "Asian" as a participant in a science fictional world in which Americans are black, white, and Latino but never Asian.

Is the literal dehumanization of the Asian Other in actual effect dehumanizing, and/or perhaps (paradoxically) metaphorically enabling? What kinds of permutations to the interracial romance, discourses of hybridity and "hapa" identity emerge from these conceits? Do speculative futures suggest a post-race politic that destabilizes and challenges the grounds of Asian/American Studies?

Please e-mail articles as anonymous word attachments with an accompanying abbreviated 1 page c.v. to Stephen Hong Sohn at Stephen.H.Sohn@gmail.com by September 30, 2007. Any queries may be forwarded to the same e-mail address.

CALL FOR PHOTOS & STORIES

The Museum of Chinese in the Americas is collecting images and stories for our new core exhibition honoring the adventurous and creative spirit of Chinese in America. The exhibit will open in January 2008 in our new facilities designed by architect Maya Lin, and we want YOU and many others who share Chinese ancestry to be a part of it!

IS THERE A PHOTO that captures your strongest memory of you and/or your family arriving in the United States?

IS THERE A STORY/ MEMORY that speaks of that moment, when you knew and felt for the first time, that America was your new home?

Was it the sweet taste of your first hot dog? The feeling of snowflakes touching your skin for the first time? Perhaps it was the sight of a new city skyline? Or maybe your father’s description of drinking powdered milk as the way he experienced America for the first time?

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AND IF YOU¹VE spent YOUR ENTIRE LIFE in the United States, what photos, objects, and stories have been passed down over the years to become symbolic of your family¹s immigration to America?

We particularly encourage you to submit your photos and stories if you and/or your family arrived in the U.S. after 1965.

We look forward to hearing from you!

GUIDELINES:
1. DEADLINE: April 23, 2007.
2. PLEASE FILL OUT & ATTACH THE DONATION FORM with your submission.
3. PHOTOS may be sent via email as TIF or JPEG files. High resolution images (300 dpi) are preferred. We are especially interested in photos that provide a sense of geographical context,
time, and place.
4. Email submissions should be sent to Cynthia Lee at clee@moca-nyc.org with the subject heading CORE EXHIBIT
5. Mail submissions should be sent to: CORE EXHIBIT, Museum of Chinese in the Americas, 70 Mulberry Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013.