By Noriko Nakada
It’s summer again, and I’m doing my best to keep writing. I imagine we all are.
It’s summer again; three years since police killed Alton Sterling and Philando Castille. I was wrecked that summer, and had to do something, so I marched through the streets of Los Angeles with Black Lives Matter and learned to say their names.
It’s summer again; two years since white nationalists marched in Charlottesville leaving me speechless, unsure of what to tell my young children, my nieces and nephews, and my students about people who hate them.
It’s summer again; a year since the faces of children separated from their families showed up on my feed, and the voices of children in cages transformed my dreams into night terrors.
This summer, my daughter and I stood at another protest of concentration camps for children separated at the border, and she looked up to me and asked, “They’re still doing it? They’re still keeping kids in cages?”
There have been rough news cycles during other seasons, but these past few summers have felt particularly tough. As we breathe in another heat wave in America, I urge you to keep pushing. Push your stories and voices of humanity into conversations crowded with hate and vitriol. Here are a few spaces where editors look to give voice to our times.
The Rising Phoenix Review published an issue Disarm: A Themed issue Responding to Mass Shootings in America. Regarding their publishing philosophy: “Our team is deeply committed to curating a diverse publication. We encourage writers from marginalized communities to submit to Rising Phoenix Review. Our team earnestly desires to breakdown barriers for writers and readers in marginalized communities. We strive to make our platform a safe space for all. Our publication is open to all poets, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or religious affiliation.”
The Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly published an abortion ban protest issue this month and they are champions of “books, writing, and writers. With over 35 titles published since 2005, we’ve unflinchingly adapted to the changing world of publishing and we challenge the norms by embracing short stories, novellas, translations, reprints, and the avante garde. We maintain two exciting imprints – Alan Squire Publishing, specializing in boutique books and poetry, and 2040 Books, a press devoted to featuring ethnic authors and promoting diverse literature.”
Queen Mob’s Tea House published a special issue titled: “Where Are the Children” responding to the border crisis and treatment of refugee families. They are “an international online literary journal dedicated to writing, art, criticism—weird, serious, gorgeous, cross genre, spell conjuring, rant inducing work. We’re committed to creating an online platform that melds the social with the creative. A platform that speaks to your cravings, fantasies and heartbreaks; your daydreams from your lunch break; your good and bad choices; your contradictions; your process.”
Stay cool out there, writers, and keep submitting.
Noriko Nakada is the editor of the Breathe and Push column. She writes, blogs, tweets, and parents in Los Angeles. She is committed to writing thought-provoking creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.