Do you hear the people sing?

It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again

If someone tells you to shut the fuck up and stop trying to make waves, should you?

One and a half years ago, I set out to create a space to unite Asian writers and showcase our work. We’re now over a thousand strong, which is no small feat for someone as introverted as I am.

The turmoil in the world and hatred toward marginalised people makes me want to hide away. A hateful comment¹ on a Note celebrating one of Periphery’s milestones is still seared into my brain. “Stop speaking out,” it said. When I asked why, the person responded, “We (Whites) have had enough. We don’t need your kind of voices.”

For a while, waves and upheavals, both personal and political, have left me breathless and unable to put out a word.

But someone reminded me recently why I continue to write and publish.

And then, I remembered why I made this space in the first place.²

Periphery family and allies, you don’t need me to tell you that our voices are needed more urgently than ever. And here is one place we won’t be silent.

With that, there will be some minor changes to the submission process.

New Submission Guidelines

First of all, thank you to our paid subscribers, Young Woong Yi, Andrea Louie, Bill Bishop, Demian Yumei, TheUltraContemplative, sunshine moonlight, Mansi, Lael Johnson, Sanobar Sabah, and Tony W. Because of you, I’m super happy to announce that I’m now able to offer a $20 payment to writers who contribute to our monthly guest column³. I hope that this amount will increase with your generosity! Thank you so much for your support.

Instead of a quarterly themed submission period, submissions will be open on a rolling basis with no theme. Even if you’ve submitted previously, I encourage you to do so again, because I’m now opening it to writing pieces that have been previously published on personal blogs or Substacks.

Guidelines can be found on this page.

Directory

If you have not been added to the Periphery directory, you may do so by filling out the Google form here.

The directory will now be regularly updated. To provide the most beneficial resource to our community, users who haven’t updated their Substacks for a year or longer will be removed.⁴

Scheduling

Count on me to overextend myself by trying to run two newsletters, launch a book, and homeschool while managing mental and chronic illness at the same time. So, what I’ve come to realise is that weekly publication is not possible.

However, the beating heart of Periphery is all of you, your voices.

That said, this is what you can expect:

• The featured essay or story each month (depending on number of submissions received).

• We will continue doing a monthly round-up of posts from members in the Periphery directory.

• Decolonising Your Bookshelf: A list of book recommendations every other month (or every month, depending on number of contributors)

We’re all in this together

Can you tell I’ve been binging on musicals? Anything to distract me from reminders of the Wuthering Heights movie. 🤮

As you may know, Periphery relies on the awesomeness of volunteers and generosity of sponsors to keep running. If you so feel inclined, I would love to have you on the team in one of these volunteer roles.

1. Community monitor — 2 needed, alternating weeks: You will initiate weekly discussions in the chat to foster community, moderate comments, and help keep the flow of conversation going when needed. Email me if you’re interested in this position. Open to Periphery members.

2. Curator — no limit: Sign up to curate one of the monthly round-ups. There are different ways to do this. You can either look through the Periphery directory and read posts you want to highlight, or highlight posts by Asian authors you already subscribe to. This page has our past editions if you need a reference. Sign up for an upcoming month here. Open to Periphery members.

3. Decolonise Your Bookshelf series — no limit: If you love books and also love recommending them to others, sign up to write one of these posts. This is one of my favourite things to do and would love to hear about more books by Asian authors from y’all. Check out this page for past issues. Open to everyone.

And, of course, one of the best ways to support is to spread the word by telling your friends about us!

The other way is to ensure I can continue paying writers by taking out a paid subscription or making a one-time donation.

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As always, thank you for being here. Your support in every way has helped expanded this publication beyond what I imagined:

• Surpassed 1000 subscribers

• Have enough patrons to pay contributing writers

• Published 10 written works of literary calibre

• Submitted our first Pushcart nominee (congratulations to Sam!)

• Interviewed 7 authors

• Recommended 40 books by Asian authors

• Featured too many of your writing pieces to count!

I’m excited to see where we go next.

Oh, the answer to the opening question is, of course, fuck no. Periphery is back, and louder than before.

1. The user and comment have long been blocked and deleted

2. Also, I am, at heart, of a rebellious disposition.

3. I’ve been reaching out to previous guest writers, so if you haven’t heard from me, please check your email or reach out.

4. The form to be added will always be available if you reactivate or feel you’ve been removed by accident.