About Illume Magazine
Emerging as a response to the project of depoliticizing Asian American interests, Illume Magazine was founded in Boston, May 2023.
Ranging from critical essays to interviews to poetry and prose, Illume is devoted to the critical examination of how Asian and Pacific Islander American histories, issues, and identities have been and continue to be shaped by immigration and migration, citizenship and race, labor, war, U.S. empire, globalization, and neocolonialism.
Because we believe in reasserting an identity that is based on politics rather than politics that are based on the identity, Illume‘s writing is fundamentally anti-war, anti-imperial, transnational, and cross-racial.
We encourage ourselves, and our readers, to deconstruct liberal narratives of Asian American immigration and assimilation and find what might emerge instead.
Issue 02 of Illume Magazine
Submissions
With bi-annual print issues, Illume consists of an editorial section—with non-fiction essays for either political review or lifestyle and culture—and a literary arts section for poetry and prose pieces.
We are looking for sharp, incisive, and critical work that meaningfully intervenes in discourses of purported ideological neutrality, multicultural liberalism, and inclusive representation. We want to see work that is interested in examining the structural intersections of violence in order to imagine an alternative, more just world for ourselves. We want to see work that seeks out an analysis of power that, at times, makes Asian American studies uncomfortable rather than celebratory.
Since Illume is relatively new in its inception, we encourage writers to first pitch their ideas for editorial pieces, especially if they do not yet have a fully-fleshed submission. If you are interested in writing an interview piece for our Conversational Ruptures series, please also pitch us the interview’s subject and direction prior to an official submission.
SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE 03 ARE NOW CLOSED.
All pitches and submissions can be emailed to illumemagazineneu@gmail.com.
Political Review Guidelines:
Illume is seeking thoughtful op-ed pieces between 1,000–3,000 words that clearly explain and argue on a historical or contemporary issue relating to the Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas. We also welcome more global pieces that comment on the intersection of the U.S. empire and its neo-colonial subjects in the Asia-Pacific.
Lifestyle and Culture Guidelines:
Illume is seeking critical cultural commentary pieces, personal essays, and review pieces between 1,000–3,000 words. Cultural commentary pieces should not be limited to the latest Twitter discourse but should analyze a larger phenomenon having to do with Asian American issues, experiences, and themes that manifests both online and offline. Personal essays and review pieces should not be limited to firsthand experiences or a single piece of art/media but should establish a broader critique or analysis of a culturally or politically relevant idea, theme, or issue. Submissions may fall under multiple of these categories.
Literary Arts Guidelines:
Illume encourages you to experiment with style and convention, whilst asking how the craft state and the political state might inform each other.
—What conditions document what you feel “allowed”
to write about?—How can we empower and escalate beyond just witnessing?
—How can we effectively transmute our rage and grief?
—How can we actively make use of the page as a site of
resistance?We do not impose a word limit for literary arts submissions.
Staff
Founder, Creative Director
Sharon Chen
Editor-in-Chief
Jesica Bak
Managing Editor
Juliana George
Literary Arts Editor
Kevin sen Zhang
Designers
Sharon Chen
Florenz Blancaflor
Events Coordinator
Jennie Le
Digital Editor
Karissa Korman
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