*** Portrait painter Thao Nguyen studied painting at Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Art. She is creating a project of capturing random portraits through her way of living, traveling, and meeting random… Continue reading
March, 2015, San Jose, California Bà Ngoại’s hypnotic song fills the darkness of the room, echoing through the small chamber of the seashell. I pull it close to my head, nestling my… Continue reading
(Shane Guffogg, oils, 2006) “A courier came into the outer office with an urgent cable for my boss.” (Ellsberg, p. 7) Is a secret concealed in these layers of paint, these layers… Continue reading
“untitled letter” first appeared in bilingual magazine AJAR issue 2, which is published in Hanoi. A few changes have been made from the original publication. thư không mưa đêm co thắt họng những… Continue reading
*** Sophia E. Terazawa is a poet and performance artist. A witness at the crossroads. Her work appears in As[I]Am, Kalyani Magazine, As/Us, and other journals. Dylan Lowry makes films. He is currently working… Continue reading
04.22.14 Noodle soup for breakfast & pan flutes he tells me his early sightings hot & hotter today new bites on my knees moon on blue like a stray slip of cloud sheets… Continue reading
*** Growing up messing with pencils and papers, Vu Tran developed a passion for fine arts. He decided to focus on his talent for painting when he was 17. Three years later,… Continue reading
It’s one of those fruits you can’t take by itself, can’t even lick its acidic tartness and tanginess with- out puckering. It’s a team player only, and for more than lemonade. Remember the… Continue reading
*** Cristina Nualart lived for 4 years in Vietnam, where she worked as a lecturer, artist and arts writer. She has recently returned to her European homeland, where she continues to be… Continue reading
FAMILY after the war in Vietnam, boat refugees When they woke up in the morning, all that was left was the skeleton. The bones of the father. His flesh, not already eaten by… Continue reading
*** Neyda Enid Moulier is the Secondary School Counselor for the American International School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University… Continue reading
“Embody” first appeared in bilingual magazine AJAR issue 2, which is published in Hanoi. A few changes have been made from the original publication. Hóa thân Hắn mắc phải một chứng bệnh… Continue reading
He and She drank green tea in a Hanoi alley where a woman had just slaughtered three chickens. As the woman held the limp necks and plucked feathers from the carcasses, He and… Continue reading
We were in the common room of Russell Hall, a freshman men’s dormitory at our small Presbyterian College in Western Pennsylvania waiting for our draft number to be drawn. The room was dark… Continue reading
(i) Saigon In Saigon, water is omnipresent; it saturates the air, travelling down Saigon River feels more like entering the sea. It smells of rain. After rain, lacquered altars on the footpaths seem… Continue reading
*** S. Todd Wall is an artist/educator that has spent the last 15 years working and making art throughout Asia while returning to his home/studio periodically in rural, upstate South Carolina, USA.… Continue reading
A Place Called Hope My grandmother wrote me in a letter once when I was in Viet- nam, out in the Plain of Reeds how she’d been looking for a map of Viet-… Continue reading
Firm in the mud, astride the timestream slip between darkness of Delta night-quiet and the brick kiln flare of full day, the dredging rigs have a line of barges waiting, and she is… Continue reading
“Freedom is shriveling and consciousness has been assassinated” first appeared in bilingual magazine AJAR issue 2, which is published in Hanoi. A few changes have been made from the original publication. Tự do… Continue reading
“Memory is another name for ghosts and their awful hunger.” — from “Apple” by Eugene Gloria It was Hmong New Year. Phang was thirteen-years-old, and Grandfather Zaj told his stories to the… Continue reading