Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

This year, as we’ve seen the rise of anti-Asian racism throughout the COVID-19 pandemic combined with renewed calls for police reform following the lynchings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberry, and countless other Black Americans, our dialogue in the Asian American community has shifted and evolved. I know many of us are interrogating the relationships we have to our own peoples, and America as a whole. While 2020 continues to unfold, our founders at APAC realize more and more how our focus needs to shift to include, not just Baltimore AAPI voices, but a larger, national context within which those voices exist. 

As a South Asian writer and teacher of writing, I am always looking for new ways to platform Asian voices. I believe our job as artists is to bear witness and to continue this dialogue through our crafts: the visual, the performing, the music, and the literary. With all of these things on our minds, we at APAC are proud to debut our new blog: Too Much/Not Enough!

This title did not come easy. We knew we wanted to shift our framing from the previous blog, This Matters Because. . . because, well, everything matters. But how? There were numerous possibilities, endless conversations. In the end it was our Co-Executive Director, Cori Dioquino, who, in trying to language what the state of being Asian American feels like, fell upon the perfect phrase, “you’re always too much, and yet not enough.”

We invite you to contribute your voice to this space, as an opportunity both for you to reflect as a writer and an artist, and offer a point of engagement for readers. We want to showcase the stories that are atypical and unapologetic, that counter, interrogate, and expand on the conventional ideas of what is “Asian.” 

We’re looking for stories from all self-identified Asian Americans, at all levels of practice.  Stories about how your views on being Asian American have changed, that examine ways Asian Americans are or are not reflected in culture and media, and/or explore what more or different you want to see.

The most human thing is to write, to speak your piece into existence. With each post - whether memoir, editorial, cultural criticism, interviews, reportage, or a creative hybrid - we hope you bring your histories, your memories, and your visions about the Asian America you know, and the one you wish to see.

We look forward to seeing your work.

Happy writing,

Aditya Desai
Editor, Too Much/Not Enough