Our mission is to represent Vietnamese and Southeast Asian diasporic literature, art, and culture.
We publish essays, fiction, poetry, art, comics, and hybrid pieces by writers and artists from Southeast Asia and those of the Southeast Asian diaspora. We also welcome profiles and interviews with culture makers and reviews of works. Southeast Asia encompasses: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. We publish primarily in English and welcome pieces in other languages if there is an English translation as well. We aim to reply to all submissions within two months.
Special issue 03: The South
The U.S. South is often neglected or homogenized in discussions of Vietnamese American and Southeast Asian American culture. But the South is home to 1 in 3 Vietnamese Americans. In recent years, some of the best Vietnamese American literature has been set in the Gulf South: Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, Eric Nguyen’s Things We Lost to the Water, Thao Thai’s Banyan Moon, E.M. Tran’s Daughters of the New Year, Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth, Thao Votang’s Linh Ly Is Doing Just Fine.
What does it mean to be Vietnamese or Southeast Asian in the South? What social, political, religious, and environmental issues appear more forcefully from the standpoint of the South, as compared to the rest of the U.S.? diaCRITICS seeks work that explores the intersection of Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and Southern identity, especially as these histories bear upon the political exigencies of today. We are open to fiction, poetry, essays, and artist profiles that deal with this theme.
Other submissions:
Alongside this special issue on “The South,” we also invite mini-dispatches on the local identities of the Southeast Asian diaspora. As Karín Aguilar-San Juan had asked, what makes the Little Saigon’s in Boston and Orange County so different? So too do we ask: what is it like to be Cambodian in Philadelphia, Hmong in St. Paul, Laotian in Sacramento? We are especially interested in hearing from communities that fly under the radar. These mini-dispatches can be wry and light-hearted or utterly solemn, and they can lean into local stereotypes or complicate and reinvent them. Word length: 300 – 1000 words.
We also have an open call for reviews and interviews on any works relating to the Southeast Asian diaspora. This includes literature, film, performance, music, art, and other cultural phenomena.
Deadline:
December 1, 2026. Please send all submissions and pitches to [email protected]
If you’re a publisher, author, or publicist and would like to submit a book for review consideration, please contact us.
