Online Zine Submission Guidelines
We’re so excited that you want to contribute to Nikkei Monogatari! Below you’ll find our guidelines for the 3rd Issue!
A Call for Submission to Nikkei Monogatari - Special Issue
Special Issue #3 The Nikkei Shokutaku: Stories, Recipes and Memories of “Japanese” Food
Food has long been a source of bringing together communities, families and friends from various parts of the world. Our fondest memories of food are often tied to a certain smell, a passed-down recipe or special moments in life. Our food memories can evoke strong feelings of nostalgia and, sometimes, even, conflict and painful memories.
Between January and February of this year, Japanese for Nikkei (JFN) had the opportunity to collaborate with the Young Leaders Committee (YLC), which operates under the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC). Together, we organized four virtual sessions for intermediate speakers to come and share their stories, memories and experiences with “Japanese” food culture. During these sessions, we learned the important role that food plays in constructing narratives about personal and cultural heritage and identity. Most importantly, we saw how our memories and experiences with food are tied to various spaces (i.e., gender, class, and ethnicity), which speaks to the diversity and complexity of understanding Nikkei relationships to “Japanese” food. The Nikkei shokutaku (which transliterates to “dining table”) is like a smörgåsbord of personal histories and experiences.
Japanese for Nikkei x Young Leaders Committee invites submissions to the third Issue of Nikkei Monogatari, which thematically explores the connection between food and Nikkei identity. This Special Issue is driven by our vision to share recipes, stories and experiences of making, eating, and celebrating “Japanese” food, whilst also drawing attention to the contentious relationships that some of us might have with “Japanese” food. We welcome recipes, short essays and memoirs, poetry, manifestos and artwork including, but not limited to, photography paintings, and illustrations that take up any of the following questions:
What kind of food did you grow up eating at your shokutaku? How do you define “Japanese” food? What does “Japanese” food look like to you?
Where do you go to buy “Japanese” ingredients? Do you reinvent dishes using ingredients accessible to you or ones that are unique to your culture/community?
Do you or your family have any traditions associated with “Japanese food?” What are they, and why are they meaningful?
What fond or painful memory do you have about “Japanese” food and/or its lack thereof?
To what extent is the creation and consumption of “Japanese” food important to you, and how it shapes your sense of identity and belonging to your cultural heritage(s)?
What are some recipes that have been passed down to you? What memories come to mind and what kind of story does the dish tell about your heritage, family, and identity?
The third Issue of our Zine will be made available for Open Access and downloadable on our website, www.japanesefornikkei.com. Click here to view our previous Issues. Please submit your work a Word File. For longer works such as reflections and essays, we ask that you submit no more than five pages or 1,250 words. For all creative works such as photography and illustrations, please submit an HD-resolution photo in JPEG or PNG format and a short description of the work in your email. As part of your submission, please include the following:
1). Your name, pronouns and/or a pseudonym.
2). A Short bio of 75 words.
Important Deadlines and Dates (tentative)
Submissions deadline: end of August, 2023
Notification of decision to contributors: early September
Deadline for revisions/ Proofs: early October
Publication Date: late October to early November.
Note: If you include Japanese or another language other than English in your writing, please consider providing a translation to make it accessible to everyone. Please refrain from using profane, derogatory, and hurtful language. Please note that we cannot provide an honorarium for our contributors at this time. Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us: connect@japanesefornikkei.com