Call For Submissions: Creating Space For Those In Need Of It 

Growing up in a small Irish Catholic town, I tried to blend in with whiteness as much as I could; this through shopping at A&F and Hollister, painting my nails (though I wasn’t allowed to), shaving my legs at an early age (though I wasn’t allowed to), etc. Living in a traditional Korean household, I felt split in two–wanting to erase the yellowed edges and enhance the parts of me that my peers chose to accept. But I stopped doing that when I realized that my double consciousness didn’t have to define me. I didn’t want to pick and choose what I liked about being Korean and what I liked about being American. But it’s taken me a long time to work through that, and I remember being disappointed by the lack of literature written by Korean/Asian Americans—I was forced to read novels by faces and voices that didn’t look or sound anything like mine; where was the understanding?

At Thought Catalog Books, I’m passionate about creating an open space for those to share their stories, experiences, traumas, conflicts where there might not have been before. I’m talking about essays, poems, experimental narratives, non-linear structures, words and sentences that don’t necessarily fit the traditional written space built by capitalism/patriarchy/institutions. This space is for you — please take it, use it, run with it, be proud of it, learn from it. And learn from others. We all have voices that should no longer be silenced or rejected by the mainstream.

If you have a marginalized idea/story/experience, please feel free to share it with me at mink@thoughtcatalog.com.

We can talk about how best to get it out there into the world—because it’s important.