Vol. XXXV No. 3 – Winter 2022 It grows increasingly difficult to pen an editor’s note without mentioning the pandemic. The reason this time, however, is difficult to parse out. While the pandemic remains a mortal threat, following the world’s reopening, numerous issues have arisen that rival the urgency of the virus we have learned… [Read More]

by Nadeem Zaman     There were the mosques up and down Devon Avenue and its side-streets, and there was the Muslim Community Center at Elston and Pulaski. We started there and went on to visit ten other mosques—and by visit I mean walking in, my father eyeballing the lobby, grumbling to himself that the… [Read More]

by The Lamp of Diogenes 1. On an old hand me down iPhone with the broken microphone, on which a call is a one way broadcast with the possibility of conversation broken from the start. This not-phone is in Bang Na, Krung Thep, an other city of Angels. When the mid-day thermometer reads 39 degrees… [Read More]

by Shipra Agarwal     I ask the taxi driver to drop me outside the neighborhood. A Maruti WagonR parked in front of the house will draw too much attention. “Go have tea or something, but be here in exactly forty-five minutes,” I tell him, as I wrap a brown stole around my shoulders and… [Read More]

by Nicole Zhao As I walk down the streets in parts of Manhattan or Brooklyn, the coupling of white men and Asian women is prevalent. They span the age range: from hipster millennials decorated in tattoos to elderly couples in periwinkle shorts and argyle cardigans.  I size them up with both disdain and curiosity—even though… [Read More]

by Ashmita Malkani     Taipei. 2018. When I arrived, Radha Auntie poured two glasses of red wine. We sat, sipping, at the small dining room table. Beside us, the entryway to the kitchen, and the living room behind. Her small painting room opened with two sliding doors. A canvas perched on an easel, and… [Read More]

by Jen Soong     The moon is half-full and you are packing the only suitcase you own. Well, it’s your Ma’s but she doesn’t know. The exterior is robin’s egg blue with a hard shell and hairline white cracks zigzagging like lightning. Your neck cranes towards the soft blue interior pockets and you inhale… [Read More]

by Melisa Gregorio       It began on Christmas Eve morning with wisps of chocolate above my wife’s lips. I had just stretched the sleep from my limbs when I noticed her new brown moustache. “You didn’t share your midnight snack with me,” I said. I kissed and licked along her lips until the… [Read More]

by Cynthia Landesberg   My sons and I amble down the sidewalk, soaking in the sun. My six-year-old son’s hand rests securely in mine, fingers comfortable, grip easy. My three-year-old son’s hand feels foreign to me, cool and awkward. I am hyper-aware of every shift of a finger, every change in pressure, like holding hands… [Read More]

Editors’ Note: When we first launched this call, all we knew was that we wanted to create a special Witness prose issue that featured Asian voices from all across the globe. We could never have expected the hearteningly exuberant response and the outpouring of community support our call received. The result is Saṃsāra, a collection… [Read More]

by Sara Chansarkar I was born brown, as brown as the bark of the mango tree outside our house. I’d inherited Amma’s features—her round eyes and sharp nose—but not her wheat-colored skin tone. My coloring tinged a shade even darker than Baba’s skin. Perhaps, Amma never needed to apply a dot of kohl on my… [Read More]

by Rahad Abir       1 You land in London with £210 in your pocket. It is the year 2009. You are able to pay the first month’s rent for the room, but not the deposit. You have to share it with an acquaintance from Dhaka. He arrived a week prior. It is a… [Read More]