USC begins partnership with Kaya Press publishers

The Department of American Studies and Ethnicity will officially begin partnering with Kaya Press this semester with the opening of its office in Kaprielian  Hall.

 

Kaya Press, which only prints books from Asian and Pacific Island diasporas, plans to give USC students a hands-on experience in book publishing.

Sunyoung Lee, the company’s editor and publisher, said one of the reasons Kaya Press moved from New York to USC was because of the strength of the programs focusing on Asia and the Pacific Islands.

“We’re in Los Angeles because we had an opportunity to come out to USC, a dream for any independent literary press,” Lee said. “USC’s interest in becoming the premier university of the Asia Pacific age seemed like a perfect fit for Kaya Press in particular. We’re very much looking forward to contributing to USC’s emerging profile as a powerhouse in this area.”

The five-year contract with the university means students can become involved with a fully operational literary publishing company with the actual processes of acquiring, putting together and publicizing books.

Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye, a graduate student studying art history, has worked as a graduate assistant for Kaya Press since the start of the fall semester. Reynolds-Kaye said her work with the company doesn’t specifically intersect with her dissertation at the moment, but working at Kaya Press has taught her about publishing.

“It’s a very vibrant, creative atmosphere, and it’s really great to have that opportunity, especially while I’m in grad school, to have that as part of what you do every day,” Reynolds-Kaye said. “It’s a very exciting place, and we want it to be a hub of creativity of students at USC.”

Fiona Wang, a junior majoring in business administration and accounting, has been working as a project specialist for Kaya Press since October. She said the enthusiasm of Kaya Press’ workers impressed her.

“I’d never worked for a non profit before,” Wang said. “It’s a different kind of passion people have. They’re not working for money — they’re working so hard because they love this.”

Nicole Saeun Schildkraut, a graduate student studying English, said she has been working with Kaya Press for two years to publish her collection of poetry, The Magnetic Refrain.

“Students who are interested in publishing would learn a great deal by working with them,” Schildkraut said. “It’s very hands-on, from the very beginning of signing offers all the way up to publishing them and creating publicity.”

Authors whose books Kaya Press has published have received awards such as the American Book Award and the Association for Asian-American Studies Book Award.

Lee said the books she publishes fix misconceptions about Asian storytelling.

“By publishing only works from the Asian and Pacific diasporas, we’re hoping to showcase the innovation and diversity that can be found there,” Lee said. “[Our authors] are not trying to represent, so much as they are trying to bust through presumptions about the kinds of stories that Asian-Americans or Asian-Australians or Asian-Africans or Asian-Latin-Americans have to tell.”

Viet Nguyen, a professor of American studies and ethnicity, said his department is concerned with the ways ethnic and racial populations in the United States are shaped globally by histories and events and how the United States impacts the rest of the world.

“[The ASE department is] at the forefront of American studies and ethnic studies … because so many of its faculty and students are working on transnational and international issues,” Nguyen said.

Kaya Press plans to unite Asian and Pacific writers in Los Angeles by working to establish an organization like New York’s Asian American Writers’ Workshop, a non-profit arts organization that supports the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian-Americans.

“Despite the enormous diversity of culture and experiences in Los Angeles, it doesn’t have any kind of Asian-American, much less Asian, diasporic, literary organization,” Lee said. “We [Kaya Press] hope to remedy that situation.”

Kaya Press plans to hold its launch party in Kaprielian Hall room 445 at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The event will feature readings by Kaya Press authors, including Sesshu Foster, Catherine Liu, Samantha Chanse and Nicole Schildkraut.