BY NADIA GERASSIMENKO
Lately, I've been following one online publication that I'm most excited read this August: The Brown Orient. Founded by Elizabeth Ruth Deyro, The Brown Orient's mission is to publish and amplify marginalized voices of women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and non binary folks, especially Brown Asians who are sorely underrepresented, misrepresented, and silenced in the literary and arts communities, in the media, and the global narrative altogether. They're here for taking the voices of Brown Asia back. They're here for disrupting the marginalization. They're here for giving space to "bold artistic expression." And I'm so glad I got to speak to Elizabeth about The Brown Orient, its partnerships, and her personal work.
Tell us about how and why you founded The Brown Orient, what it stands for. Who can submit? What kind of work will you be publishing? Will the first issue to be released in August 2018 appear online or in print? Do you plan to launch print issues as well?
The idea behind The Brown Orient was rooted on this frustrating yet undeniable truth that Asians coming from the Southern, Southeastern, Middle Eastern, and Central regions have always been underrepresented in the global narrative, as compared to those from the East. Some people don’t even acknowledge us as "real Asians," thinking that the only people qualified to call themselves "Asian" as East Asians. We are sidelined not only as the individual nations that we are but also as members of the Asian community, or so it seems. This bothered me so much, how everyone else seems to just ignore the rest of Asia when the most striking stories come from the rich, diverse cultures of the "Brown Asia." This is why I created The Brown Orient. Brown Asians deserve to be heard, to be seen. They deserve to have a space that are especially created for them, that are exclusively about them, something that they can call their own. That’s the main goal of The Brown Orient, and I really hope that I, together with the rest of the team, would be able to realize this goal and be able to showcase the best of Brown Asian talents, because that is what the rest of the world is missing.
On this note, we will publish literary and art works exclusively by women, queer, and non binary writers. I chose to narrow down our scope further and cater specifically to women, queer, and non binary people as I personally believe that, among the community, they are the ones most marginalized and deserve to be given a platform where they can boldly express who they are and what they think, what they believe. We are looking for fiction, non fiction, poetry, art, and photography, that tackle really anything that the creator wants to discuss or convey, may it be about the current local issues in their place or insights rooted on personal experiences.
The inaugural issue set for release in August, and probably the next few issues of The Brown Orient, will be published online. I think it’s important to establish the readership before exploring the option of going print, so accessibility is the top priority among anything else. After all, the idea is to introduce these wonderful, mostly unheard talents to the rest of the world, and what’s a better way to do it than publishing their work online? Maybe in the near future, we will get to produce print issues as well.
You have partnered up with other publications such as Laurel Magazine, Rag Queen Periodical, L’Éphémère Review, Minute Magazine, The Cerurove, TERSE. Journal, Cauldron Anthology, amongst others. How did you get the idea of partnering up with other online magazines? What great things are currently in the works with your sister sites?
I personally admire these journals and feel so honored and humbled that they agreed to collaborate with my recently-founded passion project. The idea of partnering with these wonderful journals was initially just to get acquainted with other literary publications who are interested in mutual promotion, but the initiative began to grow deeper as I encountered people who actually believe in what The Brown Orient stands for, and whose vision I also highly respect and support. This initiative became a way of fostering a sort of "sisterhood" among the publications involved, a sense of community where one does more than promote the other’s endeavors, but rather shows sincere support for the sister publications and the people behind them as well as a venue where everyone works together to realize concrete ways of forwarding cultural revival and intersectionality. One of these concrete ways is a collaborative chapbook that we aim to release next year. The chapbook will contain works by the wonderful people behind the literary magazines that ideally tackle a central theme: the female identity and the essence of womanhood. I envision the chapbook as a venue for creative collaboration among editors from different journals, coming from different backgrounds, all writing about and fighting for the same cause—I think the project perfectly puts this newly-crafted "sisterhood" into action.
What other projects do you hope to accomplish with The Brown Orient? Who can get involved to your cause, and how?
The first priority is definitely to have enough funds to provide monetary compensation, or at least some sort of tokens of appreciation for our contributors, and of course, to the amazing editors and staff members. Sometime this year, we will begin to accept donations and sponsorships—anyone can definitely help out as long as they’re interested and willing. We always appreciate all the support that we get.
Ideas of holding affordable workshops are definitely on the table, and I’m also considering holding small online contests. I will likely tap guest editors for these potential projects, and of course, they would have to be fellow women, queer, or non binary Brown Asians.
There are really so many other possibilities that we can try to explore, and hopefully we will be able to do as much as we can. One thing that I would really like to see happen is to have The Brown Orient expand its reach and get to produce chapbooks, and I know that this is quite ambitious for a journal who hasn’t even published its first digital issue yet, but I’m really hoping that we can get there.
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On a more personal vein, you often write about health, particularly about mental health issues in the Philippines, how has it been navigating a society that's still very biased towards mental illness with Borderline Personality Disorder? What hindrances did you have to overcome? What helps you cope?
Advocating for change, I think, is always a frustrating task, and moments when you feel disheartened are always part of the process, especially when your way of forwarding this advocacy is to just bear your soul and hope the world gets a glimpse of what it means to have this disorder through your words. The biggest hindrance would always be internal—battling with thoughts of doubt and hesitation. What if they only judge me for my past, for my symptoms? Would it really mean anything to talk about what I go through? But then, I still write. Writing has been, more or less, therapeutic. It’s one of the very few ways of coping that I know that isn’t destructive. And somehow, I see how writing about my experiences help de-stigmatize mental health, even in little ways. The most recent personal essay that was published in The Tempest got an unexpected, significant volume of reactions from readers that I don’t know personally, acquaintances, friends, and even family. I did not think that anybody would care that much, but they did. I received private messages telling me how they were proud of me, how they admire the way I handled my situation. What’s more is that since I’ve been more vocal about my mental health advocacy, more people have reached out to me, either neurotypicals asking for advice as to how they can support friends or loved ones with mental illness, or strugglers themselves looking for someone to talk to who they know can and will understand. Through these instances when someone that I thought did not care much for my work or for myself would reach out to me, may it be to give encouragement or ask for help, I feel as if my writing has been validated, that my voice must matter and sharing a piece of myself isn’t at all in vain.
What is your most favorite written work by you, and what does it mean to you?
"Constitution" is probably my most favorite one to date. It is a found poem created from passages from the Philippine Constitution, the Dangerous Drugs Act, the official memorandum of Project TOKHANG, and quotes from speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte. It is a criticism of the still-prevailing Philippine War on Drugs and the string of extrajudicial killings that it sparked. Some of my favorite lines from the poem are:
"Some of the damaging brain effects of chronic shabu use may be permanent, while others may resolve / partially if one surrenders / or dies in the hands of the authorities."
I feel strongly about this matter, and the poem perfectly sums up everything that I think about the current situation in the country.
Who are your most favorite writers and artists you look up to?
For people who read the flash fiction pieces that I write, it may be quite evident that one of my biggest influences is Chuck Palahniuk. Since reading his short story "Guts" and watching Fight Club, I have been obsessed with his writing. I love the minimalist means of conveying such strong, solid imagery. I really think that Palahniuk redefined the genre.
Other writers I look up to are Tahereh Mafi, Madeleine Roux, Gayle Forman, Ava Dellaira, Jennifer E. Smith—I’ve always been a big fan of the young adult genre. I also love Rolando Tolentino’s critical essays on the Philippine pop culture.
Blurb your current and future personal projects!
I am currently working on my first two chapbooks: one of flash fiction and one of poetry. The first will delve into the parallels of one’s personal struggle with mental illness and the current societal ills of the Philippines. The latter will likely be a mix of free verse and found poetry, and will talk about the struggle to choose recovery and put one’s self back together after a destructive phase of self-hate.
What's one quote that comforts you in the most trying times?
“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
Elizabeth Ruth Deyro is a Filipina writer, editor, and Communication Arts student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She is the Founding Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of The Brown Orient, the Fiction Editor for Rag Queen Periodical and |tap| lit mag, and the Nonfiction Editor for Cauldron Anthology. She also writes for The Tempest and Affinity Magazine. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Ellipsis Zine, Black Napkin Press, Jellyfish Review, L'Éphémère Review, and {m}aganda Magazine, among other places.
Nadia Gerassimenko is the managing editor at Luna Luna Magazine by day, and a moonchild and poet by night. Nadia self-published her first poetry collection "Moonchild Dreams" (2015).
She's currently working on her second chapbook, "at the water's edge." She is also the founding editor at Moonchild Magazine. Visit her at tepidautumn.net or tweet her at @tepidautumn.