Kaya Press

Kaya Press is an independent nonprofit literary publisher founded in 1994 by Korean postmodern writer Soo Kyung Kim. Based in Los Angeles and housed within the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, the press occupies a distinctive position between independent literary publishing, Asian American studies, and transnational cultural production. Its list focuses on writers and artists connected to Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas, while also reaching back into the Pacific Rim to recover important works that have been overlooked, unavailable, or insufficiently represented in English-language publishing. The press publishes across several forms rather than concentrating on a single commercial genre. Its books include literary fiction, experimental poetry, critical essays, noir and crime writing, film memoir, avant-garde art, performance-related work, translations, and recovered or rediscovered texts. Kaya's editorial program is especially interested in formally adventurous writing and books that complicate conventional ideas of national, ethnic, and cultural identity. The catalog brings together contemporary authors, historical writers, artists, critics, and translators, often presenting work that moves between languages, media, countries, and generations. Kaya's name reflects that transnational outlook. It refers to the historic Kaya confederation of six Korean city-states, remembered in later accounts as a center of learning, music, artistic exchange, and trade with China, Japan, and India. The word also carries different associations in several languages, including meanings connected with body, tree, ability, rock, and home. These overlapping meanings support the press's interest in cultural connection and the productive ambiguity of identity. Its logo, based on the smoking tiger found in Korean folk imagery, similarly combines historical reference with a contemporary, irreverent visual character. The press describes itself as a collaborative community of writers, artists, readers, and book lovers committed to publishing difficult, thoughtful, and provocative work. Its authors and titles have received recognition including the American Book Award, the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, the PEN Beyond Margins Open Book Prize, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize, and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award. Kaya has also received the Gregory Kolovakas Prize for Outstanding New Literary Press. Representative books include Sia Figiel's where we once belonged and They Who Do Not Grieve, Luis Cabalquinto's Bridgeable Shores: Selected Poems (1969–2001), Lisa Chen's Mouth, Brian Castro's Shanghai Dancing, Genpei Akasegawa's Hyperart: Thomasson, H. T. Tsiang's The Hanging on Union Square edited by Floyd Cheung, Casio Abe's Beat Takeshi vs Takeshi Kitano, Sam Chanse's Lydia's Funeral Video, and works by Anelise Chen, Hari Alluri, and Roddy Bogawa. Through these publications, Kaya connects contemporary diaspora writing with translated literature, film and visual culture, experimental forms, and archival recovery. Kaya Press has participated in literary and cultural events including the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Literature Festival and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Its current editorial leadership includes Sunyoung Lee and Neelanjana Banerjee. The press remains a small, specialized, and culturally focused publisher rather than a mass-market commercial house. Publicly available information does not establish detailed financial results, circulation figures, or a broader corporate ownership structure beyond its institutional relationship with USC.

Kaya Press was established in 1994 by Soo Kyung Kim, a Korean postmodern writer, as an independent nonprofit publisher dedicated to literature and art connected to Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas. From its beginning, the press differentiated itself from commercial publishing by treating literary production as a form of cultural exchange and recovery. Its program has brought together contemporary writers, translators, critics, filmmakers, and artists while also making available works that had been neglected by mainstream English-language publishing. The press is based in Los Angeles and is housed within the University of Southern California's Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. This institutional setting links Kaya's publishing activity to scholarship and teaching in American studies, ethnic studies, and Asian American studies, while preserving the identity of the press as an independent literary project. Public information does not indicate that Kaya is a publicly traded company or part of a conventional commercial publishing conglomerate. Kaya's catalog is intentionally broad in form. It includes fiction, experimental poetry, literary criticism, essays, noir fiction, film memoir, visual art, performance writing, and translations. A recurring editorial concern is the recovery of lost or overlooked books from the Pacific Rim and from Asian American literary history. Floyd Cheung's edition of H. T. Tsiang's The Hanging on Union Square is one example of this work: the book revisits a formally unconventional novel about Depression-era New York and makes it available to a new readership. Other titles connect Japanese film and popular culture, conceptual art, and experimental cinema with literary publishing. The press's contemporary list has included writers such as Sia Figiel, Luis Cabalquinto, Lisa Chen, Brian Castro, Sam Chanse, Hari Alluri, Anelise Chen, and Roddy Bogawa. Figiel's where we once belonged was particularly significant as a U.S. publication of Samoan women's fiction and received the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Southeast Asia and South Pacific region. Kaya has also published English-language editions and translations involving authors such as Nobuo Ayukawa, Choi In-Hun, Genpei Akasegawa, and Casio Abe. This combination of contemporary work, translation, criticism, and recovery gives the press a catalog that crosses literary generations and national boundaries. Kaya's brand identity is built around the cultural multiplicity implied by its name. The name references the Kaya confederation of Korean city-states that existed from approximately the first to the sixth century CE and is associated in historical memory with trade, artistic exchange, music, and learning. The word also has distinct associations in Sanskrit, Japanese, Tagalog, Turkish, and Zulu. Rather than treating these meanings as a single fixed identity, the press uses them to suggest connection among cultures. Its smoking-tiger logo adapts a familiar image from Korean folk painting by replacing the traditional pipe with a cigar, creating a visual link between heritage and modernity. Kaya has presented its work as a collective effort by writers, artists, readers, and book enthusiasts who want to publish literature that is demanding, provocative, and formally inventive. The press has participated in events including the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Literature Festival and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Its publishing and author community has received or been associated with honors such as the Gregory Kolovakas Prize for Outstanding New Literary Press, the American Book Award, the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, the PEN Beyond Margins Open Book Prize, the Asian American Writers' Workshop Award, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Prize, and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award. The editorial leadership identified in public reference material includes Sunyoung Lee and Neelanjana Banerjee. A board of directors includes Jean Ho, Huy Hong, Adria Imada, Juliana S. Koo, Sunyoung Lee, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Chez Bryan Ong, and Patricia Wakida. The editorial committee includes Lisa Chen, Neelanjana Banerjee, Sunyoung Lee, Warren Liu, Gerald Maa, and Sesshu Foster. No reliable public information in the supplied material establishes revenue, sales, staff size, print runs, or current ownership beyond Kaya's USC affiliation.

• 2017

  Expansion of contemporary experimental writing

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Kaya publishes new work by Hari Alluri, Roddy Bogawa, and Anelise Chen, spanning poetry, film writing, memoir, and hybrid fiction.

• 2013

  Publication of The Hanging on Union Square

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Floyd Cheung's edited edition of H. T. Tsiang's overlooked experimental novel exemplifies Kaya's recovery mission.

• 2010

  Publication of Hyperart: Thomasson

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Kaya publishes Genpei Akasegawa's influential work on conceptual art and Japanese cultural observation.

• 2004

  Publication of Beat Takeshi vs Takeshi Kitano

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Casio Abe's film and popular-culture study expands the press's critical publishing program.

• 2001

  Publication of Bridgeable Shores

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Luis Cabalquinto's selected poems demonstrate Kaya's support for Filipino American and multilingual poetry.

• 1999

  Publication of where we once belonged

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Kaya publishes Sia Figiel's debut novel, an important Pacific Islander literary title that later receives a Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

• 1994

  Kaya Press is founded

  [1]Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Soo Kyung Kim establishes Kaya Press as an independent nonprofit publisher focused on Asian and Pacific Islander diasporic writing and art.

Independent nonprofit literary press focused on formally innovative, culturally challenging, and historically underrepresented writing and art connected to Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas.

• Fiction · 1994

  Literary fiction

  Kaya publishes contemporary and recovered fiction that often addresses migration, colonialism, memory, gender, and diasporic identity through unconventional narrative forms. Representative titles include Sia Figiel's where we once belonged and They Who Do Not Grieve, Brian Castro's Shanghai Dancing, and Anelise Chen's hybrid novel So Many Olympic Exertions.

• Poetry · 1994

  Poetry

  The poetry list includes contemporary diaspora poets as well as translations and recovered modernist work. Publications such as Luis Cabalquinto's Bridgeable Shores, Lisa Chen's Mouth, Hari Alluri's The Flayed City, and Nobuo Ayukawa's America and Other Poems reflect the press's interest in multilingual experience, formal experimentation, and Pacific Rim literary history.

• Criticism · 2004

  Film and cultural criticism

  Kaya publishes criticism and memoir concerning film, popular culture, and visual media. Casio Abe's Beat Takeshi vs Takeshi Kitano examines Japanese cinema and celebrity culture, while Roddy Bogawa's If Films Could Smell assembles interviews and writings from the filmmaker's career.

• Art and performance · 1994

  Art and performance writing

  The press's interdisciplinary list includes avant-garde art, conceptual art, theater, and performance-related books. Genpei Akasegawa's Hyperart: Thomasson and Sam Chanse's Lydia's Funeral Video illustrate Kaya's willingness to publish work that crosses between literary, theatrical, visual, and performative practices.

• Literary recovery and translation · 1994

  Recovered and translated works

  A central Kaya offering is the recovery, editing, and translation of significant but underrepresented writing from Asian American and Pacific Rim traditions. The list includes H. T. Tsiang's The Hanging on Union Square, modern Japanese poetry by Nobuo Ayukawa, and works by Japanese and Korean writers presented for English-language readers.

• Participation in Asian Pacific American literary festivals

  United States

  Kaya Press has participated in literary events including the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Literature Festival, using public programming to connect its authors and catalog with readers interested in Asian American and Pacific literature.

  Outcome. The supplied material confirms participation but does not provide attendance, campaign spending, or measurable commercial results.

  Source
• Los Angeles Times Festival of Books participation

  United States

  The press has taken part in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, maintaining a public presence in its home region and presenting its specialized literary program to a broad book audience.

  Outcome. Participation is documented, but no specific sales or audience outcome is available in the supplied sources.

  Source

• 1994

  Adopt a diasporic and Pacific Rim publishing missionStrategy

  Background

  Kaya was created to publish challenging work by writers and artists connected to Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas, alongside overlooked literature from the Pacific Rim.

  Action taken

  The press established a nonprofit, culturally focused editorial model spanning fiction, poetry, criticism, art, performance, translation, and literary recovery.

  Aftermath

  This mission continues to define Kaya's catalog and distinguishes it from general-interest commercial publishers.

  Source

• Combine contemporary publishing with literary recoveryStrategy

  Background

  Many important Asian American and Pacific Rim texts have been difficult to access in English or have received limited attention from mainstream publishing.

  Action taken

  Kaya developed a list that places new writing beside translations, critical editions, and rediscovered works such as The Hanging on Union Square.

  Aftermath

  The approach has produced a catalog linking archival scholarship with contemporary literary and cultural production.

  Source

1. 1Kaya Pressen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Kaya Press official websitekaya.com