ABOUT​
 

​

​​​

Akae began with a concern that became difficult to ignore: racial representation in literature can influence what readers come to understand about people they know little about. When a community appears repeatedly through limited images, those images can become familiar long before readers encounter the lives behind them. Literary publishing therefore has a role in shaping racial understanding.

​

The journal was created to take that role seriously. We focus on race and racial representation because literature can give readers a sustained encounter with experiences that may be distant from their own. A carefully rendered life can complicate an assumption that has gone unquestioned. A writer can also speak from personal experience without being asked to turn that experience into a lesson about race.

​

This is the kind of literary space we are building through Akae. The journal gives racial representation sustained attention while keeping the quality and individuality of the writing at the center. We want the work to encourage readers to reconsider what they think they already know about race and about the people represented on the page.

​

Akae treats literature as a form of public engagement. Publishing the work is only the beginning; the larger purpose is to create opportunities for readers to encounter racial difference with greater understanding and less reliance on inherited assumptions.

​

​​

​

​

WHY AKAE​

​

​

The name Akae comes from 赤絵 (aka-e), a Japanese ceramic tradition known for red-painted decoration. The work calls for careful control of color and fine painted detail. Decoration is applied to porcelain after its first firing and fixed through another firing. That level of attention to craft is part of what we value in the name. The red of 赤 also connects the word to our longstanding love of fire.

​

​

​

​

OUR MISSION

​

​

​

Akae uses literature to deepen racial understanding and encourage more honest conversations about race. We seek work that can question what readers take for granted about race and bring greater attention to the individual lives behind racial categories. We believe literary publishing can contribute to racial equity when it gives people the opportunity to encounter perspectives that are too often misunderstood or reduced to stereotypes.

​

We do not publish work that promotes racial hatred, relies on racial stereotypes, or dehumanizes people because of race. We also reject work that promotes hatred or discrimination based on gender, sexuality, gender identity, or other aspects of a person's identity. We do not accept plagiarism or AI-generated work.

​

​