TEMPLE

LIT MAG

Colorful watercolor landscape featuring mountains, a river, a red Asian temple, a pine tree, and clouds.
A logo featuring a blue bird flying over a rising pink lotus flower with stylized black and white smoke or clouds above, and the text "TEMPLE HIT MAG" in the center, with an Asian aesthetic.

NEW ISSUE! GO TO OUR “READ” TAB TO TAKE A LOOK!

Work by Janice Kim @jksbartistry on Instagram

Temple Lit Mag serves as a platform for teenage Asian Americans to express their voices. In the present day, Asian American identities and experiences are often undermined, in turn devaluing their struggles and causing feelings of incompetence and suppression. Temple Lit Mag serves as a space to let all Asian Americans know that their struggles are valid. At Temple Lit Mag, we believe that being Asian American is an incredibly unique experience that deserves to be discussed and heard.

Applicants may share their stories through poetry, creative nonfiction, personal essays, and fiction.

A blue-toned painting of a mountainous landscape with layered peaks and text inscribed on the mountain ridges. Two horses stand on a cliff overlooking a body of water reflecting the scene.

Work by Janice Kim @jksbartistry on Instagram

WHY US?

Temple Lit Mag gives Asian American teen writers the unique experience to be published on a youth-founded literary magazine, giving way for a more defined personal voice with minimal pressure for perfection. Temple Lit Mag is one of few literary magazines that aim primarily to provide a safe platform for Asian Americans teens to explore themselves and freely discuss their racial identity. Temple Lit  Mag also offers personalized feedback from numerous nationally and internationally acclaimed student writers around the same age level.

Colorful chalk drawing of two hands manipulating a web of buzzing butterflies on a black background.
Assorted pearl and metal jewelry including a large pendant necklace, several long pearl necklaces, and earrings, placed on a white surface with a red and black cloth in the background.
A person with braided hair adorned with small fluffy white pom-poms, lying with their face partially buried in their arm, which is covered by a white cloth with colorful embroidered butterfly patterns.

Work by Nabeeha Naceer @nabeeha_n24 on Instagram

Work by Heidi Hager @heidi.xhager on Instagram

Work by Faith Choe @ivory041020 on Instagram

Painting of a young woman with dark hair in a red dress lying amidst various art supplies, including markers, paints, a coloring book, and a tumbler.

Work by Ameya Kohli @nomx2cake on Instagram

OUR MISSION

Our mission at Temple Lit Mag is to bring attention to the devaluation of internal struggles and pressures that many Asian Americans may have, along with the distinctive and unique beauty of the Asian American experience. We aim to allow Asian Americans a space to lift their identity-based burdens off of their shoulders through creating and sharing exceptional writing centered around the Asian American experience. We want to turn Temple Lit Mag not into just another literary magazine, but an artistic platform and safe community for Asian Americans teenagers to share their experiences.

A young girl wearing a pink dress and a white headband with colorful beads is being embraced from behind by an adult dressed in traditional clothing with intricate purple patterns. The scene is outdoors with trees in the background.
Two young girls, one with black hair and another with braided hair decorated with colorful beads, sitting on a girl's shoulders outdoors with a large tree and other children in the background.

Works by Anise Kim @photogr.anise on Instagram