A farewell to CIAO magazine
Sharing my editor letter for the final edition
I’m sharing the final editor letter of CIAO magazine that was published June of this year. In order to focus on my health and publishing two books in the coming year, issue no. 3 is the final issue. It will only be available until September 1st before becoming permanently archived.
I have always straddled the line between two worlds; one of culture and one of language. My mother immigrated from Thailand in the 70s as a teenager and her story of navigating a new country is the genesis of my own story.
It isn’t surprising then, that for most of my life I’ve had a preoccupation with the notion I must choose between two things to fit into my environment. I must choose between being an American or an Asian-American. I can be a writer or I can be a photographer, but never both at the same time. Society has always had buckets to fill and I’ve stood at the perilous edge of each world, afraid to fall into the wrong one. Afraid, essentially, that choosing one meant to relinquish the other part of me.
As I have spoken about in great length before, CIAO was born of a realization and freedom that I didn't have to choose anymore. I finally embraced a belief I am capable of both. I have embraced a philosophy that I can allow myself to present both to the world. I am a woman who writes. I am a woman capturing the world with her camera. I am an American but my Asian heritage is also part of my identity. I often examine the truth that what we truly love has a way of coming up to the surface, no matter how much logic we try to use with ourselves. We can talk ourselves out of something, but it’s never for long when the matter at stake is a dream which can’t be reasoned with. We all want to know: what’s waiting for us when we pursue our dreams, move to a different country, launch that business, write that book? Life is the journey to the answer.
Issue no. 3 (the final issue) is filled with the stories of women who offer storytelling in its best form; Francesca Pittaluga of Ciao Pappy, discusses her Italian heritage and business (page 12), Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of The Sky, shares her experience of taking a chance on herself as a writer (page 17), the exclusive prologue of Starling Darling, my forthcoming debut romantic suspense (page 31), our Summer Artist in Residence, film director Ale Vidal, shares her artistic process (page 51), and more. If there’s anything I’ve learned from living in various parts of the world, it’s that place is as much a main character as a person in a story. Where we are impacts who we become. Who are we when we begin to strip all societal expectations away and carve the path of what we want? We are the food we eat. We are the books we love to read. We are the places in which we inhabit. And what of the words which inhabit us? Well, we know that good stories are like boomerangs, being thrown out beyond the horizon, returning to us when we need them most.
Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the magazine, shared it with friends and family, and purchased a copy, thank you so much. You can get a print or digital copy of the final until September. Saying goodbye to the magazine only means that I am able to devote more energy and love into my books. Keep an eye out for the official August newsletter tomorrow.
Until next time,
Erica
Cover photo by Tobias Tullius