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Hyphen is an American print and online magazine, founded in 2002 by a group of San Francisco Bay Area journalists, activists, and artists including Melissa Hung, a former reporter for the Houston Press and East Bay Express; Claire Light, former executive director at Kearny Street Workshop; Yuki Tessitore, of Mother Jones; Mia Nakano, photojournalist, filmmaker Jennifer Huang, and Stefanie Liang, a graphic designer from Red Herring magazine. Its advisory board includes notable Asian American journalists such as Helen Zia and Nguyen Qui Duc, the host of Pacific Time. The first issue was released in June 2003. Hyphen is one of several Asian American media ventures created in the wake of A Magazine's demise.
Shortly after its release, the publication was sharply criticized by AsianWeek columnist Emil Guillermo who theorized that Hyphen's young editors were arrogant, ashamed of their Asian heritage, and disrespectful of existing ethnic media in his weekly column. He later said that he had not actually read the magazine.
The magazine's first issue contained a story package on the history of Asian American community activism. Its content is decidedly to the left, feminist, and non-mainstream. Its coverage includes politics, arts, and pop culture.
In 2004, the magazine was nominated for an Utne Independent Press Award for Best New Title. In January 2006, Hyphen's Body Issue won the Independent Press Association's Best Cover award for an image of an Asian American man, Yusuke Miyashita, partially submerged in a bathtub full of edamame. Mr. Hyphen, a pageant created by the magazine to showcase more positive images of Asian American men, debuted in May 2006. In the fall of 2007, the magazine received its second nomination for an Utne Independent Press Award, this time for Best Design.
Started in 2007, Hyphen Magazine partnered with The Asian American Writers' Workshop to start a short story contest called the Hyphen Asian American Short Story Contest, the only national, pan-Asian American writing competition of its kind Previous winners include Preeta Samarasan, Sunil Yapa, Shivani Manghnani, and Timothy Tau. Previous judges include Porochista Khakpour, Yiyun Li, Alexander Chee, Jaed Coffin, Brian Leung, Monique Truong and Monica Ferrell.
On May 5, 2010, Hyphen and the Asian American Action Fund announced a cross-posting partnership.