Kaya Press Managing Editor Neelanjana Banerjee taught Asian American Publishing with Kaya Press this Spring Quarter in the Asian American Studies Department at UCLA. Students met with publishing professionals like (former Kaya Press interns) Sonali Chanchani and Emily Chen, worked as interns for Kaya Press themselves putting together teaching guides for Kaya publications First Contact and Register the Missing; and working on marketing plans for forthcoming books like Elaine Kim’s Primary Sources. For their midterm, students put together an Intervention in Corporate Publishing, actively educating their communities about the power of independent media, or “reorganizing” bookshelves at the UCLA bookstore.

Students also worked on a publishing project of their own, which they debuted at a final showcase in June 2026 on the UCLA campus: Off the Shelf — Asian American Voices in Publishing. Here are the digital zine projects from this year’s students, encompassing everything from culturally inspired recipes to investigations of MSG as a cultural villain to Iranian American voices and more.

Because My Kitchen Is Partitioned
Edited by Fatima Wajid

Crossing Waters: The Stories Traveled From Coast to Coast
Edited by Shannon She

Cultural Cookbook: A Labor of Love
Edited by Janine Peralta

For: All The Girls I’ve Loved And Hated
Edited by Leila Wu

Home Away From Home
Edited by Vee Aggarwal and Nico Franz

Memoria: The Right To Remember at UCLA
Edited by Kaitlyn Cui, Vivian Nguyen, and Chloe Serrano

Roots: An Asian American Magazine
Edited by Marcus Peng, Prianna Hong, and Parvati Khaushik

Swan Lake
Edited by Ashley Lin

Tahanan
Edited by Kayla Eichmiller

The Anar Analects
Edited by Lily McKenna and Aria Del Rosio Sabet

The Umami Project: MSG as a Historical Villain
Edited by Amelia Su

Vanishing Point
Edited by Madison Yang

Students Kaitllyn Cui and Parvati Khaushik shot and edited a short video from the event.