Mekong Review
Mekong Review is a quarterly English-language magazine of arts, literature, culture, politics, the environment and society in Asia, founded in Cambodia in 2015.[1][2] It publishes writing by people from the region or who know it well.[1]
History
The magazine launched at the Kampot Writers and Readers Festival in Cambodia in November 2015.[2][3] Its editor and publisher, Minh Bui Jones, a journalist who co-founded The Diplomat, funded it himself. The first issue was print only, in tabloid size, and set out to cover the six countries the Mekong River flows through, with features, reviews, poetry and prose rather than news.[3] It opened with a review of Niall Ferguson's biography of Henry Kissinger, The Idealist, and carried an extract from l'Anarchiste, a novella written in French in the 1970s by the Cambodian novelist Soth Polin, in the first English translation, by Penny Edwards. Bui Jones said he hoped Cambodians would read it and be inspired to write.[3]
The magazine grew into a quarterly in print and digital form, distributed in major cities in mainland Southeast Asia and Australia.[2] Its issues have covered Cambodian subjects such as the artist Pich Sopheap, profiled by Reaksmey Yean in Issue 6 before his invitation to the 2017 Venice Biennale.[2] Other pieces tagged Cambodia include "The Bangkok plot" by Luke Young in Issue 4 and "Khmer ways" by Jack Weatherford.[4][5]
Although named for the river of mainland Southeast Asia, the magazine now reaches across Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Asian diaspora communities around the world.[1] It publishes long-form reviews, essays, interviews, profiles, poetry and fiction. Bui Jones chose pieces from more than 250 for The Best of Mekong Review, and the magazine's reporting on the 2019 Hong Kong protests, from June 2019 to February 2020, was gathered in Hong Kong: Reports from the Protest.[6] It has also published flash fiction and a renga commissioned with RMIT's nonfiction/lab.[7]
The magazine calls itself independent, with no political, institutional or commercial ties, and says it lives on sales, subscriptions and donations.[2][1] Most of its content is for subscribers, with some free online, and it sends a weekly newsletter.[2][7]
Masthead (2026)
- Founding editor: Minh Bui Jones
- Managing editor: Kirsten Han
- Contributing editor: Pauline Fan
- Editor-at-large: Kevin Yam[1]
Access
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Mekong Review, About
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Asia-Europe Foundation culture360, Mekong Review
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Phnom Penh Post, Fresh literary magazine sets sights on Mekong states (November 7, 2015)
- ↑ Mekong Review, The Bangkok plot
- ↑ Mekong Review, Khmer ways
- ↑ Mekong Review, Books
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Mekong Review, home page