Essay Series: Always Translating

We are commissioning a collection of real, textured anecdotes and personal essays from queer individuals born in the East — spanning from Beirut to Tashkent, Manila to Warsaw — who now find themselves living, working, or oscillating somewhere in the West.

This series is not about sweeping narratives or identity checklists, but rather intimate moments, sharp contrasts, and the quiet — or not-so-quiet — negotiations of self that happen when your life is lived between geographies, cultures, and codes.

We are interested in the layered experiences of queer migration and cultural displacement:

How does language shape the way you relate to your own desire?

What do you lose in translation — and what do you gain?

When does "belonging" feel real, and when does it feel like performance?

Whether it’s the untranslatable gesture of queerness in your mother tongue, the confusion of Western labels applied to your body, or the quiet realization that you no longer dream in the language you were born into — we’re looking for stories that feel lived-in, contradictory, specific.

Ultimately, this is about the emotional labor of always translating.

Submissions can range from 1000–3000 words?

For Issue [6], we are bringing back our "Dear Diary" series and inviting individuals to submit their reflections and reactions to the following prompt:

What if difference is what keeps us close?

Submissions should be written in first person, and 500 words or less.

We are seeking personal, intimate, and specific stories, written in the style of a journal or diary entry.

Submissions for Dear Diary will be published anonymously.

Email us: pitchtaxmag@gmail.com

See full terms here.

Issue [6] deadline:

August 21st, 2025 at Midnight PST.

No!

TAX strives to provide small compensation for work. We'll reach out if we'd like to move forward with including your work!