Rabbit Roar is an Asian Women Empowered Micro Press. We publish small batches of chapbooks, zines, comics and novels. We honor: reparations, restorative justice, indigenous sovereignty, keep it in the ground, composting, water is life and love is love. No human is illegal. We bring the lessons of our ancestors and the promise of our descendants through. The hope is to heal from trauma in this generation, so that we do not pass it on to the next.
Rabbit Roar began as a mother/daughter collaboration in 2013, when Miriam Ching Yoon Louie completed the manuscript for her first novel, Not Contagious, Only Cancer. It was just before Nguyen Louie gave birth to her son, Lazlo. Nguyen remembers reading the manuscript and laughing out loud with her swollen belly. Miriam continued to write and refine her characters and their stories, as well as generate poems. Nguyen tried to get a handle on the challenges of being a new mom and drew pictures on the side. They worked on the book together, when Nguyen was pregnant with her daughter, Siena. Miriam providing Grandma caregiver support, building the business and producing the book. Nguyen creating the cover art and chapter inserts. Rabbit Roar published Not Contagious, Only Cancer in 2016.
Miriam is the Tiger and Nguyen is the Rabbit. They both Roar! Miriam is an organizer, activist, writer. She has always been the one out front with her bullhorn or puk, leading chants to dismantle racism, imperialism, and sexism – all forms and permutations of oppression. Nguyen can belt out the chants from her diaphragm. Call and Response. Nguyen is a visual artist, illustrator. The canvas is where she gathers all the lessons learned from her Tiger parents (Miriam and Belvin), critically engages the world, and heals from the trauma of war, displacement, repression and heartache.
Being a mother and daughter press means that the trajectory of output has been impacted by Life! In 2018, the Tiger was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. She decided to take a step back in 2020. Then Covid hit and the Rabbit focused on on keeping her children, Lazlo and Siena, alive. Miriam has been the driving force behind this collaboration. She wrote her novel and handled the business side of Rabbit Roar. Nguyen mainly focused on making art. Now it is time for Nguyen to pick up the mantel.
Motherhood as well as life’s travails and triumphs are equal parts the journey of Rabbit Roar. We can always be more: more loving, more diverse, more gender expansive, more kick ass. We can be gentle with this Earth. Sew more seeds. Provide water and sunshine. Clean the air. We can be free, liberate ourselves and live in peace.
Rabbit Roar is a place of Abundance, with a capital “A” as in Aaaaaaaaaaaah. Anything is possible, if we can draw it, imagine it, write about it, dream it. We have lived it. We heal through creativity: fiction writing, memoir, poetry, drawing and painting. So join us! Drink a cup of tea or a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Enjoy. Maybe your own story and art work will come forth. Rabbit Roar!