Better late than never. The Bittersweet Issue was published a month later than planned due to unforeseen circumstances that even our overachieving staff of volunteers couldn’t overcome.

This issue was definitely worth the wait — some of the great stories we have include:

• Ada Wong of The Biggest Loser is on the cover. Her run on the reality TV show revealed heart-wrenching details about her family history. We catch up with her in a profile and find out about her experience on the show and its aftermath.
• Not showering, eating only “hot” foods and barring visitors for a month are ways some new Asian American moms are holding on to sacred traditions. Our feature delves into how mothers of newborns are embracing post-birth traditions.
• We explore the landscape of race and college admissions, from the stereotyping of and secret criteria for Asian American applicants to changes in University of California eligibility rules that could lead to fewer Asian Americans in the country’s most prestigious public college system.
• Wooden chopsticks are ubiquitous at Asian restaurants everywhere. Billions of pairs are used and tossed out every year. That’s a lot of trees. The B.Y.O. Chopstix campaign is part of an environmental movement to stop this wasteful practice. We highlight the public outreach effort by the campaign.
• Our new photo essay feature, Exposure, premieres with portraits of five iconic Asian American activists: photographer Corky Lee, musicians Nobuko Miyamoto (who’s also featured in the chopsticks story) and Charlie Chin, civil rights crusader Yuri Kochiyama and author-journalist Helen Zia.
• Louie Chin’s illustrations have graced our Comic page three times now, including this issue. We like him so much, we’ve named him Hyphen’s regular Comic artist.

After this issue, Hyphen will be moving to a twice-a-year publication schedule (see Hyphen board chair Bernice Yeung’s announcement) while expanding our website offerings. Whatever the format, Hyphen is committed to producing the smartest and most visually interesting Asian American publication. Our next print edition is now scheduled for mid-November.

While you’re waiting for it, go to hyphenmagazine.com for news from around Asian America and many of the features you’ve enjoyed in print on a regular basis.

As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you online and back in print in November.