Hyphen's editors took a break from masterminding Issue 19 (due out in December) to celebrate the landing of Issue 18: The Action Issue [1] in mailboxes and fine newsstands around the country [2]. Our fantastic new director of photography, Andria Lo [3], documented the revelry, which included delicious pizza, many bottles of red wine, and crayons, all at Pauline's PIzza [4] in San Francisco's lovely Mission District. Enjoy a look at and some scuttlebutt about your stalwart Hyphen editors in some rare moments of unabashed joyousness (seriously, I never knew some of them had so many teeth).

The ever-alluring PIa Sarkar, Hyphen's features editor, is a veteran journalist who, like many of us, followed her passion for journalism only to see the industry go up in flames in the past few years. "I wish I had had a back-up passion," she said.

The ebullient Neela Banerjee (left), a long-time Hyphen editorial staffer who is now the books/ first person/ literature editor, and the delightful Art Director Erica Jones  -- both smart and cool-ass chicks.

Another something you may not know about the Hyphen editorial staff is that a significant portion are not from the typical Asian American capitols (San Francisco Bay Area, L.A., NYC). One other new addition to the editorial staff is Film Editor Sylvie Kim, who, like Neela, is from Ohio. They speculated that people from San Francisco are more outwardly friendly but less sincere and more flaky than people from the Midwest. Agree?

We toasted to the release of another great issue (on newsstands now). Please subscribe or pick up a copy!