About
Us
Nighthawk Star is a bi-annual literary magazine that publishes on World Philosophies and Literatures. We seek to give voice to writing and art that engage with philosophical issues from perspectives otherwise marginalised by Anglo-European and Western-style academia.
We believe in the innate value and beauty of every voice: no matter how unconventional its perspective, style, and background, it is bound to shine in its own ways. We are committed to uplifting philosophy from around the world and embracing non-traditional forms of expression. For us, ‘World Philosophies’ represent the diverse intellectual traditions rendered homeless by well-established academic institutions and philosophies that keenly attend to the lived experience of the individual embedded in their historical, social, cultural, and political contexts.
Nighthawk Star, therefore, is our griefs and hopes transcended, sublimated, and crystallized, a refuge for the blackbirds scorned for their voice and struggling to find a home.
– Yuyi, Simran & Denise
Co-founders
✦ MISSION ✦
Our mission is to support philosophically-minded writers, thinkers, and artists who experience marginalisation due to their backgrounds and/or views. We hope to do so by building a platform for sincere literary engagement.
We invite you to submit works that reflect on the deeper questions of life, whether they be about the depths of existence, human nature, morality, divinity, beauty, or even the origins of them all — the universe. We welcome: fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, philosophical essays; as well as visual art, including drawings, paintings, photographs, and all other physical or digital mediums.
✦ BEHIND OUR NAME ✦
Our magazine takes inspiration from Miyazawa Kenji’s short story よだかの星 (yodaka-no-hoshi), translated as: Nighthawk Star. This is a tale about a kind-hearted creature who — dismissed, alienated, and cast aside — eventually becomes a constellation in the night sky. The eponymy of our magazine thus speaks to determination in the face of ostracisation; the persistence that allows even the most non-assuming to find a place among the stars.
✦ MASTHEAD ✦
✦ Yuyi He
(何昱仪)
Co-founder • Editor-in-Chief • Fiction Editor • Production Manager
Yuyi He is studying Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Edinburgh and writing her dissertation on the Yogācāra philosophy of mind. She grew up in a small town in the south of China and moved with her family to Canada when she was twelve. Creative writing and philosophy became her salvation through her darkest hours, as she groped in an unfamiliar cultural environment, learning English from scratch. She believes that philosophy is not an end in itself but a way of thinking, doing, and most importantly — living. As such, it must not be done in a vacuum but always with a heightened sensitivity to emotions and context, be it the self who is contemplating or the wider cultural and natural worlds in which it is embedded. Instead of a monolithic philosophy, Yuyi believes in remaining open to the potentialities and intersections between all kinds of knowledge. She is committed to building a safe space for unorthodox voices through Nighthawk Star. She is also the primary nonfiction editor of Spellbinder.
Favourite Book: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Favourite Song: Frozen Forest by Rayons
✦ Simran Kaur Johal
(ਸਿਮਰਨ ਕੌਰ ਜੋਹਲ)
Co-founder • Poetry Editor • Music Curator • Treasurer
Simran Kaur Johal is currently studying Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. She’s a Punjabi Sikh who grew up in East London. Her writing has been a constant from her noisy home to the noisy places she ends up in. Since she learned how to write, she basically never stopped. Now, she has publications appearing in online and print literary magazines, with a recent publication appearing in The Hajar Book of Rage. She is also President of PublishED which is the University of Edinburgh’s publishing society, where they produce a literary magazine called The Inkwell. Philosophy for Simran is a beautiful way of expressing minds and knowing other minds. For her, the texture of philosophy is produced beyond the page; it has to be felt in a lived moment for it to really be philosophy, it has to reach all kinds of people for it to really matter. She is particularly interested in music’s ability to stretch a philosophical thought, to host the buzz that we feel when we search for meaning in a conversation, a long walk home or a late night film.
Favourite Book: The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Favourite Song: Cannock Chase by Labi Siffre
✦ Denise Ee Ting Ho
(夏依廷)
Co-founder • Philosophy Editor • Art Curator • Web Developer
Denise Ee Ting Ho is a Philosophy PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh specialising in 20th-century East Asian and European Continental philosophy. A voracious reader and practising visual artist; from a young age, Denise has always been drawn towards the abstract and elusive worlds beyond their own. For them, there is a synonymity to philosophy and literature: means of explaining the unsayable and understanding the unreachable. They are spaces for the exploration and establishment of worlds — to practice living itself — such that each ‘end’ thus reveals a completely different meaning. At present, Denise’s research is primarily concerned with the leitmotifs of loneliness and decadence within the literature of the Buraiha (無頼派). Though, beyond this, they are also engaged with the theoretical inquiries of phenomenology, existentialism, aesthetics, and language; and, have an applied interest in discussions of queerness, decolonisation, non-traditional narrative forms and transformative media.
Favourite Book: The Iliad (specifically the classic E. V. Rieu. translation)
Favourite Song: The Louvre by Lorde
✦ Lyla Brown
(薄遠桐)
Publicity Officer
Lyla Brown is studying International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Lyla grew up in a mixed Chinese and English family in Hong Kong, where the seeds of an interest in decolonial thought were planted. Now, with Nighthawk, Lyla’s passion lies in creating a space where fiery ideas can be expressed and discussed freely, without prosecution. Art, particularly literature, is the point of connection between ideas and emotions, writers and readers: between thinkers. Lyla hopes to engage with other thinkers in overcoming the psychological, ideological, and material barriers of challenging the status quo through art.
Favourite Book: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Favourite Song: What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye
✦ Isabela Pérez
de Morales Monné
Creative Nonfiction Editor
Isabela Pérez de Morales Monné is a playwright, opera librettist, and philosopher currently focused on adapting traditional tales into opera format and translating literature from Spanish to English. Her work aims to rediscover the foundational archetypes of Latin American cultures, how they can be translated into modern language and to collaborate in the creation of the still developing mythology of these nations through the means of theatre, music, and writing.
Favourite Book: Paradiso by José Lezama Lima
Favourite Song: Ay, amor by Bola de Nieve
✦ Yuchang Yoyo Yang
(杨钰嫦)
Illustrator
Yuchang Yoyo Yang is currently studying Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Edinburgh. Yoyo came from Guangzhou and grew up in the UK from the age of 11. Yoyo’s main interest lies in Philosophy of mathematics, Logic, and Set Theory, but she always remembers to nurture her side passion for art. Some of the artistic creations she is involved in are logo design, illustrations, poster design and animations. Yoyo is also the President of MathSoc, the university’s mathematics society, for which she designed the logo. For Yoyo, mathematics is about communication and community; sharing different understandings and ideas with people is Yoyo’s favourite part when doing maths. Yoyo also believes that, similar to philosophy, mathematics stems from the human curiosity to understand and explain the world, a curiosity that comes from the love we have for the world around us.
Favourite Book: Real Analysis: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook by
Jay Cummings
Favourite Song: I Love You So by The Walters
Nighthawk Star 