Dotun Akintoye is an associate editor in The Offing‘s essay department. He is a writer and journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is an editor at O Magazine and his work has appeared in such outlets as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Philadelphia City Paper, and Gawker Media.
What doors does The Offing open for you?
The same thing it provides for all our readers I hope — an encounter with unknown voices, a reminder that their are many worlds, and as a result, an expansion of ourselves.
Is there a piece you’ve worked on or found at The Offing that’s been especially meaningful to you?
Hon Lai Chu’s “I Just Want To See The Sea” is my favorite essay that we’ve published. The ideas are penetrating and she matches them to beautiful sentences. Just to choose one: “A cage is not just a system, not just a government, not just the might of law enforcement; it is everything, it is built of security guards, and family members, and strangers on the street, and ourselves too.” The whole piece is subtle in style and ambitious in intent, specific to a time and place but decidedly non-parochial — it was a blessing to work on it.
What would you like to see us do with the donations we receive during our fundraiser?
Pay our writers more than we are able to right now, they deserve it. Also I have a fantasy about a once a year print collection of our very best work.
