Meet The Writers/Moderators
Abdullah Hussaini
Abdullah Hussaini is a writer and translator. He has written two novels and a collection of poems. His essays, poems, and short stories have been published in various newspapers and websites. He also owns a small publishing house that publishes literary books.
Aishah Zainal
Aishah Zainal is a novelist and a teacher from Ipoh, Perak. She graduated from IIUM with a Bachelor of English Language and Literature in 2019 and has been in the teaching field ever since while trying to write everyday. Her first novel, Hades, which was published in January 2023 was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2024 and was one of the nominees for the Popular Reader's Choice Award 2024.
Altimet
Syed Ahmad, or better known as Altimet, is a prominent Malaysian figure in the entertainment industry for over two decades, earning numerous awards and performing alongside world-renowned artists. In 2023, Altimet won the Lembah Jaya state seat, but remains passionate about music and creative arts. He set up the #LayanOriJanganCuri campaign to champion local artists' rights and support for Malaysia's creative future.
Antony Lee
Antony is the CEO of AIG Malaysia Insurance Bhd. Concurrently, he is also Regional Manager, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. He has more than 23 years insurance industry experience working in leadership roles across Asia Pacific. Antony currently serves as Chairman of the Asian Institute of Insurance (formerly known as Malaysian Insurance Institute) & American Malaysian Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and as Deputy Chairman of the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM). He is also a Director of the Ombudsman for Financial Services (OFS) and the Nicol David Organisation (NDO).
Bihzhu
With a dynamic range that defies genres, AIM-nominee Bihzhu is blessed with a rich, soulful voice that is hauntingly evocative one moment, and spiritedly rousing the next. This Penang-born nightingale’s genuine songcraft transcends pain and heartache to celebrate life, and love.
Whilst her enchanting brand of “heart music” charms its way to your emotional core, her signature harmonies and uplifting vibes have left audiences finger-snapping, foot-tapping, and dancing; whether at intimate acoustic concerts or at music festivals all over Malaysia, Australia, South Korea, China, Indonesia and India.
Ch'ng Kar Guan
Ch'ng Kar Guan is a media professional, publisher, and designer. He founded Heitu Design in 2014 and established the community publication ‘City Eye’ the same year. In 2019, launched Book Island Indie bookstore. He also served curator for the George Town Festival's ‘Isle to Isle’ and the Coffee Reading Festival. Organized significant community conceptual exhibitions, including ‘Eye on Jetties’, ‘Home at Noordin Street Ghaut Flat’ and ‘In a New Light: Memories & Aspirations for Sia Boey’.Kar Guan led publishing initiatives such as ‘Two Realms: Local Inspirations from Taiwanese and Malaysian Cultural Figures’ and ‘Ink Through The Century: Development of Malaysian Ink Painting and Its Protagonists’.
Chan Cheow Thia
Chan Cheow Thia is assistant professor in the Department of Chinese studies at the National University of Singapore. His research interests include modern Chinese-Sinophone literature, Southeast Asian studies, and diaspora studies. His monograph, Malaysian Crossings: Place and Language in the Worlding of Modern Chinese Literature, foregrounds the Southeast Asian locality as a significant laboratory for imaginative Chinese writing that fosters meaningful styles of covert globality in the literary margins. His articles have been published at disciplinary and regionally-focused venues such as Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, as well as PRISM: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature. He co-edited the special issue of PRISM on “The Worlds of Southeast Asian Chinese Literature.” As a literary translator and editor, his work has appeared in Renditions: A Chinese-English Translation Magazine.
Chen Lin Loong
Chen Lin Loong is from Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. Originally hails from Huizhou, Guangdong.
He is the editor-in-chief of Got One Publisher Sdn Bhd. In 2003, he co-founded Got One Publisher with friends, specializing in the publication of Malaysian Chinese literature, and has published nearly 200 literary works to date. He has received several awards, including the Malaysia Hua Zong Literary Award, the Hai-o Literary Award, the Taiwan China Times Literary Award, and the Religious Literature Award. In 2012, he was honoured with the Malaysia Outstanding Young Writer Award.
Claire Betita de Guzman
Claire Betita de Guzman is the author of six novels, including Hue City, by Penguin Random House SEA, which reached number two on The Straits Times Bestsellers List, and Sudden Superstar, a two-time bestseller at number eight. Her other books include Miss Makeover, Girl Meets World, and Budget is the New Black, published in the Philippines and Singapore. Her first novel, No Boyfriend Since Birth, was adapted into a TV series. She was an editor for women’s magazines including Cosmopolitan Philippines, Harper's Bazaar Singapore, and has led talks, panels, and workshops in literary events in Asia and Europe including Miradoux, France, Bali, Indonesia, and Tbilisi, Georgia. She has a collection of poetry, Dreaming of the Divine Downstairs, and is co-editor of Get Luckier, an anthology of Philippine-Singapore writings. Follow her on IG @clairebetita.
Clément Baloup
Clement Baloup was born in 1978, from a French mother and a Vietnamese father. He was raised in Europe, Polynesia and South America as his father was working in different places. After studying design in Marseilles, he joined the fine Arts school of Angouleme, known as the comic book capital, and then attended the fine art school of Hanoi, in Vietnam. After graduating he worked for television channels while preparing drafts of comics, inspired by his travel experience in Asia. His first graphic novel is about his journey in Hanoi, Un automne à Hanoi (2004). Since then, about 15 others graphic novel followed.
Dipika Mukherjee
Dipika Mukherjee is the author of eight books, most recently the collection of travel essays, WRITER’S POSTCARDS. She is the author of the novels SHAMBALA JUNCTION and ODE TO BROKEN THINGS, and the story collection, RULES OF DESIRE. Her award-winning fiction and poetry are translated into eight languages and she received an Esteemed Artist Award from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. She has been mentoring Southeast Asian writing for over two decades; in 2015, she founded the D.K Dutt Award for Literary Excellence and she has edited five anthologies of Malaysian stories. She teaches at the Graham School at University of Chicago, is core faculty at StoryStudio Chicago, and serves as the Literary Life Ambassador for the Chicago Poetry Center. She holds a PhD in English and has held faculty positions at universities in the US, China, Netherlands, Singapore, India, and Malaysia.
Eugene Quah
Eugene Quah is an author, independent researcher, and explorer specialising in the rich history of the Straits of Malacca, with a focus on Penang. His upcoming book is titled "An Illustrated Guide to the North Coast of Penang." As a regular contributor to Penang Monthly and Penang City Eye, he consistently uncovers compelling and often untold stories that connect the region's past to its present. Through meticulous archival research and engaging narrative non-fiction, he strives to bridge the gap between academic scholarship and local history. A sought-after heritage interpreter, he has been invited to conduct educational walks for both the Penang Heritage Trust and the Persatuan Pencinta Sejarah dan Warisan Pulau Pinang (Penang Hidden Gems). He is also a member of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Fahmi Mustaffa
Fahmi Mustaffa is a Penang-based multi-disciplinary artist—an author, editor, visual artist, translator, and designer. His debut novel, LAKNAT, launched in 2016, was a critically acclaimed bestseller. Following the literary traction of LAKNAT, he wrote three other novels: Suatu Hari Nanti Manusia Akan Melupakan Tuhan, AMSTERDAM, and MANUSIA. His literary translations include Hanna Alkaf’s best-selling debut, The Weight of Our Sky, Sun Tzu’s magnum opus, The Art of War, and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Celebrated in the local and international literary scene, he is recently working on his fifth novel and an exhibition that will interact with each other through written words and visual compositions.He is currently a literary editor for Selangorkini and manager for Areca Books.
Hafiz Hamzah
Hafiz Hamzah is the editor of Jurnal Svara. In 2012, he founded a small independent publishing house Obscura focusing on Malay contemporary writings. He has published two collections of poetry, Malakalis (2014) and Gertak Sanggul (2016), and two collections of essays, Bor (2018) and Kala Aksara Tak Lepas Di Mata, Kita Tak Seharusnya Gelisah (2021).
Hanna Alkaf
Hanna Alkaf is a critically acclaimed Malaysian author of books for kids and teens. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and is a Freeman Award winner and a Kirkus Prize finalist. She lives near Kuala Lumpur with her family.
Jeroen Olyslaegers
Jeroen Olyslaegers, born in 1967 in Mortsel, studied Germanic Philology at UFSIA and began working at the Louis Paul Boon Documentation Center in 1989. His debut novel, Navel, was published in 1994, followed by Il faut manger (1996) and Open gelijk een mond (1999). He later focused on theater, writing plays for the Royal Flemish Theatre and Het Toneelhuis, and collaborating with Jan Fabre. His work earned him the Edmond Hustinx Prize in 2014.Olyslaegers also authored a satirical series of novels exploring memory and identity, beginning with Wij (2009), followed by Winst (2012), and concluding with WIL (2016), which received multiple literary awards. He finished the series with Wildevrouw (2020), set in 16th-century Antwerp. In 2014, he was awarded the Ark Prize of the Free Word for his socially engaged writing that challenges mainstream views.
Jonathan Lim
Jonathan Lim is a a photojournalist from Penang, Malaysia. His work is a celebration of subtle stories, of in-between moments, everyday living and the often overlooked. Nature, culture and travel often intersect in these portraits of people, spaces and places. Jonathan established Trails & Tales Studio in 2015. Apart from working with people and brands close to his heart across Penang, Kuala Lumpur and the region, he wears the hat of Chief Storyteller at an award-winning garden where he has established and continue to nurture a garden community. Jonathan also works on long-term documentary projects, capturing life in the circus and more recently, the journey of a Malaysian NGO in bringing simple sustainable solutions to rural and underprivileged communities. When the time allows, he photographs and write for his own pleasure.In between the chaos, Jonathan also found time to establish and run a cyclist-friendly jungle café that overlooks the beautiful Straits of Malacca. His love for cycling and coffee has connected him with some of the nicest people, often inspiring him to spend more time in the great outdoors. Come by the island and you might just catch him cycling about, all smiles and dreaming up his next great Malaysian adventure.
Keith Hockton
Keith spent over 20 years in the investment banking world working for the likes of Citibank, Dresdner Bank and Bank of America, and retired as Director of Trading and Sales FOREX, Swiss Bank Corporation, Hong Kong, to pursue a role as an independent FOREX advisor.He wrote his first book in 2003, published by Harper Collins, and has since written numerous books on Penang and Malaysia after moving to Malaysia to live in 2010. Keith is co-founder of Entrepot Publishing Sdn Bhd, publishers of fine books, and runs a weekly history podcast called Rearview Mirror Chronicles. He is also a Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society Of Great Britain and Ireland (FRAS).
Kevin Chen
Based in Germany, Kevin Chen has published several novels, essays, and short story collections in Taiwan. He is the winner of several literature awards in Taiwan. His first international publication Ghost Town was reviewed by the New York Times, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Le Monde, the Chosun Ilbo, Mainichi Shimbun, Helsingin Sanomat, etc. Ghost Town was placed on the list of Best Books of World Literature 2022 by Library Journal and the longlist of PEN Translation Prize 2023. Ghost Town will be translated into at least 12 languages.
Lee Su Ann
Lee Su Ann started weaving stories since she was in high school, under the watchful eyes of her school’s clock tower. The clock tower of St George’s Girls’ School in Penang is the inspiration and setting for her second novel, A Stitch in Time, which is published by Penguin SEA.Su Ann published her first story when she was 16. After graduating with a MSc in Physiology and a Diploma in Comprehensive Writing, she has since then been a test-tube baby scientist, a medical writer and an events coordinator in her church. Her first novel, The Curse, won a literary prize in 2005 and was later used as a literature textbook in Malaysian schools. She was also a runner-up for the Calistro Prize in 2013 and a health journalism award in 2014.She is married to her bestie and partner-in-crime, and enjoys creating stories for her playful twins.
Liew Chin Tong
Liew Chin Tong is the Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry. He is currently the Member of Parliament for Iskandar Puteri, after being elected on 19 November 2022. He is also the State Assemblyperson for Perling, Johor. He was a Senator in Dewan Negara (17 July 2018 to 17 July 2021) and served as Deputy Defence Minister from 17 July 2018 to 24 February 2020.
Malachi Edwin Vethamani
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a Malaysian poet, writer, editor, critic, bibliographer and Emeritus Professor at University of Nottingham. His latest publication is a collection of short stories, Have I Got Something To Tell You (2024, Singapore, Penguin SEA). Three of his early stories were reworked as monologues and performed as ‘Love Matters’ by Playpen Performing Arts Trust in Mumbai in 2017 and 2018. He has five collections of poems. His latest poetry collections are ‘Rambutan Kisses’ and ‘Love and Loss’, 2022, Maya Press. Ismail S. Talib in ‘The Journal of Commonwealth Literature’ (2023) stated that in 2022 ‘the most prominent figure in Malaysian poetry was Malachi Edwin Vethamani, who is, without doubt, one of the leading English-language poets in Malaysia’. The Malaysian Publishers Association awarded his edited volume ‘Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems’ the Anugerah Buku Malaysia 2020, best book award for the English Language category. He is Founding Editor of Men Matters Online Journal.
Marco Ferrarese
Marco Ferrarese lives in Penang since 2009, from where he covers Malaysia, India, China and the larger Southeast Asian region for a number of international guidebooks and publications that include Lonely Planet, the Rough Guides, Fodor's Travel, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post, the Guardian and BBC Travel. His debut novel Nazi Goreng, a quirky subcultural thriller set in Penang, was published by Monsoon Books in 2013 and banned by Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs in 2016. Marco and his Malaysian photographer wife Kit Yeng still call Penang home, even though they are on the road reporting from elsewhere most of the time. Indeed, since 2016 Marco co-authored more than ten guidebooks to countries as diverse as Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, India, China, Thailand, Peru and Korea — some soon to be published by Lonely Planet. A collection of his travel writing, "The Travels of Marco Yolo," was published in 2016. Know more about him and his books at www.marcoferrarese.com
Martin Vengadesan
Martin Vengadesan is a Malaysian writer, musician and associate editor at news portal Malaysiakini. He has written three books including those in the true crime and science fiction genres.As a musician, he has recorded five albums.
Mike Gibby
Mike Gibby is a retired educator who has lived the majority of his life in South East Asia, and in Penang for 13 years. While a scientist by training, his present research interests are primarily in the history of Penang, and of Malaysia more generally. He is the author of several books on the history of Penang, including 'Penang Hill, A Journey through Time'; 'The Bungalows of Penang Hill'; 'Jerejak, Penang's Untold Story'; and 'Penang Confidential'.
Myle Yan Tay
Myle Yan Tay is a writer of plays and prose. His debut novel, "catskull," was published by Ethos Books and won "Book of the Year" and "Best Literary Work" at the Singapore Book Publishing Awards. His play, "Brown Boys Don't Tell Jokes," was staged by Checkpoint Theatre and was nominated for 4 Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards, including "Best Production" and "Best Script." His shorter works have appeared in The Hong Kong Review, The Bangalore Review, and Jom Media.
Nik Fahmee
Nik M. Fahmee is an art collector, who collects and writes. His passion in collecting Malaysian arts began about twenty years ago and has evolved into narrative storytelling. He began writing to document his collection and to capture the journey of collecting his art, including his life stories growing up in Penang, raising his family and with art at home. Nik has written three books on art and stories -Ginger biscuits in 2022, Butterflies in my stomach (2023) and most recently Walking back home this year (2024).He is also a social entrepreneur, a communication and community development and governance strategist, and have worked in various industries. He was a valedictorian at university and a recipient of the National Gold Medal for his contributions and achievements. Nik lives in Shah Alam with his wife, four children and fourteen cats. He tries to swim and run on the weekend.
Ong Chin Huat
Ong Chin Huat is a bestselling author, stylist and TV Host. A law graduate of the London School of Economics, he was called to the Bar in both the United Kingdom and Malaysia and studied History of Art at the British Institute of Florence in Italy. As the former Social Editor of Tatler Hong Kong and a columnist in the South China Morning Post, he had interviewed movie stars, politicians, business tycoons and world-class athletes. He contributes to The Star, Life Inspired and Luxurious Magazine and his work has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Conde Nast Traveller among others. He hosted a TV Show called ‘Hong Kong High Life’ on ATV Hong Kong and the talk show ‘Driven’ on TheStarTV.com. He has been a judge for the Miss Asia Pageant in Hong Kong, Miss Charm de Chine in Shanghai and Mrs. International Global World Grand Final in Kuala Lumpur. He was voted as one of Hong Kong’s Best Dressed Personalities by the Hong Kong Fashion Designer’s Association.
Ooi Kee Beng
Dato' Dr Ooi Kee Beng is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. Born and bred in Penang, he lived much of his life in Sweden. He was the Deputy Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, now ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute where he remains a Senior Visiting Fellow. He is a long-term regular columnist for The Edge Malaysia, and founder-editor of Penang Monthly, ISEAS Perspective, ISSUES Policy Brief, and South Wing Papers. His latest books are Signals in the Noise (Faction Press, 2023), and The Reluctant Nation (Gerakbudya 2024), which are the ninth and tenth compilation of his published opinion pieces, as well as the Chinese version of his award-winning biography The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (ISEAS 2007). His two-dozen publications include the much-acclaimed The Eurasian Core: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World (ISEAS 2015), In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual History of Goh Keng Swee (ISEAS 2010), As Empires Fell: The Life and Times of Lee Hau-Shik, the First Finance Minister of Malaya (ISEAS 2022), and Lim Kit Siang, Defying the Odds (Marshall Cavendish, 2015), Yusof Ishak, A Man of Many Firsts (ISEAS 2017, and St Xavier’s Institution, A Documented History (Penang Institute 2022).
Pan Yi Chieh
Pan Yi Chieh is a research analyst at Penang Institute, where her writing appears in publications like Penang Monthly and various journal articles. As the host of "A Cup of Tea," a Mandarin podcast for Penang Institute, she and her team explore the rich tapestry of local stories and the vibrant lives within the community. No matter where she lives or travels, she cherishes the bookstores she finds, seeing them as warm beacons of light that offer a comforting sense of home and a deep connection to city life.
Qurratul 'Ain
Qurratul 'Ain is a Malaysian editor and writer. She is the author of a collection of prose, Dua Rahsia Berjabat (2020). Qurratul ‘Ain’s first poetry book, Momen (2020) was a finalist in the Kata-Pilar 2.0 Poetry Competition. She received a Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka's Hadiah Sastera Perdana Malaysia in the poetry category (2019/2020) and Selangor Literary Prize (2021).
Raja Zhafir
Raja Zhafir is 31 years old with a Masters in Counselling. He has been writing and performing poetry since 2016. Since then he has performed all over Malaysia, and has spread the word overseas in the U.K., Thailand, and Singapore.
Razha Rashid
Razha Rashid is a retired Naval Captain of the Royal Malaysian Navy Volunteer Reserve and previously a lecturer at Universiti Sains Malaysia. His field of interest includes ethnology (ethnic atlas) of Nusantara, political anthropology specifically on identity, ethnic boundary and historiography within folklore and narratives. He has published several articles and books related to these field.
Regina Ibrahim
Regina Ibrahim is a transwoman author. Focusing her fiction mostly on Sexual Orientation Gender Identity and Expression. 8 novels under her belt and some published shorts and articles. She was a former government teacher and stage performer, pursuing literary world only at 50. Currently training young writers through online portal. All of her works are in Bahasa Malaysia. She considers herself as a Holistic Artiste.
Rexy Prakash Chacko
Rexy Prakash Chacko is an electronic engineer by profession and a nature lover by passion. Born and bred in Penang, he loves the natural wonders of the Pearl of The Orient, and is especially passionate about its hills. He started hiking when he was 12, spending his Saturdays exploring the hills and savoring nature’s delights. He has authored (and co-authored) 4 books on nature-related topics including two which were specifically on hiking and maintains a hiking column in the Penang Monthly called Peaks and Parks. Previously, he has been a part of river awareness campaigns focused on Sungai Ara and Sungai Kelian, and more recently, in researching the orchid diversity of the Penang Hill Biosphere Reserve. As much as he loves to explore the natures delights, Rexy is a foodie too, always on the lookout for new restaurants and new gastronomic delights to savour.
Rob Waters
Rob Waters is the 2023 Australian Poetry Slam Champion. He has over 20 years of experience writing, performing and teaching Story. Rob empowers people in communities to use oral storytelling and poetry to share their ideas with the world.
Saras Manickam
Saras Manickam has been recognised as a significant women writer by PEN Malaysia. Her collection of stories, ‘My Mother Pattu’, published by Penguin Random House SEA, was chosen as Book of the Month by The Asian Review in October 2023, and spotlighted in the Aesop Women’s Library, 2024.
The titular story won the regional prize for Asia in the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. It was included in ‘The Art and Craft of Asian Stories’, published by Bloomsbury, and in ‘The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020'.
Saras Manickam worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer, and at several other jobs while writing her stories. Her various work experiences enabled insights into characters, and life experiences, shaping the authenticity which mark her stories. Her stories have won prizes and have been published in anthologies.
She lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sharaad Kuttan
Sharaad Kuttan is an anchor with BFM89.9 Radio's evening drive time show. He has worked in print and broadcast for several decades, and from 2018 to 2022 hosted talk shows on Astro AWANI TV. He was co-director of GTLF in 2019 and 2020. He has a postgraduate degree in Sociology from the National University of Singapore. He is a member of the Singapore branch of the International Association of Art Critics. In 2006 he was awarded the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual fellowship. He co-edited a collection of essays titled "Looking at Culture" and contributed a chapter to “Elections and Democracy in Malaysia”, a scholarly study of the Malaysian electoral system published in 2005 (UKM Press).
Sharon Bakar
Sharon Bakar is a teacher-trainer by profession, she now teaches creative writing and publishes books. She has edited/co-edited eight collections of Malaysian writings, including the Readings from Readings series (the latest of which is Everything About Us) which has grown out of the monthly literary event she organises in Kuala Lumpur: Readings@Seksan. Her articles, reviews, and fiction have appeared in a number of Malaysian publications. She’s currently working on a memoir-in-flash.
Sheung-King
Sheung-King is an author and teacher. His debut novel, You are Eating an Orange. You are Naked (2020), is a finalist for the 2021 Governor General's Award, a finalist for the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for CBC’s Canada Reads 2021, named one of the best book debuts of 2020 by the Globe and Mail, and optioned for film adaption by Fluent Films, Montreal. Sheung-King is also named one of 30 Canadian writers to watch in 2022 by the CBC. Born in Vancouver, Sheung-King grew up in Hong Kong. His work examines “the interior lives of the transnational Asian diaspora” (Thea Lim, The Nation). Sheung-King taught creative writing at the University of Guelph and Sheridan College. His second novel, BATSHIT SEVEN, is published by Penguin Random House Canada in 2024.
Shih-Li Kow
Shih-Li Kow is the author of two short story collections and a novel. Ripples and Other Stories was shortlisted for the 2009 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her novel, The Sum of Our Follies, is about life in an imaginary small town in Perak. The French edition won the 2018 Prix du Premier Roman Etranger (prize for the first foreign novel). Her second collection of short stories, Bone Weight and Other Stories, was published in 2023 and includes the story, Relative Distance, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She lives in Kuala Lumpur.
Show Ying Xin
Show Ying Xin is a Lecturer in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University and Deputy Director of the ANU Malaysia Institute. Her works explore the history and culture of migration, decolonization and the impact of the Cold War on Asian societies through literature and arts. She co-edited (with Ngoi Guat Peng) Revisiting Malaya: Uncovering Historical and Political Thoughts in Nusantara (2020) and authored the Chinese translation of Alfian Sa'at's short story collection Malay Sketches (2020;2022). She currently holds an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) and is visiting the National Library of Singapore as Digital Fellow.
Simon Tay
Simon Tay is a public intellectual and advisor to major corporations and policy-makers. He is currently Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a globally ranked think tank; Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law; Senior Consultant with WongPartnership, a leading regional law firm; Ambassador for Singapore; and Board Member to Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport. Director at Certis CISCO Security Pte Ltd. Previously he has taught at Harvard Law School and Yale University, served on boards for leading global companies including MUFG Bank of Japan, Toyota Japan, and Deutsche Boerse (Asia), and been Corporate Advisor to Temasek Holdings. He has also served Singapore as Chairman of the National Environment Agency and Nominated Member of Parliament.
T. A. Morton
T. A. Morton is a Singapore-based Irish/Australian writer. She previously worked as an editor for Longman Pearson in Hong Kong. Her short stories have been published in the Lakeview International Journal of Arts and Literature and in The Best Asian Short Stories 2019. In 2020, she was shortlisted for both the Virginia Prize for Fiction and the Bridport Prize. T.A. Morton holds a master’s degree in Crime and Thriller Writing from Cambridge University. In August 2022, her novel Someone is Coming was published by Monsoon Books and has since been optioned for television. She has taught crime writing at the Singapore Book Council Academy and 1880 in Singapore. Her forthcoming novel, Hong Kong Masquerade, is set to be published early 2025 by Earnshaw Books.
Tan Twan Eng
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, Malaysia. His debut novel The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. The Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and the 2013 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The House of Doors is his third novel. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023 and shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2024. It was also selected by Her Majesty Queen Camilla for The Queen’s Reading Room Book Club. Tan was one of the judges for the International Booker Prize 2023.
Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail
Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail was born in Johor Baru and educated at St John’s KL, Royal Military College, and Geelong Grammar School. He continued to study History and Politics at University of New England, Australia, as well as Economics and Jurisprudence at University of Oxford. He worked in Malaysian International Merchant Bankers, and was the Chairman of Task Force to establish Malaysia’s first commercial TV station, TV3. He was a Member of Parliament Sungei Benut, Johor. In collaboration with Dr Ooi Kee Beng, he edited two books on Tun Dr Ismail, and with Prof Rajah Rasiah, a book on Tun Razak. He stood in the last General Elections as an Independent against UMNO President in Bagan Datoh, Perak. He is the Founder and a member of the Board of Governors of IGB International School Kuala Lumpur.
Most recently, Tawfik was conferred the National Unity Icon Leadership Award on April 29 2024 by the Minister of National Unity Malaysia.
Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Tim Mackintosh-Smith is an award-winning historian, Arabist and translator, who has lived in the Arab world for more than forty years. His most recent books are Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires (2019) and, as translator, ʿAbd al- Laṭīf al-Baghdādī’s A Physician on the Nile (2021).
Yeoh Jo Ann
Yeoh Jo-Ann grew up in Malaysia and lives in Singapore. She grew up wanting to be a cat or a rock star, but instead spent most of her adult life working in publishing and digital marketing. Her first novel, Impractical Uses of Cake, won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in Singapore in 2018 and has been translated into German (Kroner, 2022). Her short stories have been included in Singaporean anthologies such as Best Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Three, and in 2020, her short story Dog Tiger Horse won the Boston Review’s annual Aura Estrada Short Story Contest. Her second novel, Deplorable Conversations with Cats and Other Distractions (Penguin, 2024), is currently out in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Jo-Ann is working on her third novel and hopes to complete it before she turns into some sort of cabbage.