Robert Abel has published three novels and three collections of stories and numerous articles. His writing awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. In 1987, 1994 and 1997 he taught at universities in China. His most recent novel, Riding a Tiger, was published by Asia 2000 in Hong Kong. Visit his website for more details. (Photo by Qian Gu.)
Martin Alexander has been a featured writer at international literary festivals in Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2005 he was a featured poet at the Cairo and Guangzhou Festivals. The Kassia Women’s Choir performed his work “Survive the Night”, with music composed by Phil Tudor, in the Concert Hall of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in June 2005. Alexander’s collection of poetry, Clearing Ground, was published by Chameleon Press in March 2004. He won the RTHK/SCMP Short Story Competition in 1999 and has had poetry and short stories published in Dimsum, The OutLoud Anthology, Poetry Live! and Al Akhbar. Alexander is a prominant member of Poetry Outloud Hong Kong and the poetry editor of Asia Literary Review.
Bob Bradshaw is a programmer living in Redwood City, CA. He is a huge fan of the Rolling Stones. Recent work of his can be found at Eclectica, Hiss Quarterly, Apple Valley Review, Pen Himalaya, Umbrella Poetry Journal and Red River Review. Bradshaw will serve as the guest editor for the May 2009 issue of Cha. When he isn’t napping you can reach him at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
YZ Chin is a Malaysian writer. Her previous work has appeared in Collateral Damage, a fiction anthology, as well as east of the web, Falling Star Magazine, Hobble Creek Review and others. She is currently serving as an Assistant Managing Editor for Rhino Poetry Magazine.
Lee Herrick is the author of This Many Miles from Desire (WordTech Editions, 2007). He was born in Daejeon, Korea and adopted at ten months. His poems have been published in the Berkeley Poetry Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, and The Bloomsbury Review, among others, and in anthologies such as Seeds from a Silent Tree: An Anthology of Korean Adoptees and Hurricane Blues: Poems About Katrina and Rita. He is the founding editor of In the Grove and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Fresno City College and lives in Fresno, California. Visit his website for more details.
Louise Ho was born and bred in Hong Kong. She was an associate professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong where she lectured on creative writing, Shakespeare and English Poetry from the Renaissance to the Modernist Period. Not prolific, Ho has been writing English poetry for a very long time. Previous collections include Local Habitation and New Ends, Old Beginnings. Her Collected Poems is expected out in March 2009.
Kavita Jindal is a poet and fiction writer whose work has appeared in literary journals, newspapers and anthologies. Her poetry collection, Raincheck Renewed, was published by Chameleon Press in 2004 and received critical and popular acclaim. Kavita was born in India and since 1985 has divided her time between Hong Kong, England and India. Currently she is working on her first novel as well as a new collection of poetry. Some of her work can be read on her website.
Sushma Joshi is a writer and filmmaker from Nepal. Born and brought up in Kathmandu, she went to the USA at 19 to do her undergraduate studies at Brown University. End of the World, her short story collection, is to be published by Rupa for the Indian subcontinent. She has also co-edited New Nepal, New Voices, an anthology of short stories by 16 Nepali writers (Rupa, 2008). Her writings appear in Utne Reader, East of the Web, Cold River Review, Ms. Magazine, Mosaic, Buran, Samar Magazine and elsewhere. Her stories have been translated into Italian, Spanish and Vietnamese, and also appear in textbooks in the Phillipines and Australia.
Leon Lai studied at Central St. Martins College of Arts and Design (UK) for his MA after graduating from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In 2006, his MA project was selected by the British Council for the London Design Week, the Milan Furniture Fair and the Tokyo Design Week. The winner of The Royal Society of the Encouragement of Arts and the D&AD Student Award, Lai’s designs have also been published in international magazines including World of Interior (UK) and Casa (Japan). He is currently a columnist of Milk X Magazine (HK) and his focus is experimental photography and product design. Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Franky Lau is a Hong Kong-based photographer and photo journalist. Though born in Hong Kong, Lau finds Sichuan and Xinjiang the most beautiful regions of China. He is planning his sixth trip to Xinjiang in 2009. Recently, Lau puts more emphasis on local photography: Tai O’s village life, Stanley’s exotic mixture of East and West, Cheung Chau’s dramatic contrasts of present and past, and the bygone Star Ferry Pier, da pai dong, smelly tofu ... all attract his attention. He is determined to capture history and memories through images. While photography speaks for Lau, he also enjoys writing and hopes that one day he will publish a collection of photography and texts.
Mary Lee graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 2004. She then acquired a Master in Renaissance Studies in London. During the time there, she deciphered early modern manuscripts in the British Library and was proud to consider herself the only Hong Kong-Chinese in this century to have done that. Lee is also the author of 91a, a book on her 3 years in Lady Ho Tung Hall, HKU. She is currently working for a newfound literary prize and her xanga. Lee is a LOMO follower.
Anne Levesque lives in New Brunswick on the east coast of Canada. She is married and the mother of four sons.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim (b.1944) is one of Hong Kong’s most-published writers. Her first collection of poems, Crossing the Peninsula, published by Heinemann Press in 1980, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, a first both for an Asian and for a woman. Her memoir, Among the White Moon Faces, received the 1997 American Book Award. Lim is a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has also taught internationally at the National University of Singapore, the National Institute Education of Nanyang Technological University, and was the Chair Professor of English at the University of Hong Kong where she also taught poetry and creative writing. She is the author of two novels Joss and Gold (2002), Sister Swing (2006) and a novel for young adults, Princess Shawl (2008). A collection of poems Listening to the Singer was published by Maya Press in 2007.
Reid Mitchell is a New Orleanian who refuged one crucial year in Hong Kong (2005-2006) and has previously taught in New Orleans, Princeton, Berkeley and Budapest. Mitchell has had poems accepted for publication in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Macao, Mascara Poetry, Asia Literary Review and elsewhere. He has also published a novel A Man Under Authority (Turtle Point Press, 1997), a number of literary dialogues and academic works of history. Mitchell will serve as the guest editor for the November 2008 issue of Cha. Visit his writer’s profile for more details.
Alistair Noon has lived in Shanghai and Wuhan. Based in Berlin since the early nineties, he co-edits Bordercrossing Berlin, a magazine focusing on Anglophone writing from outside English-speaking countries, and coordinates the annual Poetry Hearings festival. His poems, reviews, and translations from German, Russian and Chinese are online at Litter, Shearsman, Cipher Journal, Softblow, Nth Position, Intercapillary Space and RealPoetik. (Photo by Stephen Mooney.)
Papa Osmubal writes from Macau. His works, visual and literary, appear in numerous places, online and hardcopy, most recently in Closer Macau, Smokebox, foam:e, Bulatlat, Mascara, and will appear in the first print issue of Literary Chaos.
Aya Padrón is a photographer and writer currently based in the Northeastern US. She fell in love with East Asia while living in Seoul for two years and longs to return soon. Her work has been featured in Matador Trips and Flak Photo. Visit her website for more details.
Nirmala Pillai is a graduate in Microbiology and postgraduate in English Literature from Mumbai University. She has also finished a postgraduate diploma in Journalism from R.P Institute of Communication Studies, Mumbai. Currently she works as a senior officer in the communications section. Pillai has published two collections of poetry and a number of short stories in various magazines in India such as PEN, Indian Literature, Eve’s Monthly, The Heritage magazine, The Telegraph, The Little Magazine, and more. Her short story had been short listed for the South Asian Award by The Little Magazine based in Delhi. Pillai is also a painter who has held painting exhibitions in Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai, Cochin.
Steven Schroeder grew up in the Texas Panhandle, where he first learned to take nothing seriously, and his poetry continues to be rooted in the experience of the Plains. His work has appeared in Dimsum, Macao Closer, New Texas, Poetry Macao, Rhino, Shichao, Sichuan Literature, Texas Review, and other literary journals. His most recent collection is The Imperfection of the Eye, published by Virtual Artists Collective in 2007. Six Stops South is forthcoming from Cherry Grove Collections. Schroeder teaches at the University of Chicago in the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults and at Shenzhen University. Visit his website for more details.
Gillian Sze was born and raised in Winnipeg. Her work has appeared in CV2, Prairie Fire, and Crannóg. She is the author of two chapbooks, This is the Colour I Love You Best (2007) and A Tender Invention (2008). Her collection of poetry, Fish Bones, will be published by DC Books in 2009. She completed her Master’s degree in Creative Writing and resides in Montreal, Canada.
Eddie Tay is author of two collections of poetry, Remnants and A Lover’s Soliloquy, and has been invited to various international festivals. He is from Singapore and is currently teaching poetry and children’s literature at the Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tay served as the guest editor for the May 2008 issue of Cha.
Alison Wong was born and grew up in New Zealand. She spent several years in China and now lives in Wellington. She was the 2002 Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University, and her collection, Cup, was shortlisted for the Best First Book for Poetry at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Her poetry was selected for Best New Zealand Poems in 2006 and 2007, and her first novel, As the Earth Turns Silver, will be published in 2009 by Penguin New Zealand and Picador Australia, UK and Asia.
Nicholas Y.B. Wong is a Teaching Fellow at the Department of English of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has just completed his MPhil thesis on the relationship between body parts, desire and fetishism in contemporary films and literary texts. Besides academic research, Wong is also interested in creative writing and has published poems and short stories both locally and internationally. Wong will serve as the guest editor for the August 2008 issue of Cha. Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Bryan Thao Worra, born in Laos in 1973, is the author of On The Other Side of the Eye, Touching Detonations and The Tuk-Tuk Diaries: My Dinner With Cluster Bombs. His writing appears internationally across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, including the anthologies Contemporary Voices From The East, Bamboo Among the Oaks, and Outsiders Within. Visit his blog for more details.
Ouyang Yu graduated from La Trobe University with a doctoral degree in Australian literature. He has published more than twenty-five books in Chinese and English in the fields of fiction, poetry, literary translation and literary criticism, and has won a number of major grants for fiction, non-fiction, poetry and translation. Yu’s best-known works in English are his poetry collections Moon Over Melbourne and Other Poems (1995), Songs of the Last Chinese Poet (1997), short-listed for the 1999 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, and Two Hearts, Two Tongues and Rain-Coloured Eyes (2002). His first novel, The Eastern Slope Chronicle, was published in 2002. This book won the Festival Award for Innovation in Writing at the 2004 Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, apart from being short-listed for the Community Relations Commission Award, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2003. The book is now put on the syllabus in the English Department, University of Sydney. Yu is the founding editor of Otherland, the first and only bilingual journal of Chinese-Australian writing. Visit his website for more details.