Contributors / June 2013 (Issue 21)


Guest Editors
ImageJason Lee helped select the poetry. See his Cha profile.

ImageReid Mitchell helped select the prose. See his Cha profile.
                                                                                                                                                    

 
Aaron Chan
ImageAaron Chan is reading for an MPhil in English Literary Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a specialisation in children’s literature. He is currently working on a thesis about Disney’s filmic adaptation of children’s stories. He is also passionate about education and aspires to be a teacher of English language and literature in the future. He is secretly fantasising about potential research projects in the area of literature and pedagogy without having any concrete knowledge base at this moment. [Read]
 
Abigail Cheung
ImageOriginally from Vancouver, Canada, Abigail Cheung is a first year Yale-China English Teaching Fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She currently teaches courses in English and American Studies and volunteers with refugees in her spare time. Cheung graduated from Yale University in 2011 with degrees in Political Science and Ethnicity, Race and Migration. She is thrilled to be living and teaching in Hong Kong and honoured to be contributing to Cha. [Read]
 
Ae Hee Lee Kim
ImageAe Hee Lee Kim is a South Korean, who lived in Peru for fourteen years. She recently graduated from Calvin College with a major in English and minors in writing and ESL. Her poetry has been published in Calvin College's literary magazine Dialogue and appeared as an ekphrastic poem at the Calvin College’s Center Art Gallery. [Read]
 
Anu Elizabeth Roche
ImageAnu Elizabeth Roche is a Keralite, born and brought up in Dubai, and has been studying Literature in Bangalore, and then Chennai, for the past eight years – and therefore isn't sure she can answer the question 'Where are you from?' in a single sentence. She is currently residing in Mumbai. Two of her poems have been published in an anthology titled The Silken Web. Of late, she has begun taking an interest in spoken word poetry and tries to perform at least once or twice a month. [Read]
 
Aye Wollam
ImageBorn and raised in Burma, Aye Wollam currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, where she works as a genomicist. A scientist by training, and poet by passion, she devotes her free time to writing poetry and fiction. Her previous work appeared in Cha and The Spirit of Poe Anthology. Visit her website for more information. [Read]
 
Balvinder Banga
ImageBalvinder Banga read law at Cambridge University and now practises as a lawyer in London. Writing however is his first love and he has recently completed his first novel, The Death of Seva Singh, an extract of which will feature in Wasafiri. [Read]
 
Carolyn Lau
ImageCarolyn Lau is currently reading for an MPhil in English Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include modernism, the city and the psychology of modern man, the visual arts and pop culture. These are the people and things she likes in the year 2012 so far (in no particular order): Rainer Maria Rilke, avocadoes, sun-filled museums, Orson Welles, ekphrasis, Graham Greene, The Sunset Boulevard, Madame Bovaryand Toshiro Mifune. [Read]
 
Cathy Adams
ImageCathy Adams’s first novel, This Is What It Smells Like, was recently published by New Libri Press, Washington. Her short stories and essays have been published in Utne, The Philosophical Mother, Relief Journal, Ghoti Magazine, Heliotrope, and WNCWoman, among others. Her writing awards include the Mona Schreiber Award for Fiction, a National League of Pen Women’s Prize, and a National Public Radio News Director’s award. Her work has been aired on Georgia Peachstate and Isothermal Public Radio networks. A native of Alabama and former resident of Georgia and North Carolina, she now lives and writes in Xinzheng, China. [Read]
 
Cecilia Chan
ImageCecilia Chan was born and raised in Hong Kong. She has completed BA in English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her poems were included in Fifty-fifty: New Hong Kong Anthology (2008) and Not A Muse: A World Poetry Anthology (2009). [Read 1 2]
 
Chris Leung
ImageBased in Hong Kong, Chris Leung travelled a lot in some remote parts of Asia such as Iran, Laos, Tibet as well as Yemen, to capture the unseen scenery of these far-flung lands. He holds an MSc in New Media from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His first sole photo exhibition The World’s Colour was held in Seattle, US in June, 2012. [View]
 
Chris Tse
ImageChris Tse (@chrisjtse) was born and raised in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. His writing has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Cha. He is one of three poets featured in the collection AUP New Poets 4 (Auckland University Press, 2011). In addition to writing he is also an occasional actor, musician and filmmaker. [Read]
 
Craig Englund
ImageCraig Englund is a musician, jukebox salesman, short story author, travel writer and poet. His work has appeared in The Unrorean, Cypress Dome, Florida Review, and PULP Magazine. He holds a Masters degree in writing from Pacific University and once worked as a ‘ghost’ in a year round haunted house in Orlando, Florida. When he’s not annoying the Shanghainese security gaurds with his foul and mispronounced Mandarin he’s most likely at home wishing he could meet Tomas Transtromer, Elizabeth Bishop or Iron Man. He lives in an apartment high in the smog clouds of Shanghai, China. [Read]
 
Feroz Rather
ImageFeroz Rather is attending the MFA program at Fresno State. He is planning to visit Istanbul the coming summer, reread Lorca, and listen to Spanish guitar. [Read]
 
Goh Cheng Fai Zach
ImageGoh Cheng Fai Zach was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, where he lived all his life before moving to Penang to study English Language and Literature in Universiti Sains Malaysia, where he received his BA. He is currently an MPhil student at the School of English, The University of Hong Kong, where he spends his free time dabbling in creative writing for his private amusement. [Read]
 
Jenna Le
ImageJenna Le’s first book, Six Rivers (New York Quarterly Books, 2011), was a Small Press Distribution Poetry Bestseller. Her poems and translations have appeared in AGNI Online, Barrow Street, Bellevue Literary Review, Massachusetts Review, Post Road, 32 Poems, and elsewhere. She has been a Pharos Poetry Competition winner, a William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition finalist, a Minnetonka Review Editor’s Prize winner, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and a PEN Emerging Writers Award nominee. [Read] [Cha profile]
 
Joshua Ip
ImageJoshua Ip has the attention span of a poet and the love for poetry of a Singaporean. His first collection, sonnets from the singlish was published by Math Paper Press in 2012. He is currently working on censoring his second selection of erotic verse, tentatively titled making love with scrabble tiles. Visit his website for more information. [Read]
 
Lisa Alexander Baron
ImageLisa Alexander Baron is the author of  three collections of poetry. Most recently, Reading the Alphabet of  Trees (Finishing Line, 2007) and Sting and Tell: 31 Tanka (Black Cat Press, 2011). She is working on a new poetry collection prompted by visual art and archaeology. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Chautauqua Literary Review, Confrontation, THEMA, Paterson Literary Review, The Fourth River, Illuminations, Potomac Review, and others. Now retired from practicing law and teaching high school English, she is a recent MFA in Poetry graduate from Vermont College of  Fine Arts. She will teach at LaSalle University in Philadelphia this fall. [Read]
 
Lyn Lifshin
ImageLyn Lifshin’s Another Woman Who Looks Like Me was published by Black Sparrow at David Godine October, 2006.. (Also out in 2006 is her prize winning book about the famous, short lived beautiful race horse, Ruffian: The Licorice Daughter: My Year With Ruffian from Texas Review Press. Lifshin’s other recent books include Before it’s Light published winter 1999-2000 by Black Sparrow press, following their publication of Cold Comfort in 1997 and 92 Rapple from Coatism.: Lost in the Fog and Barbaro: Beyond Brokenesss and Light at the End, the Jesus Poems, Katrina, Ballet Madonnas.For other books, bio, photographs see her web site: www.lynlifshin.com Persephone was published by Red Hen and Texas Review published Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness. Most recent books: Ballroom, All the Poets (Mostly) Who Have Touched me, Living and Dead. All True, Especially the Lies. And just out, Knife Edge & Absinthe: The Tango Poems. In July 2013, NYQ books will publish A Girl Goes into The Woods. Also just out: For the Rosespoems after Joni Mitchell and Hitchcock Hotel from Danse Macabre. Forthcoming books include Secretariat: The Red Freak, The Miracle. AndTangled as the Alphabet-- The Istanbul Poems from NightBallet Press Just released, the dvd of Lyn Lifshin: Not Made of Glass [Read]
 
Marie Yip Wai Shan
ImageMarie Yip Wai Shan is a Hong Kong-based photographer and a winner in South China Morning Post Portraits of Women Competition (2011). She is Cha's Public Relations Manager. Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it [View] [Cha profile]
 
Matthew A. Hamilton
ImageMatthew A. Hamilton holds a Master of Fine Arts from Fairfield University, CT. His stories and poems have appeared in a variety of national and international journals, including Atticus Review, Burnt Bridge, Boston Literary Magazine, Cha and Muddy River Poetry Review. His chapbook, The Land of the Four Rivers, published by Cervena Barva Press, was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize. With his wife he lives in Richmond, VA. He likes travelling, hiking, and smooth Kentucky Bourbon. He is currently working on a novel. [Read]
 
Michael Tsang
ImageMichael Tsang received his BA in English and MPhil in Gender Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is now reading for a PhD degree at the University of Warwick, specializing in postcolonial English literature in Hong Kong. Language and literature are part of his life. He likes to write stories and poems in his spare time, and is devoted to language learning. His ultimate goal is to learn Tibetan and Finnish. Tsang is a Staff Reviewer for Cha. [Read] [Cha profile]
 
Peter John Humphreys
ImagePeter John Humphreys writes and edits English language texts for a Hong Kong educational publisher. He has an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from Manchester Metropolitan University where he won the Dawson Jackson prize for student novelists. His short story "Dion" appears in the Hong Kong Writers' Circle 2013 anthology, Of Gods and Mobsters. He is co-editing the Circle’s 2014 collection. His short stories have been published by Comma Press and the British Council. [Read]
 
Pey Pey Oh
ImagePey Pey Oh is currently on the creative writing MPhil at The University of South Wales (Glamorgan). Originally from Malaysia, she completed her MA in Literature in upstate New York, but has now lived in Bath, UK longer than all of these places. She has been published in various anthologies, Magma and is extremely delighted to be a contributor to Cha. [Read]
 
Raydon L. Reyes
ImageRaydon L. Reyes’s fiction has been published in the sci-fi anthology Diaspora Ad Astra, the New York-based gay literary journal Chelsea Station, 100 Word Story, The Philippine Times Australia, as well as in school publications of the University of Santo Tomas. His poetry has been published in Philippines Graphic and Paper Monster Press. He is currently studying his Master’s in Applied Social Psychology in De La Salle University, Manila. [Read]
 
Shirley Shao
Shirley Shao was born in China but moved to the United States when she was two. She has had a long-standing love affair with Chinese culture that will most likely only intensify as she learns more about people who died centuries ago.  As an art student herself she has been strongly influenced by motifs and legends found in Asian art; when she can, she likes to visit the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and spend hours reading the books in their gift shop. In her spare time, she also writes for Cfensi, a blog that presents Chinese entertainment to the English-speaking world. [Read]
 
Sim Wai Chew
ImageSim Wai Chew is a Singapore-based academic with research interests in Southeast Asian English- and Chinese-language fiction. He is the editor of Island Voices: A Collection of Short Stories from Singapore (2007). His fiction has appeared in the Straits Times, the Silverfish new writing series, and the journals/e-zines: Moving Worlds, EnterText, and Asiatic. [Read]
 
Surajit Chakravarty
ImageSurajit Chakravarty recently won two runners-up prizes at the Oxford University Flexible Cities Photo Competition. His photographs have appeared in Foundling Review and The Adroit Journal. He has also contributed fiction to Cha in the past. Chakravarty holds a PhD from the University of Southern California, and for his day job teaches Urban Planning at a university in Abu Dhabi. [View]
 
Tim Suermondt
ImageTim Suermondt is the author of two full-length collections: Trying to Help the Elephant Man Dance (The Backwaters Press, 2007) and Just Beautiful from New York Quarterly Books, 2010. He has published poems in Poetry, The Georgia Review, Blackbird, Able Muse, Prairie Schooner, [PANK], Bellevue Literary Review and Stand Magazine and has poems forthcoming in Gargoyle, A Narrow Fellow and DMQ Review, among others. After many years in Queens and Brooklyn, he has moved to Cambridge with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong. [Read]
 
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All poems, stories and other contributions copyright to their respective authors unless otherwise noted.