Contributors / March 2013 (Issue 20)


Guest Editors
ImageMarc Vincenz helped select the poetry. See his Cha profile. 

ImageKaitlin Solimine helped select the prose. See her Cha profile.

ImageAndew Barker was one of the two judges (along with Tammy Ho Lai-Ming) of "Betrayal" Poetry Contest. See his Cha profile
                                                                                                                                                    

 
Abha Iyengar
ImageAbha Iyengar is an internationally published poet, author and creative writing mentor. Her work has appeared in Pure Slush, Bewildering Stories, Danse Macabre, Muse India, New Asian Writing and others. She was the Lavanya Sankaran Writing Fellow at the Sangam Residency for 2009-10 and is a certified creative writing mentor from the British Council. Her published works include Yearnings (poetry) and Shrayan (fantasy novel). Visit her website for more information. Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it [Read]
 
Alice Tsay
ImageAlice Tsay currently resides in Michigan. A native of California, she has taught English in Hong Kong and Taiwan and holds degrees from Amherst College and Oxford University. She is a staff reviewer for Cha. [Read] [Cha profile]
 
Amanda Lee Koe
ImageAmanda Lee Koe is the fiction editor of Esquire (Singapore), communications director at studioKALEIDO, editor of creative non-fiction online magazine POSKOD and co-editor of literary journal Ceriph. She also writes for magazines and delves into curatorial practices in exhibition-making and independent-publishing. She spearheaded and co-edited Eastern Heathens (Ethos Books), an international anthology subverting Asian folklore, whilst Ministry of Moral Panic (Epigram), a collection of her edgy, transnational short stories, is forthcoming. [Read]
 
Amy Uyematsu
ImageAmy Uyematsu is a sansei (third-generation Japanese American) poet and retired Math teacher from Los Angeles. She has three published collections: Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press, 2005), Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain (Story Line Press, 1998) and 30 Miles from J-Town (Story Line, 1992, winner of the 1992 Nicholas Roerich Prize). She was a co-editor of the once widely-used Roots: An Asian American Reader (UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 1972). Some of her recent work is included in Asian American Literary Review, Bamboo Ridge Press, Lantern Review, Global Graffiti and Askew. [Read]
 
Andrew Barker
ImageAndrew Barker operates the online poetry lectures website mycroft-online-lectures and is the author of the poertry book Snowblind from my Protective Colouring. He  holds a PhD in American Literature and an MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and is currently teaching at the University of Hong Kong and Lingnan University. [Read] [Cha profile]
 
Anirban Chakraborty
ImageAnirban Chakraborty is a musician and does his music without any financial hope but with diligence. He is currently studying for a PhD in English Literature at the University of North Bengal, India. [Read]
 
Anna Yin
ImageAnna Yin was born in China, and immigrated to Canada in 1999. She won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, 2010 MARTY Award for her poetry, and other awards. in 2007 her poems in English and Chinese and ten translations by her were in a Canadian Studies textbook used by Humber College. In 2011 her book Wings Toward Sunlight was published by Mosaic Press. CBC Radio and Rogers TV interviewed her several times. She was a finalist for Canada's Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Awards 2011 and 2012. Her new collection Inhaling the Silence will be published in 2013. Visit her website for more information. [Read]
 
Bina Shah
ImageBina Shah is a Pakistani writer from Karachi. She is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. Her novel Slum Child was a bestseller in Italy and she has had work published in English, Spanish, German and Italian. She writes a monthly column for two English-language newspapers in Pakistan, Dawn and The Express Tribune, and a bimonthly column for online magazine Sampsonia Way. She has contribued essays to Granta, The Independent, Wasafiri, Critical Muslim, and the International Herald Tribune. Her novel A Season For Martyrs will be published early 2014 by Delphinium Books. [Read]
 
Bryan Thao Worra
ImageAn award-winning Laotian American writer, Bryan Thao Worra works actively to support Laotian, Hmong and Southeast Asian American artists. His writing is recognized by the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has served as a consultant to the Minnesota History Center, the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and the Minnesota Humanities Commission. He is also an active professional member of the Horror Writer Association and the Science Fiction Poetry Association and represented Laos as a Cultural Olympian during the Poetry Parnassus of the London 2012 Summer Games. Visit his website for more information. [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]
 
Dan Encarnacion
ImageDan Encarnacion lives in Portland, Oregon and earned an MFA in Writing at the California College of Arts. The bleak of Bela Tarr, the spare of Supersilent, and the spike of quad-lattes will palpitate his palpus. Encarnacion has been published by MARGIE, The Five Fingers Review, Upstairs at Duroc, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Eleven Eleven, The Exquisite Corpse and The Red River Review. His poem "Aposiopesis" was nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize.  Imbibe the air, inebriate your cells, incubate the spores, insufflate the page.  [Read]
 
DeWitt Clinton
ImageDeWitt Clinton has retired after teaching 31 years at the University of Wisconsin—Whitewater, USA. His essay on travelling in Poland has just appeared in Cultural Studies<=>Critical Methodologies. His newest poetry manuscript is an adaptation of Kenneth Rexroth's 100 Poems from the Chinese. He continues training for long distance runs and triathlons as well as exploring new asanas in Iyengar Yoga. [Read]
 
Dominique Ahkong
ImageDominique Ahkong was born to Mauritian parents in London and grew up in Singapore, where she now works as an animation writer. She occasionally post personal projects at domkeykong.com. [Read]
 
Elaine Yee Lin Ho
ImageElaine Yee Lin Ho is Professor in the School of English, University of Hong Kong. She first met Leung Ping-kwan in the 1980s when they were colleagues at HKU,and were bonded by shared interests in Hong Kong literature and cultural life and by common distance, as junior members of staff, from the demands of university administration and politics. Over the years, they continued to work together from time to time on events and publications. In the months before Leung’s death, they were planning an exhibition of his collaboration with nine artist friends. With the agreement of Leung’s wife, Betty Ng, the exhibition opened on January 30, 2013 in the Hong Kong University Library. (Photo credit: Maire Yip) [Read]
 
Glenn Diaz
ImageGlenn Diaz was born and raised in Manila. He has a degree in secondary education from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is now in the MA creative writing program at the same university. He is the 2013 recipient of the M Literary Residency at Sangam House, outside Bangalore. [Read]
 
Grant Hamilton
ImageGrant Hamilton is Assistant Professor of English Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He writes on world literature and literary theory, and has a blog devoted to such things. His most recent scholarly work includes On Representation: Deleuze and Coetzee on the Colonized Subject (Rodopi, 2011) and Reading Marechera (James Currey, 2013). [Read]
 
Greg Santos
ImageGreg Santos is a poet, editor, and writing instructor. He is the author of the chapbook Tweet Tweet Tweet (Corrupt Press, 2011) and the full-length poetry collection The Emperor's Sofa (DC Books, 2010). He is the poetry co-editor for the online literary magazine carte blanche. He lives in Montreal with his wife and daughter. [Read]
 
Heather Bell
ImageHeather Bell's work has been published in Rattle, Grasslimb, Barnwood, Poets/Artists, Third Wednesday and many others. She was nominated for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize from Rattle and also won the New Letters 2009 Poetry Prize. Bell has also published four books. Visit her website for more information. [Read]
 
Ian Chung
ImageIan Chung graduated from the Warwick Writing Programme. His poetry has featured in Camroc Press Review (for which he received a Best of the Net nomination), Ink Sweat & Tears, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and The Cadaverine, while recent fiction can be found in Unthology No. 3 (Unthank Books, 2013) and The Misfit Quarterly. He edits Eunoia Review and is Fiction Editor for The Cadaverine. He also writes reviews for Rum & Reviews Magazine, Sabotage Reviews and The Cadaverine, among other websites. He also watches more TV than is reasonable for one person. [Read]
 
Ishita Basu Mallik
ImageIshita Basu Mallik lives in the city still mostly known as Calcutta, India. She was given a TFA award for creative writing in English in 2011, after which she slid smoothly (back) into oblivion. She blogs comics and drawings here. [Read]
 
John Wall Barger
ImageJohn Wall Barger's poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2008 (Tightrope Books) and The Montreal Prize Global Poetry Anthology (Véhicule Press, 2012). His second collection, Hummingbird (Palimpsest Press), was published in Spring 2012. He currently teaches creative writing at City University of Hong Kong. [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]
 
Mark Anthony Cayanan
ImageMark Anthony Cayanan is from the Philippines, where he teaches writing and literature at the Ateneo de Manila University. He edits the literary section of Kritika Kultura, a journal of literary/cultural and language studies. At present, he is working toward an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His newer work has appeared or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Drunken Boat, Verse Daily, and Fugue. A recent recipient of a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship through the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme, he is the author of the poetry book Narcissus (AdMU Press, 2011). [Read]
 
May Dy
ImageMay Dy is currently studying non-Western Art History at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She has been writing poetry and dabbling in photography for some time. Her poems have appeared at Cha, qarrtsiluni and Red Poppy Review. As well as student anthologies such as the UP Writers Club 100 and UP Pantas Blinds. "Government Office Topography" is her first attempt at publishing her photographs. [View]
 
Mia Funk
ImageMia Funk trained at the ateliers Beaux-Arts, Paris. She has participated in number of international juried competitions including the Salon d’Automne Paris, for which she won the Prix de Peinture 2009. She has shown at the Grand Palais (Official Selection-Salon des Artistes Français 2012), was a finalist in Sky Television’s Art Competition London 2010, and The Guardian's London Lives Competition 2010, and was nominated for the Celeste Prize 2010. She was commissioned to do a painting for the 30th anniversary of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Her paintings are held in a number of public collections including the Dublin Writers Museum, Centre Culturel Irlandais, the American University of Paris and FIU World Art Collection in Amsterdam. [View]
 
Michael O'Sullivan
ImageMichael O'Sullivan is from Ireland and he teaches literature in Hong Kong. He writes short stories, poems and essays and he has published a book on James Joyce and Marcel Proust and a book on Michel Henry. His essays appear in such journals as Mosaic and Parallax. His most recent book is Weakness: A Literary and Philosophical History. (Photo credit: Dan Short) [Read] [Cha profile]
 
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]
 
Saptarshi Basu
ImageSaptarshi Basu has authored two novels, the last one being Autumn in My Heart, published by Vitasta along with Times Group (Times of India). His children's fiction The Zoo-Break Adventures has been taken up by an animation company for making into a animated television series. A university Gold Medallist, he had subsequently travelled and lived in London, Toronto, San Francisco, Dubai till he came back to Kolkata, his hometown. Basu had been widely reviewed and interviewed across leading newspapers like The Hindu, Telegraph, Times of India and others. He maintains a blog and a website. [Read]
 
Shirani Rajapakse
ImageShirani Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan poet and author. Her collection of short stories, Breaking News (Vijitha Yapa 2011) was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award. Rajapakse's work appears, or is forthcoming in, Dove Tales, Buddhist Poetry Review, About Place Journal, Skylight 47, The Smoking Poet, New Verse News, The Occupy Poetry Project and anthologies Poems for Freedom, Voices Israel Poetry Anthology 2012, Song of Sahel, Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, World Healing World Peace and Every Child Is Entitled to Innocence. Visit her website for more information. [Read]
 
Sucharita Dutta-Asane
ImageSucharita Dutta-Asane is based in Pune. She did her MPhil in En­glish Literature from the Department of English, University of Pune. In 2008, she received Oxford Bookstores debuting writers' (second) prize for her anthology, The Jungle Stories. Her short stories have appeared in Zubaan’s Breaking the Bow, an anthology of speculative fiction based on The Ramayana (2012), Behind the Shadows, an anthology of short stories from Asia and Africa available on Amazon Kindle, Ripples: an Anthology of Short Stories by Indian Women Writers (2010) and in Unisun Publications' Vanilla Desires (2010). Her articles, book reviews, short stories, and a novella, Petals in the Sun have been extensively published across electronic publications. At present she jug­gles writing with editing and bringing up two very young kids. [Read]
 
Sumana Roy
ImageSumana Roy lives in Siliguri, a small town in sub-Himalayan Bengal, India. [Read] [Cha profile]
 
Theophilus Kwek
ImageTheophilus Kwek graduated, at the end of 2012, after six most blessed years, as a Humanities Scholar from Raffles Institution, where he also wrote for a number of school publications. During this time, he ventured into writing, and a slim first collection entitled They Speak Only Our Mother Tongue was released in 2011. Kwek's poems have been featured in Spork, Cake, Mascara Literary Review, and several anthologies; he was also a featured writer at the Singapore Writers’ Festival in 2012. In his spare time, he dabbles in music and photography, and wanders around Singapore – in an attempt to know home better. [Read]
 
Tracy Koretsky
ImageTracy Koretsky’s books in print are Ropeless, a 15-time award winning novel (Present Tense Press, 2005) and Even Before My Own Name, a memoir in poems (Raggedbottom, 2009) which is available as a complimentary download here. Also there, links to recent publications, audio poems, interviews and more. A former editor of the ezine, Triplopia, Koretsky’s stories, poems, and essays are widely published and awarded including multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. For the last several years, she wrote the poetry revision how-to column for WinningWriters.com which you can find here. [Read]
 
Tracy Slater
ImageTracy Slater is an American writer living in Osaka. Her book The Good Shufu: A Wife in Search of a Life Between East and West is forthcoming in 2015 from Penguin’s Putnam imprint. Slater has published essays in The New York Times online, CNNGo, Best Women’s Travel Writing, Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe, and other places. She is also the founder of the award-winning global literary series Four Stories. She earned her PhD in English and American Literature from Brandeis University and is the recipient of the PEN New England 2008 "Friend of Writers" award. [Read]
 
Yau Ching
ImageYauchinghasstolenmanythingswithoutlosingmuchofemands/heconstantlyblows
smokeintowalls [Read]
 
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All poems, stories and other contributions copyright to their respective authors unless otherwise noted.