Contributors / September 2015 (Issue 29)


Guest Editors
ImageMarc Vincenz was born in Hong Kong, is Swiss-British and has published eight collections of poetry; his latest are This Wasted Land and its Chymical Illuminations (Lavender Ink) and Becoming the Sound of Bees (Ampersand Books). A book-length poem, Sibylline, is forthcoming with Ampersand Books. He is also the translator of many German-language poets, including the Herman Hesse Prize winner, Klaus Merz. His most recent books of translation are Erika Burkart's A Late Recognition of the Signs (Spuyten Duyvil) and Klaus Merz's Out of the Dust (Spuyten Duyvil). His own work has been translated into German, Russian, Romanian, French, Icelandic and Chinese. He has been awarded several grants from the Swiss Arts council and a fellowship from the Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin. Recent publications include The Nation, Ploughshares, World Literature Today and Ocean State Review. He has lived in England, Switzerland, Spain, Iceland, Hong Kong and China, but recently moved to the United States and now resides in Western Massachusetts. Vincenz helped select the poetry in the September 2015 issue of Cha. [Cha profile]

ImageDavid William Hill served as assistant editor for two oral history books from Voice of Witness, Invisible Hands: Voices from the Global Economy (McSweeney’s, 2014) and Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives (McSweeney’s, 2008). His fiction has appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Arroyo Literary Review, Hobart, and Catamaran Literary Reader, among others, as well as in the anthology As We See It and in Heliography, the inaugural exhibition of Invisible City Audio Tours in Oakland, CA. He was recently a finalist for a Glimmer Train prize and for the 2014 Montana Prize in Fiction, and his stories have been performed live in San Francisco and Berkeley, CA, and by Liars’ League Hong Kong. Once upon a time he co-hosted, with the Flat Earth Collective, a reading and performance series at a great little art gallery called Kokoro in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. He has taught creative writing at San Francisco State University, Academy of Art University, and City University of Hong Kong. Hill helped select the prose in the September 2015 issue of Cha. [Cha profile]


 
Alana Leilani T. Cabrera-Narciso
ImageAlana Leilani T. Cabrera-Narciso teaches literature both at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Silliman University, Dumaguete, Philippines. She is currently finishing her second master's degree in Creative writing. Last year, she was coordinator of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop in its 54th year, although she's served the workshop close to a decade now. She was Silliman's sole Faculty Merit Awardee in 2014. Her passions include literary pedagogy, criticism, creative writing and research. She has presented papers in and outside the country on her research work. When she is not at work, she is at home convincing her daughter that princesses are strong girls too. (Photo credit: Sha'ianne Molas Lawas) [Creative non-fiction]
 
Antony Huen
ImageAntony Huen will begin his PhD in English at the University of York in a week's time (October 2015). He is all excited about it because he gets to engage in some serious studies on how different forms of arts affect one another. It is all rooted in his vision that one day his hometown of Hong Kong will be awakened to the value of the humanities in face of all the city's relentless gibberish. [Reviews]
 
Antony Johae
ImageAntony Johae has a PhD in Comparative Literature and has taught in England, Germany, Ghana, Tunisia, and Kuwait. He is now writing freelance and divides his time between Lebanon and the United Kingdom. The three poems published in Issue 29 of Cha come from a collection in progress: Lines on Lebanon. His Poems of the East (Gipping Press) will be launched in Autumn 2015. [Poetry]
 
Arielle Stambler
ImageArielle Stambler moved from the U.S. to Hong Kong last July after graduating from Yale University with a BA in English. She teaches introductory communications courses for English majors at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as part of the two-year Yale-China Teaching Fellowship. She did her senior thesis research on Derek Walcott's Omeros and is interested in Caribbean, postcolonial, and Southeast/East Asian literatures. [Reviews]
 
B.B.P. Hosmillo
ImageA Southeast Asianist queer poet, B.B.P. Hosmillo teaches English in the Philippines. His poetry has appeared in Kritika Kultura, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, The Ilanot Review, amongst other places. His honors include Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, and research fellowships/scholarships from the Japan Foundation, National University of Singapore, and the Republic of Indonesia. Author of The Essential Ruin (forthcoming), Hosmillo will act as the guest poetry editor for the June 2016 of Cha. [Poetry] [Cha profile]
 
Darylle Rubino
ImageDarylle Rubino lives in Davao City, Philippines, where he works as a manager for an outsourcing company. He was an English Major in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines Mindanao, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He is a member of Young Davao Writers, which organises literary events to bring poetry and other genres to the public. He likes to stroll around the city to find things and interesting topics to write about. He dreams of publishing his own collection of poems someday. [Poetry]
 
Devi Yesodharan
ImageDevi Yesodharan has worked as a speechwriter in the government and the private sector, and managed the communication campaigns for candidates in India’s state and national elections. In 2011 she was awarded the Chevening Gurukul Fellowship by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She lives and works in Bangalore, India. [Fiction]
 
Eddie Tay
ImageEddie Tay is author of three collections of poetry, Remnants, A Lover's Soliloquy and The Mental Life of Cities (winner of the 2012 Singapore Literature Prize) and an academic book, Colony, Nation and Globalisation: Not At Home with Singaporean and Malaysian Literature. He also runs the street photography blog Hong Kong Lucida. Originally from Singapore, Tay is now an Associate Professor teaching at the Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tay is Cha's Reviews Editor. Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it [Editorial] [Cha profile]
 
Frankie Tsui
ImageFrankie Tsui is a secondary school English teacher based in Hong Kong. He is a graduate from Hong Kong Baptist University and a self-taught photography enthusiast. He developed an interest in painting and drawing at a young age, but has transferred his interests to photography in recent years. [Photography]
 
Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac
ImageGabriel Arnou-Laujeac, author of Plus loin qu’ailleurs (Editions du Cygne, 2013), graduated from Sciences Po (Institute of Political Studies) and holds a Research Master's in Human Rights (Fondements des Droits de l’Homme). He has been published in many literary & philosophical journals and anthologies, notably Les Citadelles, Poésie Directe, Littérales, Polyglotte, Recours au Poème, Testament, 3è Millénaire, L’Opinion indépendante, Petite anthologie de la jeune poésie française (Éditions Géhess), and Le livre de la prière (Éditions de l’Inférieur), and contributed to the book Irak, la faute (Éditions du Cerf). A Romanian translation of Plus loin qu’ailleurs was published by Junimea Editions in 2014, with Spanish and Persian translations forthcoming. The English translation by Hélène Cardona is forthcoming from White Pine Press in 2016. Arnou-Laujeac studied Western philosophy and Indian classical philosophy with traditional Acharyas (Hindu scholars). Visit his website for more information. [Poetry]
 
Hélène Cardona
ImageHélène Cardona is a poet, literary translator and actor, whose most recent books are Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry, 2016), Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry), Ce que nous portons (Éditions du Cygne), her translation of Dorianne Laux, and Beyond Elsewhere (White Pine Press, 2016), her translation of Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac. She wrote her thesis on Henry James for her Master's in English & American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College and Loyola Marymount University, and received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut & Universidad Internacional de Andalucía. She co-edits Fulcrum: An Anthology of Poetry and Aesthetics, Dublin Poetry Review, Levure Littéraire, is a contributor to The London Magazine, and co-producer of the documentary Pablo Neruda: The Poet’s Calling. Publications include Washington Square, Poetry International, Irish Literary Times, The Warwick Review, Plume, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. Visit her website for more information. [Poetry]
 
Huiwen Shi
ImageHuiwen Shi is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong, working on poetry, particularly on elegy. Before joining HKU, she worked as a lecturer in English and Chinese language. She also writes reviews about Hong Kong theatre for publications such as ArtsLink, Artism, and Hong Kong Literature Monthly. [Reviews 1 |  2]
 
Jasmine Nikki Paredes
ImageJasmine Nikki "Nikay" C. Paredes was born and raised in Cebu, Philippines. She received a BFA in Creative Writing from the Ateneo de Manila University and an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of the chapbook collection We Will See The Scatter (dancing girl press, 2014). Paredes currently resides in Metro Manila, Philippines and teaches at the Ateneo de Manila University. [Poetry]
 
Jim Pascual Agustin
ImageJim Pascual Agustin writes and translates in Filipino and English. He grew up in the Philippines and moved to Cape Town, South Africa in 1994. His work has appeared in, among others, Rhino Poetry, Burnt Bridge, GUD Magazine, and Modern Poetry in Translation. His first short story collection in Filipino, Sanga sa Basang Lupa, and his seventh poetry collection, A Thousand Eyes, will be released in Manila in 2015. His ramblings can be found at Matangmanok. [Poetry]
 
Jonathan Louis Duckworth
Image Jonathan Louis Duckworth is an MFA student at Florida International University, where he serves as a reader and copy-editor for the Gulf Stream Magazine. His fiction and poetry appears in or is forthcoming in Literary Orphans, Sliver of Stone, decomP, The Penny Dreadful, Synaesthesia, Gravel, and elsewhere. (Photo credit: Emily Jalloul) [Poetry]
 
Khairani Barokka
ImageKhairani Barokka (Jakarta, 1985) is a writer, poet, artist, and disability and arts (self-)advocate. Working, teaching, and published internationally, she's the creator of solo poetry/art show Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee, which has been performed at Edinburgh Fringe and elsewhere, has presented work in nine countries, and has received six residencies with a seventh forthcoming, including the first Vermont Studio Center writers' residency held by an Indonesian, and Emerging Writers' Festival's Inaugural International Writers' Residency. Her current projects include co-editing HEAT, an anthology of urban writing set in SE Asia (Buku Fixi Publishing 2016), authoring her first poetry-Braille-art book (Tilted Axis Press 2016), and her writing/art PhD project at Goldsmiths. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter for more information. [Poetry]
 
Leanne Dunic
ImageLeanne Dunic is a multi-disciplinary artist and a writer. Being of mixed race, much of her work possesses hybrid-identity themes. Dunic is the 2015 winner of the Alice Munro Short Story Prize. She hopes to spend half her time in British Columbia, and the other half in Asia, but this is not yet the case. Dunic is the singer/guitarist of the band Luck Commander. [Poetry]
 
Matthew James Friday
ImageMatthew James Friday is a professional writer and graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmith College, London. He has had poems accepted for publication in the following magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Bolts of Silk, Cadenza, Carillon, Earth Love, Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Gloom Cupboard, Ink, Sweat & Tears, The New Writer, Of Nepalese Clay, Pens on Fire, Pulsar Poetry Magazine and Red Ink. Friday has also  received a special mention in Poetry News, won Third Prize in Writing Magazine’s Valentine Day competition and short-listed for Gloom Cupboard’s Chapbook Contest. Visit his website for more information. [Poetry]
 
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. Along with Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Kate Rogers and Michael Tsang, he co-edited the "Whither Hong Kong?" section in the September 2014 issue of Chal. (Photo credit: Dan Short) [Reviews] [Cha profile]
 
Michelle Robin La
ImageMichelle Robin La is the author of Catching Shrimp with Bare Hands: A Boy from the Mekong Delta, the true story of her husband growing up in the midst of the Vietnam War and his struggle for freedom after the Communist takeover. An excerpt from this book was a first-place winner in the 2014 Southern California Genealogy Society's Writing Awards. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Literary Mama, Mom Egg Review, and The Searcher. She lives with her husband and three children in Santa Barbara, CA. Visit her website and connect with her on Twitter @michellerobinla. [Creative non-fiction]
 
Noble Wong
ImageNoble Wong is an Urban Sketcher and an illustrator based in Hong Kong. You can visit his work on the Noble Sketchbook Facebook page and his website. [Art]
 
Regine Cabato
ImageRegine Cabato is a journalism and creative writing student at the Ateneo de Manila University, where she works for the student artistic and literary folio, Heights. Her poetry has also been published in Under the Storm: An Anthology of Contemporary Philippine Poetry, Philippines Free Press, Kritika Kultura, and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. She hails from Zamboanga City. [Poetry]
 
Vaiju Joshi
ImageVaiju Joshi has been previously published in PANK, Bartleby Snopes, Scissors and Spackle, The Adelaide Review, Circa, Treehouse, Untoward, The Waterhouse Review, First Stop Fiction and Parenting Express Australia, among other places. Her non-fiction was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2012 and her fiction was shortlisted for the Best Australian Short Stories 2010 and 2011 anthologies. [Fiction]
 
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All poems, stories and other contributions copyright to their respective authors unless otherwise noted.