Akin Jeje is an active poet, a spoken-word performer and a member of PEN Hong Kong. His works have been published and featured in both Canada and Hong Kong. His first full-length poetry collection, Smoked Pearl: Poems of Hong Kong and Beyond was a semi-finalist for the 2009 International Proverse Prize, and published by Proverse Hong Kong in 2010. Akin served as the MC for Hong Kong’s Peel Street Poetry collective from 2007 to 2014, and he is currently one of the three directors of the group. He was also an advisor to the Hong Kong International Young Readers’ Festival, and had been a volunteer moderator for the Hong Kong International Festival from 2012 to 2016. He has performed his poetry for public events and in schools, and has been presenting educational seminars on poetry for primary and secondary school students since 2014.

Alyse Ka Weng Fan received her MA in English Romantic Literature from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 2017. Her research interests are in Romanticism, especially the poetry and poetics of John Keats. Alyse often finds inspiration and harmony in nature and surreal dreams, she loves to explore different poetic forms and textures between languages, sound, and music in her writings. Alyse believes that poetry writing is a window for her to connect her heart and imagination with the heart of the world.

Aurelio Asiain (b. 1960) is a Mexican poet, essayist, publisher and translator. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Letras Libres, one of the most influential literary magazines in the Spanish-speaking world these days. He has been living in Japan for the last seventeen years. He arrived in Tokyo as a diplomat and he now lives in Kyoto. He is a full-time professor at Kansai Gaidai University.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Carolyn Lau recently completed her doctoral studies at the Department of English, CUHK, where she now works as a part-time lecturer. She is also an editor at Hong Kong Review of Books.

Claire Cuccio is a writer, educator and curator based in Kathmandu. Trained in Japanese literature (PhD, Stanford University), her interests migrated to Asian print and papermaking culture, engaging both contemporary artists and traditional artisans. Cuccio has lectured for Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS) at Doshisha University, Yokohama’s creative site BankART 1929, Beijing Foreign Languages University and Tribhuvan University. She is currently running a pilot program on cultural heritage mapping in Kathmandu and developing an intercultural program for artists, designers, engineers and other makers in traditional handcraft practices. She also collaborates with the highly respected Hong Kong Open Printshop (HKOP).

Dragoș Ilca was born and raised in Romania. He studied literature in Amsterdam and Hong Kong. He taught creative writing and literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, among other places. His debut novel HK Hollow is available now.

Eddie Tay is a poet, street photographer and literature professor at the Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches undergraduate courses on creative writing, children’s literature and poetry. He also teaches a postgraduate course on autoethnography, photography and social media. He is the author of four volumes of poetry, one of which also features his own street photography. His recent academic book, Anything You Can Get Away With: Creative Practices (Delere Press, 2018) blends together scholarly writing, street photography and creative writing. His latest poems can be found in the Spring 2019 issue of World Literature Today.

Emma Zhang is a lecturer of English in the College of International Education in Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include comparative literature and comparative mythology. Her doctoral dissertation “Domination, Alienation and Freedom in Ha Jin’s Novels” (2015), analyzes Ha Jin’s novels in connection with contemporary Chinese society. Her other works include “Father’s Journey into Night” (2013), “No End in Sight – the myth of Nezha and the ultra-stable authoritarian political order in China” (2018), and “The Taming of the White Snake – The oppression of female sexuality in the Legend of the White Snake”. She is currently working on translating ancient Chinese legends Nezha and The Legend of the White Snake.

Born and raised in Macau, Erica Li is currently living in Shanghai after graduated from East Normal China University. She joined Macau Pen in 2017, and she writes articles for Macau Daily News as a columnist. Her novels and poems have been published in in magazines in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Fátima da Silva Almeida was born in a small village in Portugal. After graduating in Journalism and contributing for Diário de Notícias, she moved to Macau, in 2010, to work for Tribuna de Macau newspaper. In 2015 she received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Hong Kong (with distinction), which led her to explore prose without compromising her love for poetry. She is currently teaching at MUST and working on her first novel, God Works Well in The Spring, which is set between China, mainly the SARs Macau and Hong Kong, and Portugal.

Gaaya Cheang is a poet living in Macao. He is an editor of Macao Pen (澳門筆匯) and he has published five books of poetry, the most recent one being a bilingual collection, Fruits of the Last Love, translated from the Chinese by Vai Si.

Gabrielle Flores graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Creative Writing from New York University Abu Dhabi, and is now based in Manila. She’s interested in the Filipino diaspora, the intersection of postcolonialism and World Literature, translation studies, and food. Thinking and writing about it, sure, but mostly just eating it.

Gregory Lee is an academic, writer and broadcaster who has lived and worked in the UK, the USA, China and Hong Kong. Since 1990 he has taught at the University of Lyon in France where he is Professor of Chinese and Transcultural Studies, and Director of the Institute of Transtextual and Transcultural Studies. His most recent book is China Imagined: From European Fantasy to Spectacular Power (London, Hurst 2018).

Ilaria Maria Sala is an award-winning journalist and writer. She has been living in East Asia since 1988, and calls Hong Kong home. Sala has written for a number of international publications, from Le Monde to The New York Times. She is currently a columnist for Hong Kong Free Press, and writes regularly for Quartz. She is the author of two books in Italian, and is on the Executive Committee of PEN Hong Kong.

Jason S Polley is associate professor of literary journalism, comics, and post-structuralism at Hong Kong Baptist University. Since his BA in English and Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge he has lived and studied in places including China, Canada, Colombia, India, Bangladesh, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. He divides his time between reading, scuba diving, running, practicing yoga, and skateboarding. His research interests include post-WWII graphic forms, media analysis, Hong Kong Studies, and Indian English fiction. His creative nonfiction books are the travel-narrative collection refrain and the literary journalism novella cemetery miss you. One day he’ll be a birder. [Cha Profile]

Jennifer Mackenzie is a poet and reviewer, focusing on writing from and about the Asian region. Her most recent publication is Borobudur and Other Poems (Lontar, Jakarta 2012) and she has presented her work at a number of festivals and conferences, including the Ubud, Irrawaddy and Makassar festivals. In 2015, she had a residency at Seoul Artspace Yeonhui, and currently she is working on a poetic exegesis of the life and work of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and also a collection of essays, Writing the Continent.

Jeremy Tiang‘s translations from Chinese include novels by Su Wei-Chen, Zhang Yueran, Chan Ho-Kei, Yeng Pway Ngon, and Li Er, as well as nonfiction by Yu Qiuyu and Jackie Chan. He also writes and translates plays, and is the author of It Never Rains on National Day and State of Emergency, which won the Singapore Literature Prize. He is the managing editor of Pathlight and a founding member of Cedilla & Co., a collective of literary translators. (Photo credit: Edward Hill)

Kate Rogers‘ poetry is forthcoming in Elsewhere: a Journal of Place and Catherines, the Great (Oolichan). She was shortlisted for the 2017 Montreal International Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in Twin Cities: An Anthology of Twin Cinema from Singapore and Hong Kong; Juniper; OfZoos; The Guardian; Asia Literary Review; Morel; The Goose: A journal of Arts, Environment and Culture; Kyoto Journal and ASIATIC: International Islamic University of Malaysia. Kate’s poetry collection, Out of Place (Aeolus House –Quattro Books) debuted in Toronto, Hong Kong and at the Singapore Writers Festival between July and November 2017.

Kevin M Maher has been living and working in Macau since 2013. While originally from the area surrounding Detroit, Michigan; he permanently left North America for Asia in 1996. His passions include reading, writing, creating, and photography. When he’s not teaching at the University, and when he’s not actively involved traveling or taking care of his two kids, he’s occasionally seen carrying around a camera or two, looking for interesting things to film.

Koh Choon Eiow is an award-winning contemporary theater director, playwright, and actor. He was born in Malaysia and educated in the theater department at the Malaysian Institute of Art, and earned an MFA from Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. Now based in Taipei, Koh usually collaborates with theater troupes in South Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, and southeast Asia. In 2011, Koh’s Chronology on Death earned him recognition as one of the leading figures in Taiwan avant-garde theater. In 2014, he founded Approaching Theatre with his long-term partner, Cheng Yin-chen. They offer acting workshops throughout many countries.

Mario Rustan is a freelance writer living in Bandung, Indonesia. He regularly writes for The Jakarta Post and for Magdalene, an Indonesian feminist website. By the time you’re reading this review, he is taking a personal project to migrate to Sweden.

Mark Harrison is a lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Tasmania. His work concerns culture and politics in the Chinese world, with a particular interest in Taiwan. He uses images as a research method and a mnemonic aid, and as a way of looking out from the institutionalised forms of academic knowledge.

Michael Ka-chi Cheuk is Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature at The Open University of Hong Kong. He teaches and writes about Chinese Literature (especially Gao Xingjian) and Popular Culture (especially hip hop).

Michael Tsang is a native of Hong Kong, and holds a PhD from the University of Warwick, researching on Hong Kong English writing. His broader research interests are on postcolonial and world literature with an Asian focus. He writes stories and poems in his spare time, and is always interested in languages, literatures and cultures. Michael is a Staff Reviewer for Cha and a co-editor of Hong Kong Studies. Visit his Warwick profile for more information. [Cha Profile]

A theater critic, playwright, director, and event coordinator, Mok Sio Chong has written and directed many productions, such as Curry Bone’s Travel, Mong-ha 1849, The House of the Vagrants, Rain of Stone, and Circles. He is also the co-author of A Gambling World and A Gambling World II and the editor in chief of the quarterly Performing Arts Forum and critical website Macau Theatre Reviews.

Ophelia Tung Ho Yiu is a postgraduate research student at the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Upon acquiring a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Cultural Studies at CUHK, and a Master of Arts in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong, she now proceeds to obtain her Master of Philosophy in English Literary Studies at CUHK. Her MPhil research focuses on the tension between the authorship and readership of Jane Austen in a post-structuralist and post-modernist age of fandom and popular culture.

Papa Osmubal is a poet, artist, calligrapher, researcher, and cultural advocate (and on-again, off-again photographer) of Filipino descent. He resides in Macau where he has been working as a school teacher. His most recent solo art exhibition, a collection of paper cuttings called Voice on Paper was held at and sponsored byFundação Rui Cunha 官樂怡基金會 in July 2017 in Macau. He is currently working on a new collection of paper cuttings for a future exhibition. His Capampangan etymology book, Capampangan Roots volume 1, won the Philippine National Book Award (Language Studies Category), awarded by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Manila Critics Circle (MCC), in 2017.

Paul French lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His work focuses on true crime literary non-fiction set in twentieth century China. Paul’s 2018 book City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir was his much-anticipated second literary non-fiction book and was a Kirkus Book of the Year. City of Devils followed Midnight in Peking: The Murder that Haunted the Last Days of Old China, which was a New York Times Bestseller and winner of both the Edgar and Dagger awards for true crime writing.

Hong Konger Piera Chen is a travel writer based in Taipei but scattered over China, North America, and various destinations, real or imagined. She has authored over a dozen books for Lonely Planet and published articles in travel magazines and on websites. Chen has a BA in liberal arts from Pomona College, majoring in literature, and an MA in literary and cultural studies from the University of Hong Kong. She believes that if writing is the most disembodied of the arts, travel writing and poetry are the genres that make it less so. And this is why she’s in love with both. 

Pinky Lui Chung-Man is currently an MPhil student of English Literary Studies in the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Her research interests include feminist criticism and twentieth-century literature. She is currently working on a thesis focusing on Henry Miller and the suppression of desires. She graduated with BA in English at CUHK in 2017 followed by an MA in Literary and Cultural Studies awarded by the University of Hong Kong in 2018.

Rai Mutsu is a resident Macau author, newspaper columnist and executive editor of Macau Letters—a local literary magazine. He has been awarded with many literary awards, including the Macau Literature Prize multiple times, which includes winners in the genres of the novel, free verse poetry and prose. Among his works are Countdowns of the Igreja de São Domingos and Let the Tranquil West Bay Heal My Depression. He has authored collections of modern poetry, as well as a collection of prose, Fantasized Life in a Ferris Wheel. His columns appear in Accounts of New-Age living—the first five years. His poem May I Ask, My Neighbor has been translated into Portuguese and quoted in the Southern Drama Troupe’s Contos em Viagem—Macau.

Sara F. Costa is a Portuguese poet. She won several literary prizes in Portugal and has published five poetry collections. She has an MA in Intercultural Studies: Portuguese/Chinese from Tianjin Foreign Studies University. She was an invited author of the International Istanbul Poetry Festival in 2017, and in 2018 she worked on The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival and China-European Union Literary Festival in Shanghai and Suzhou. Her works have been featured in literary journals and magazines all across the world from Brazil to China. Sara is currently living in Beijing and she coordinates events for the Spittoon Beijing Based Arts Collective.

Stephanie Studzinski is a PhD student in Literary Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a surrealist painter and carpenter whose works can be found at elucious.com.

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair With China Gone Wrong. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books‘ China Blog, Asian Jewish Life, and several Hong Kong anthologies. She received an MPhil in Government and Public Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Blumberg-Kason now lives in Chicago and spends her free time volunteering with senior citizens in Chinatown. (Photo credit: Annette Patko)

TS Hidalgo holds a BBA (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), a MBA (IE Business School), a MA in Creative Writing (Hotel Kafka) and a Certificate in Management and the Arts (New York University). His works have been published in magazines in the USA, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Barbados, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, India, Singapore and Australia. He has currently developed his career in finance and stock-market.

Wong Wen Pu enjoys the poetry of T. S. Eliot and the fiction of Virginia Woolf.

Yao Feng was born in Beijing in 1958. He studied Portuguese language and culture and received his master’s degree in Portuguese literature from the University of Macau. He then received his PhD in comparative literature and world literature from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Yao Feng has authored many poetry collections in both Chinese and Portuguese and is a translator of Portuguese poetry into Chinese. In 2004, Feng won the Rougang Poetry Award, and in 2006, he was awarded the Ordem Militar de Santiago de Espada medal by the president of Portugal.

Zhang Shoujin is a Lecturer of English at Shanghai International Studies University. He has been educated both in Chinese and Western contexts and has M.A. degrees from SISU and NIE at NTU, Singapore. Shoujin was awarded a Ph. D in Literary Criticism at SISU in 2016. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at McMaster University in Canada, sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. In 2009, he stayed at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge as a Senior Research Associate sponsored by SISU. Dr. Zhang has a large portfolio of translations covering art, literature and child psychology as well as economics. He has translated World Economy in the 20th Century, Challenge the Parents, Family Reunion—Selected Works by T. S. Eliot, Lion in the Sun—Warrior of Rome and Strokes of Genius—Light and Shadow. He has also published papers on teaching methodology and translation studies as well as of literary criticism.