Adelia Khalid is the author of All Minds Are Broken, a sci-fi thriller published by Whitecoat Publishing. Growing up, she would be seen with a book wherever she went. Her love for books and reading moved her to start writing her own stories. Eventually, she wrote and published her debut novel at age seventeen which debuted at the top of the MPH Bestseller list in English Fiction. She is currently writing her second book and plans to continue her studies in English Literature soon.
Panel: BookTok, Bookstagram, and #AllThingsBuku / BookTok, Bookstagram, dan #AllThingsBuku
Adriana Nordin Manan is a writer, playwright, translator, interpreter and researcher. Born, raised and based in Kuala Lumpur, she is fascinated by the expanse of stories as mirrors to society and monuments to the human condition. In 2019, her translation of “Pengap” by Lokman Hakim was shortlisted for The Commonwealth Short Story Prize, a first for Malay language submissions in the history of the Prize. Adriana is currently completing her debut full-length play, which grapples with issues of diaspora, cultural psyche and belonging. She is also a pioneer cohort member of the CENDANA-ASWARA Arts Writing Mentorship Programme. She speaks Malay, English and Spanish.
Anna Tan grew up in Malaysia, the country that is not Singapore. She writes fantastical stories and fairy tales, and has short stories included in various anthologies. She helps people publish books at Teaspoon Publishing, which includes yelling at HTML for ebook reasons. She is also the editor of NutMag, an annual zine published for and by MYWriters Penang.
Anna has an MA in Creative Writing: The Novel under a Chevening scholarship and is the current President of the Malaysian Writers Society. She is interested in Malay/Nusantara and Chinese legends and folklore in exploring the intersection of language, culture, and faith. She can be found tweeting as @natzers and forgetting to update annatsp.com.
Talk: Publishing 101
Brandon K. Liew is doctoral researcher specialising in Malaysian History and Literary Criticism at the University of Melbourne. He lectures in the fields of Southeast Asian History, as well as Contemporary Literature and Cultural Policy, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Recent publications include poetry in Malaysian Millennial Voices, a peer-reviewed article titled “The Unquiet Dreams of Lesser Malaysian Writers”, and seminar papers on T.S. Eliot, the Global Malaysian Novel, and independent Malaysian publishers.
Catalina Rembuyan has published short stories and poetry with various Fixi anthologies and journals. She was one of the editors for Little Basket 2016 and 2017, the latter having been nominated for the 2018 Popular – The Star Readers’ Choice Award. She lives in Singapore and is working on a novel.
Daphne Lee is the consulting editor at Scholastic Asia, a division of Scholastic Press, where she champions the creation of Asian content by Asians. To this end, she helped develop and is an advisor to the ongoing Scholastic Asian Book Award and Scholastic Picture Book Award, which have their home at the annual Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore.
Daphne is also a writer with a particular interest in Asian folklore. She is the author of Bright Landscapes: A Short Story Collection (Laras 99); and the curator and editor of Malaysian Tales: Retold & Remixed (ZI Publications) and Remang: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales (Terrer Books).
Daphne is currently working on her second collection of short stories; a non-fiction exploration of the pontianak and other Southeast Asian female spirits; and her first novel, which is inspired by Daoist mythology and ancestral worship.
Because Daphne believes that folklore should be easily and freely accessible to everyone, she is working hard to set up an online archive of Malaysian folklore and welcomes anyone who would like to be involved in this project. You can contact her at daphne@daphnelee.org.
Malaysia-born and Singapore-based, Daryl Kho works in the regional TV industry, where he sells other people’s stories and ideas for a living. He is also the author of Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa, a fairytale for families published in July 2021 by Penguin Books SEAsia. Inspired by his family’s experience, the book aims to raise dementia awareness and appreciation for the elderly as well as for the power of stories. Especially those that can be found in our own backyards and in the minds of our elders. Visit http://darylkho.com to learn more!
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Deric is a writer, editor and arts manager from Seremban. He has curated and managed cultural events in Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. The Fixi Novo short story anthology KL Noir: Magic (2021) was his first foray into editing fiction. He wishes to spend the rest of his life gardening while listening to Taylor Swift.
Eeleen Lee was born in London, UK but has roots in Malaysia. After graduating from Royal Holloway College she several years as a lecturer and a copywriter until she took the leap into writing. As a result, her fiction since has appeared in various magazines and anthologies in the U.K, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.
Panel: Debut Author Journeys
Foo Sek Han is a legal professional, creative and legal writer, editor and translator based at Kuala Lumpur. His latest editing work is the 2020: An Anthology for the Fixi Novo imprint.
Gina Yap Lai Yoong merupakan penulis buku terlaris dengan terbitan 6 novel, di mana trilogi Ngeri dicetak semula melebihi 10 kali sejak terbitan pada tahun 2012. Dikenali sebagai Doktor Cerita, Gina adalah seorang perunding buku dan mentor penulis sejak tahun 2014. Beliau aktif dalam komuniti penulis dan arif dalam perihal penulisan dan penerbitan. Beliau juga sering menganjurkan aktiviti/program sastera, pesta penulis, dan kem penulisan di seluruh negara. Selain penulisan, beliau juga menganjurkan bengkel/kem untuk belia dalam bidang penciptaan boardgames, graphic design dan komunikasi media masa.
Bengkel: Siapa, Siapa dan Mengapakah Siapa
Although Golda’s first love is Asian History and Culture, she studied accounting concepts and graduated with a B.A. in Commerce from Waseda University, Japan in 1994. In 2004 she decided to leave the corporate world and go into writing fulltime. Since then she has produced the following titles: Iban Dream (2013), Iban Journey (2015), and Iban Woman (Monsoon Books, 2018), as well as The Nanobots and Other Stories (Oyez!Books, 2015), The Laughing Monster (Scholastic Singapore, 2018), and The Monk Prince (PRH Singapore, 2021). She has also registered Goose Books in Sibu and through it has published Fairy Con and Encounters in 2020.
Panel: Our Legends: Local Speculative Fiction & Mythology
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Pre-order The Monk Prince: Kinokuniya
Jaymee Goh is a writer, reviewer, editor, and essayist of speculative fiction. Her work has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, such as Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, and reprinted in LeVar Burton Reads and Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. Her reviews and nonfiction have appeared on Tor.com, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Strange Horizons. She co-edited The Sea Is Ours: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia (Rosarium 2015), and edited The WisCon Chronicles Vol. 11: Trials by Whiteness’(Aqueduct 2017). A graduate from the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop in 2016, she received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Riverside, where she dissertated in science fiction studies and critical race theory. She is an editor for Tachyon Publications.
Talk: Publishing 101
Jeremy is a Creative Director for AmmoboxStudios, a Malaysian-based games development studio that recently developed and launched Eximius: Seize the Frontline.
A pint-sized grad-student who spends their time day-dreaming about owning a bookstore slash coffee shop and translating danmei comics. They are very interested in culture and arts.
Kamalia Hasni, aka “Malie,” is a Malaysian writer with an MSc in Occupational Psychology from the University of Nottingham. Her first poetry book, An Ocean of Grey, explores the aftermath of a love that was promised a forever but had ended too soon, while her second book, A Wave of Dreams, follows her journey in healing from previous heartbreak, her empowering discovery of self-love and independence, her experiences and struggles in living alone in a new country, and her courage in giving love another chance. She is now enjoying life in the UK with her husband and their cat Momo, and hopes everyone to experience the same happiness she feels. Malie currently works in Sheffield and she loves making and selling clay earrings during her spare time.
Panel: BookTok, Bookstagram, and #AllThingsBuku / BookTok, Bookstagram, dan #AllThingsBuku
Kwan Ann Tan is a Malaysian writer currently based in London. Her work has been featured in The Offing, Joyland Magazine, The Masters Review, and Sine Theta Magazine, amongst others.
Panel: Making the Cut in Poetry
Since the age of nine, I have known three things to be true:
I wrote my first “novel” at that age, a story of a Japanese lady that married an American soldier during WWII and their struggles when he decided to bring his Japanese bride back to Oklahoma. The first chapter went well, then I experienced my first writer’s block and watched an episode of Scott Bakula’s Quantum Leap that told a similar storyline – so I canned my idea and then life got in the way.
My book, entitled O.R.B.: 300A.L. – The Last Known Prophecy, is the first of the O.R.B. series. In it are depictions of my life’s experiences conceptualised as a new age fictional world in the distant future (Oh! And of course, it stars my orb friends!).
At the moment, I am an author stuck in a real estate agent’s body. My journey to being an author may have been a long time coming, but perhaps I needed that time to arrive.
Panel: Debut Author Journeys
Lilian Li studied advertising with a double-minor in English and Entrepreneurship at Boston University. Born in Penang, she attended a Malaysian private school before moving to, and facing culture shock at, the island’s only American international school.
Each weekend, she would visit her grandmother on the mainland, Bukit Mertajam, which helped her to continue speaking Mandarin and inspired her to write about her home and the struggles that come with living in two worlds.
She wrote House of Koi as a love letter to her younger self, one she’d never seen represented before in the media, and hopes to inspire more Malaysian writers to share their stories. You can find her dillydallying on social media @lilianofli, slurping a Milo Dinosaur in a hawker center, or being a mermaid in the pool.
Panel: BookTok, Bookstagram, and #AllThingsBuku / BookTok, Bookstagram, dan #AllThingsBuku
Malachi Edwin Vethamani is a Malaysian Indian writer, poet, editor, critic, bibliographer and academic. He is Emeritus Professor with University of Nottingham. His poetry publications include Life Happens (Maya Press, 2017) and Complicated Lives (Maya Press, 2016). He edited Malchin Testament: Malaysian Poems (Maya Press, 2017), which won the Best Book prize in the English Language category for the Malaysian Best Book Award 2020 organised by the Malaysian Publishers Association. His latest publication is an edited volume of poems entitled Malaysian Millennial Voices (Maya Press, 2021). He has a collection of short stories, Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories (2018). A theatrical adaptation of three of his stories from Coitus Interruptus and Other Stories were reworked as monologues and performed as ‘Love Matters’ by Playpen Performing Arts Trust in Mumbai in 2017 and 2018. His edited volume of Malaysian short stories, Ronggeng-Ronggeng: Malaysian Short Stories (Maya Press, 2020) was shortlisted for the Best Book in the English language category for the Malaysian Best Book Award 2020 by the Malaysian Publishers Association. He is Founding Editor of Men Matters Online Journal.
Panel: Making the Cut in Poetry
May Chong is a poet/speculative writer who aims to tackle the heart and tickle the soul. Her verse has been published in various venues including Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Apparition Literary, and Anathema Magazine. Away from the keyboard, May enjoys birdwatching and terrible, terrible puns. Her first microchapbook Seed, Star, Song is now available from Ghost City Press.
Panel: Making the Cut in Poetry
Nana’s original poems and short stories have been published and performed both on international (USA, Singapore, Australia and Indonesia) and local platforms, in Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, and English. They also have self-published poetry and game zines of their own and that of others. They placed runner-up during Malaysia National Poetry Slam 2018 at the Georgetown Literature Festival.
Puisi dan cerpen Nana telah terbit dan dipersembahkan di peringkat tempatan serta antarabangsa (Amerika Syarikat, Singapura, Australia serta Indonesia) dalam beragam bahasa. Beliau giat menerbitkan zine puisi dan permainan sendiri dan juga untuk orang lain. Nana menang tempat kedua dalam pertandingan Malaysia National Poetry Slam 2018 di Georgetown Literature Festival.
Workshop / Bengkel: Forget Memorising: A Spoken Word Workshop / Hafal? Lupakan Saja! Bengkel Spoken Word
Zalina Abdul Aziz @ Ninot Aziz is an award-winning author, writer, media specialist and storyteller of many generations – daughter of Abang Tik, daughter of Chu Rahmah, daughter of Yang Chik, daughter of Bebunga. She focuses on novels with Hikayat and historical fiction themes.
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, Ninot Aziz grew up in the idyllic village of Chenor, Pahang and met her lifelong writing mentor in her English teacher and gymnastics coach Mrs Khaw Choon Ean at Sekolah Seri Puteri Kuala Lumpur.
A regular contributor to various mainstream media, she is today, a PR Consultant with bzBee Consult Sdn Bhd and lives in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
N.F. Afrina is a medical student who writes to stay sane. She is active on her Instagram (@heyitsnf) and Twitter (@heyitsnf) talking about books and writing. Her first book Inkling is now sold in local bookstores.
Panel: BookTok, Bookstagram, and #AllThingsBuku / BookTok, Bookstagram, dan #AllThingsBuku
Paul GnanaSelvam is an Ipoh-born writer and poet whose work often focuses on the experiences, issues and identity conflicts of those in the Indian diaspora. Writing since 2006, he has published both locally and internationally in anthologies, literary journals and e-magazines. His first collection of short stories Latha’s Christmas & Other Stories was published in 2013, while The Elephant Trophy & Other Stories was published by Penguin Random House SEA in 2021. He currently teaches writing while undertaking research focusing on instructional communication and L2 writing in higher education at University Tunku Abdul Rahman in Kampar, West Malaysia.
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Buy The Elephant Trophy and Other Stories: Kinokuniya | MPH
Priya K writes to make sense of the world around her, and hopes her work helps others in the same way. She began her career as a journalist, and has since explored various other forms of storytelling, including theatre, film, performance poetry, and video games. She currently works as a freelance writer by day, and is furiously typing out her first attempt at a full-length play by night.
RAM ANAND is a Malaysian journalist, filmmaker, and author of Orchids of the Rainforest. He wrote and directed the Indian short film Dusk, and has also worked on Malaysian television episodes and stage plays. He holds an MA in Film Direction from Bournemouth University, UK. Ram has spent the past decade writing extensively about Malaysian affairs in various local and regional publications. He currently writes for The Straits Times. He lives in Kuala Lumpur, having conceded that he would never resolve his identity crisis as a third-generation Malaysian Telugu, and because there’s no substitute for Malaysian food.
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia Presents…
Buy Orchids of the Rainforest: Kinokuniya
Shameera Nair Lin is a writer from Kuala Lumpur and the co-founder of the Malaysian Poetry Writing Fortnight. Her creative interests primarily revolve around unearthing the anti-colonial implications of ecology, music, identity, class, and resistance. Her recent poetry is featured in The Dark Horse, eucalyptus & rose literary magazine and others. She was longlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and is presently writing her second play.
Panel: Making the Cut in Poetry
Ted Mahsun’s short fiction has been published in various Malaysian anthologies and magazines. In 2017, his novels in Malay won the Third and Consolation prizes respectively in the Science Fiction and Technology Novel Writing Competition organised by UTM and Utusan. In 2018, he attended the Clarion West Writing Workshop for science fiction and fantasy in Seattle, Washington.
Terence Toh writes articles by day and fiction by night. The trick is not to get them mixed up. His day job is an editor at a regional publication. He is the author of many short stories, which have been published in many local anthologies. He is also the editor of Fixi Novo’s PJ Confidential. He has written two musicals which have won several Boh Cameronian Arts Awards. His debut novel, Toyols R Us, won the first Fixi Novo Malaysian Novel prize.
Panel: Debut Author Journeys
Civil litigation lawyer turned writer & performing artiste, Tina Isaacs has published numerous short stories locally and internationally.
This arts education activist founded the online Malaysian Writers Community, which helps over 7,500 Malaysian writers, poets, editors, bloggers and literary translators by providing advocacy and support in their craft development and publishing activities.
Tina served as Editor for the Malaysian Bar magazine Praxis (2010-2013) and was an Acquisitions Editor at the Malaysian branch of an International publishing house (2016-2018).
Tina maintains her legal practice in Construction law, Corporate Advisory, and Intellectual Property, while sharing her writing experience via Creative Writing courses for adults and children.
With qualifications in Law and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction), Tina is presently working on various writing & translation projects, and is about to embark on her Doctorate (PhD) study in Law & Literature.
Tunku Halim was first published three decades ago and has written non-fiction, several novels and collections of short stories. He has been dubbed Asia’s Stephen King and by delving into Malay myth, legends and folklore, his writing is often regarded as ‘World Gothic’.
His latest short story collection is the bestselling Scream to the Shadows. His first fictional work for middle-grade readers, The Midnight Children trilogy, was published this year with the first book entitled A Vanishing, the second Cemetery House and the final one The Moonlight World. His latest novel is A Malaysian Restaurant in London.
His non-fiction books include A Children’s History of Malaysia, History of Malaysia – A Children’s Encyclopedia (2013) and a biography of his late father, A Prince Called “Charlie”.
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Buy The Midnight Children Trilogy:
A Vanishing: Kinokuniya | MPH | Popular
Cemetery House: Kinokuniya | MPH | Popular
The Moonlight World: Kinokuniya | MPH | Popular
Tutu Dutta is a collector of old tales and a weaver of new tales. She is also an urban nomad who has lived in far-flung cities: Singapore, Lagos, New York, Havana and Zagreb; but her home base is Kuala Lumpur. Despite her fascination with folklore, her background is in science; she has a B.Sc from University Putra Malaysia and an M.Phil from the University of Malaya. Dutta is also the author of ten books, including Timeless Tales of Malaysia, a collection of folktales and legends from Malaysia. Her latest book is The Blood Prince of Langkasuka, published by Penguin RandomHouse SEA in Feb 2021. Her stories are known for featuring female protagonists (although The Blood Prince of Langkasuka features a male protagonist) and also for deep reverence for nature.
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Buy The Blood Prince of Langkasuka: Kinokuniya
Wan Phing Lim was born to Malaysian parents in 1986 in Butterworth, Penang. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies in the UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. She lives in Kuala Lumpur and Two Figures in a Car is her first short story collection.
Special Session: Penguin Random House Southeast Asia presents…
Zedeck Siew is a writer, translator and game designer based in Port Dickson. With visual artist Sharon Chin, he wrote the illustrated bestiary / herbiary Creatures of Near Kingdoms. With artist-designer Mun Kao, he co-designed political-party-simulator cardgame POLITIKO, and co-creates the RPG zine series “A Thousand Thousand Islands.” He thinks a lot about language and ghosts.
Zen Cho is the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown novels, Black Water Sister and various shorter fiction. She is a Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Award winner, and a finalist for the Lambda, Locus and Astounding Awards. She was born in Malaysia and lives in the UK.
Zhui Ning Chang is a freelance editor, writer, and award-winning theatre practitioner from Johor. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Fantasy/Animation, Strange Horizons, The Quiet Pond, and Writers’ HQ, among others, and her directing and writing for stage and audio drama have been presented with various companies and festivals in the UK and US. She was a participant writer on the 2020 Tamasha x Hachette publishing programme, and currently reads for khoreo magazine and Strange Horizons. Zhui Ning’s work often explores decoloniality, speculative futures, and building support and solidarity through storytelling.
Panel: Debut Author Journeys