Kara Fleming is originally from Kansas City, recently finished a Ph.D. on language and identity in Hong Kong, and now works as a lecturer in linguistics/English language at the University of Leeds, UK.
Ann Ang ’s poetry, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in publications and journals such as Eclectica Magazine, the Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore (QLRS), Kartika Review, The Common, Balik Kampung 2, and Softblow. Bang My Car, was launched at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2012. “Scared for What,” from the same collection, was included in The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories. Ann’s poetry was recently set to music in collaboration with experimental composition group Quinnuance.
Kamden Hilliard is a poet, writer, and educator running through Hawaii with his woes, which include fellowships from The Ucross Foundation, The Davidson Institute, and Callaloo. Kamden prefers Kam, is a poetry editor at Jellyfish Magazine, and the recipient of the 2015 Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Poetry Prize. His first chapbook, DISTRESS TOLERANCE, is forthcoming from Magic Helicopter Press in early 2016. Kam’s work has appeared in (or will drift into) Juked, Bodega, Word Riot, The Atlas Review, and other lovely places. He has no chill and wonders if you’ve got some to spare.
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, from the southern Philippines, writes in English and Visayan. His poems have been published in Dagmay Literary Journal and Kabisdak Cebuano Literary Lighthouse, among others. Recently, he has been anthologized at Sakayang Papel: Anthology of Bisaya Poetry. Currently, he works as a writer and copyreader for an urban lifestyle e-zine. He also blogs for a Geneva-based NGO. Online, he teaches intermediate to advanced English to East Asian professionals. Born a caffeinated vegan-metamodernist in parentless houses, he has a thing for gray sky mornings, awkward drunk-and-high moments, and apple-flavored beers.
Joey Chin (b. 1986, Singapore) is a writer and visual poet. Her MFA is from the City University of Hong Kong. An emerging academic, her research on visuals as symbolism in poetry has been awarded the Outstanding Academic Papers by Run Run Shaw Library and was most recently presented at The International Center for Comparative Sinology in China. In October, she was a winner in the 2015 Ethnographic Poetry Prize where her English lyric works based on the etymology of the Chinese script was awarded by the American Anthropological Association. Her writings can be found in Drunken Boat (USA), QLRS (Singapore), The Transnational (Germany, in German translation), and The Missing Slate (Pakistan), to name a few.
Boedi Widjaja (b. 1975) was born in Solo City, Indonesia, and lives and works in Singapore. Trained as an architect, he spent his young adulthood in graphic design and turned to art in his thirties. His childhood urban migration due to ethnic tensions, living apart from parents, and rotating amongst stranger-families informs his investigation into concerns regarding diaspora, hybridity, travel, and isolation, often through an oblique, autobiographical gaze. The artistic outcomes are processual and conceptually-charged, ranging from drawings to installations and live art. Recent accolades include: Finalist, Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2015); ArtReview Asia FutureGreats (014) selected by Louis Ho; Grand Prize (Sound Arts; with David Letellier); Bains Numeriques, France (2012); and First Prize, Land Transport Authority Art Competition Beauty World Station (2012). Widjaja has presented solo exhibitions at Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film (Singapore, 2016), Jendela Visual Arts Space, Esplanade (Singapore, 2014), The Substation (Singapore, 2012), and Yellow River Arts Centre Singapore base, Gillman Barracks (Singapore, 2012); and a forthcoming solo at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (Singapore, 2016), an Affiliate Project of the Singapore Biennale 2016. He will participate at the inaugural Yinchuan Biennale (Upcoming, 2016). He has also shown in group exhibitions at ArtScience Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, the Barbican, San Diego Art Institute, ArtJog, Centrale Montemartini in Rome, and Museum of Sydney.
Nathan Lauer is an American writer living in Hong Kong. His fiction has appeared in the Asia Literary Review, Buffalo Almanack, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, and The Eloquent Orifice, and is pending publication in the 2017 Hong Kong Writers Circle Anthology.
Jerome Lim reads English and Related Literature at the University of York. He is currently an editor of the literary magazine Unseen, and his creative works feature in local and overseas-based publications such as The Looking-Glass Anthology, Rambutan Literary, The Eloquent Orifice, and ASINGBOL, among others. He was a finalist of the inaugural Singapore National Poetry Competition, and the editorial assistant of SingPoWriMo 2016.
Joshua Ip is an award-winning poet, editor and literary organizer. He has written 2.5 collections of poetry, edited 4 anthologies for Math Paper Press, and is working on a graphic novel. He runs Sing Lit Station, a literary nonprofit that organises community initiatives including poetry.sg, SingPoWriMo, and Manuscript Bootcamp. www.joshuaip.com
Julie Rose Clark self published a book of poetry entitled I Like You Like I Love in 2000 and has had several poems published both online and in magazines. She has won commendations and prizes in the Huddersfield Literature Festival, Sheffield Literature Festival, Silver Birch Press, and The Northern Echo, to name just a few. She is forty-seven years old and currently lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK. She has a fourteen-year-old son, and she enjoys painting, walking the hills, meditating, and travelling. www.julieroseclark.co.uk
Kate Rogers was a featured reader at the poetry series Hot-Sauced Words (July 2016) in Toronto and ArtFest in Kingston, Ontario. She has also read at the League of Canadian Poets and the Quattro Books-Aeolus House Reading. Her poetry has appeared in The Guardian; Quixotica; Eastlit; Asia Literary Review; Cha: an Asian Literary Journal; Morel; The Goose: a Journal of Arts, Environment and Culture; Kyoto Journal; ASIATIC: the Journal of the Islamic University of Malaysia; Orbis International, Contemporary Verse II, and other journals. Her latest poetry collection is Foreign Skin (Aeolus House, Toronto 2015).
Samuel Caleb Wee thinks very hard about made up stuff and sometimes gets paid for using big words. Said big words have appeared in publications such as Poskod, Ceriph, Kitaab, and Esquire. He founded the satirical platform Cats of Singapore, and is also the co-editor of this is how you walk on the moon, an anthology of experimental anti-realist fiction to be published by Ethos Books in late 2016. He is afraid of Americans.
Al Lim is a rising sophomore at Yale-NUS College. Part-Thai and Singaporean, he studied in Sydney and South Carolina before serving National Service as a military police instructor. He is president of the Southeast Asian Society and INK: Literary Collective at Yale-NUS.
Luca L is an artist and writer whose practice ranges across writing, publishing, image-making, pranks, performance, collaboration, and critique. Her work has been featured in LUMA Westbau, Ikkan Art Gallery, Cha, Yale Literary Magazine, A Luxury We Must Afford, and Kaleidoscope Asia. She is an alumnus of Curating Lab 2014, Writing Lab 2014, and Brooklyn-based Triple Canopy’s 2015 Publication Intensive. She worked withTheatreWorks on a web-based project around its archival histories, “TheatreWorks (Re)Search”. She collaborates with Kenneth Tay on “Concrete Island”, a programme initiated under the NUS Museum, which takes the titular J. G. Ballard novel as point of departure and drift and examines Singapore as a micro-climate of exchanges, flows, and excess via the metaphor of the “concrete island”. She recently co-founded softWallstuds, a studio, project space, and library alongside Kenneth Loe, Wei Xin Chong, and Stephanie Burt.
Andrew Tan is a Singaporean writer and curator. He is interested in modes of collectively resisting the financialization and militarization of everyday culture, and of imagining and pursuing life beyond “modernity, coloniality, and sovereignty”.
Min Lim is a sophomore from Yale-NUS College, reading History. She is also a freelance graphic designer and is passionate about writing, photography, and classical antiquity. She is a grand prize winner of Singapore Poetry Writing Month 2016, and her poetry has been shortlisted for publication in the upcoming anthology, ASINGBOL. http://minlim.com
Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr., is a Filipino writer based in Singapore. He is the author of Requiem, a chapbook. His poems have been published in QLRS, Hayden's Ferry Review, We are a Website, and other journals and anthologies. He is a recipient of the Palanca Award for Poetry, the most prestigious literary award in the Philippines, as well as awards from British Council Singapore's Writing the City.
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé is the author of an epistolary novel, two hybrid works, and seven poetry collections. A former journalist, he has edited more than fifteen books and co-produced three audio books. Among other accolades, Desmond is the recipient of the PEN American Center Shorts Prize, Poetry World Cup, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, Independent Publisher Book Award, National Indie Excellence Book Award, Singapore Literature Prize, two Beverly Hills International Book Awards, and two Living Now Book Awards. He helms Squircle Line Press as its publisher and founding editor.
Abdul Hamid is currently a final-year student in Yale-NUS College. He dabbles in prose, poetry, and plays because he is fickle and cannot decide. He is owned by three cats.