THEME
here, there, everywhere
The talks at the inaugural SEA Lit Circle Writers Festival are geared toward us Southeast Asians reclaiming our stories and ourselves. We may be underrepresented, misrepresented, and overlooked globally. But we’re here, we’ve always been here, and we’re not going anywhere. This Writers Festival is all about supporting and being in community with each other, and realizing that the stories we’ve been missing are stories written by us, and that only we can write them for one another.
WHAT TO EXPECT
TALKS, MINI EXPO, ZINE MARKET, WRITERS WORKSHOP, COMMUNITY
Talks featuring writers in and from Southeast Asia.
Mini Expo featuring publishers, self-publishing companies, and literary agencies.
Zine Market where you can sell your zine or chapbook online, and buy the zines of fellow writers.
Writers Workshop to get feedback on your writing (featuring special guests!)
Community of writers and readers who help and uplift each other.
speakers
Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist from Jakarta, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation, with over two decades of professional translation experience. Okka’s work has been presented widely internationally, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, and access as translation. Among her honours, she has been MPT's Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, an Artforum Must-See, and Associate Artist at the UK’s National Centre for Writing. Okka’s books include Indigenous Species, Rope, and Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (as co-editor). Her latest is Ultimatum Orangutan, shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize.
Appearing at:
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Writing the personal, the political, and weaving both (15 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Decolonizing literature in the face of neocolonization (29 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Matthew Thompson
Joyce Chng
Joyce Chng lives in Singapore. Their fiction has appeared in The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier, Cranky Ladies of History, and Accessing The Future. Joyce also co-edited THE SEA IS OURS: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia with Jaymee Goh. Alter-ego J. Damask writes about werewolves in Singapore. Their YA fantasy, Fire Heart, is published by Scholastic Asia. You can find them at awolfstale.wordpress.com and @jolantru on Twitter. (Pronouns: she/her, they/their)
Appearing at:
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Reinterpreting local folklore and other narratives (29 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
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Decolonizing literature in the face of neocolonization (29 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
Vida Cruz-Borja
Vida Cruz-Borja is a Filipina fantasy and science fiction writer, editor, artist, and conrunner. Her short fiction and essays have been published in F&SF, Fantasy, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Expanded Horizons, and various anthologies. She won the 2022 IGNYTE Award for Best Creative Nonfiction for “We are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist,” which will be republished in Letters to a Writer of Color in Spring 2023. She is the author of two illustrated fantasy short story collections: Beyond the Line of Trees (2019) and Song of the Mango and Other New Myths (2022). Her work in her different fields has been nominated, longlisted, and recommended for the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. (now Otherwise) Award. Currently, she’s a freelance book editor with Tessera Editorial and The Darling Axe.
Appearing at:
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Publishing in SEA vs Publishing in the West (22 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
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Decolonizing literature in the face of neocolonization (29 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
Glenn Diaz
Glenn Diaz's first book The Quiet Ones (2017) won the Palanca Grand Prize and the Philippine National Book Award. His second novel Yñiga (2022) was shortlisted for the 2020 Novel Prize. He teaches literature and creative writing at the Ateneo de Manila University and lives in Quezon City.
Appearing at:
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The city as a setting imbued with politics, poverty, struggle (22 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
Tunku Halim
Tunku Halim doesn’t want to frighten you. He just likes telling stories, which often end up being scary.
Having been around for a while, his short story won the 1998 Fellowship of Australian Writers competition and his debut novel was nominated for the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Between 2015 and 2017 he had three consecutive wins in the Star-Popular Readers’ Choice Awards.
His books include the novel A Malaysian Restaurant in London (2015), the Middle-Grade Midnight Children trilogy (2021) and his latest short story collection My Lovely Skull & Other Skeletons (2022).
He judges writing competitions and gives talks at schools, festivals and universities on various subjects including creative writing and minimalism.
He is an advocate of environmental and mobile phone addiction awareness. He enjoys travelling, yoga and tai chi and currently lives in Penang.
Appearing at:
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Going beyond basic writing skills (1 July. 1:30 PM, GMT+8)
Long Litt Woon
Long Litt Woon (born 1958 in Malaysia) is an anthropologist and Norwegian Mycological Association-certified mushroom professional. She first visited Norway as a young exchange student. There she met and married Norwegian Eiolf Olsen. Her book The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning (Scribe Publications 2019) is currently available in 17 languages. She currently lives in Oslo, Norway. According to Chinese naming tradition, 'Long' is her surname and 'Litt Woon' her first name.
Appearing at:
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Writing the personal, the political, and weaving both (15 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Marc Nair
Marc Nair is a poet and photographer from Singapore. He has performed spoken word for twenty years and has represented Singapore in international poetry slam competitions. Marc has published six solo volumes of poetry and has released another four books in collaboration with visual artists, photographers and graphic artists. His latest collection of poetry is Sightlines. Marc is the co-founder of Mackerel, an online culture magazine. His third full-length spoken word album, Sounds Like A Buzz, was launched in 2022.
Appearing at:
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Spiritual journeys and the spiritual self (1 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
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The city as a setting imbued with politics, poverty, struggle (22 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Daniel Tan
Mai Nardone
Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He lives in Bangkok. Welcome Me to the Kingdom, his first book, was published in 2023 by Random House and Atlantic Books.
Appearing at:
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Debate: To MFA or not to MFA? (22 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
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The city as a setting imbued with politics, poverty, struggle (22 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Home: exploring the idea of connectedness, displacement, a place to escape from and/or return to (29 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Mailee Osten-Tan
Katrina Olan
Copywriter. Award-winning filmmaker. Best-selling author. Katrina Olan is a passionate creator with four years of experience in advertising, film, and the comics industry.
By trade, she writes scripts for TVCs, radio, and digital media, and crafts marketing communication plans for top brands around the Philippines. In June 2018, she was the Philippine representative at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Later that year, she was the first-ever Filipino student of the Google Creative Campus. In 2022, she was a Creative Liaisons mentee at the London International Awards.
Aside from work, she is a self-published author with two books—Tablay (Filipino sci-fi) and Skies Above (steampunk fantasy)—a travel filmmaker, and Dungeons & Dragons DM. She is currently working on her first webtoon and her first traditional publishing gig.
Appearing at:
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Reinterpreting local folklore and other narratives (29 July. 10 AM, GMT+8)
Ploi Pirapokin
Ploi Pirapokin is the Nonfiction Editor at Newfound Journal, and sits on the board for Khōréō Magazine, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction Magazine, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Pleiades, Ninth Letter, Gulf Stream Magazine, Sycamore Review and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Kundiman and others. A graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She currently teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension, WritingWorkshops.com, and the University of Hong Kong. She can be found at ppirapokin.com.
Appearing at:
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Depicting hardship: accuracy, ethics, and trauma porn (8 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Debate: To self-publish or traditionally publish? (15 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Writing the personal, the political, and weaving both (15 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
Image credit: JuanKR
Nabilah Said
Nabilah Said is a Singapore-based playwright, editor and artist who works with text as material. She has presented original plays with Singapore theatre companies Teater Ekamatra, The Necessary Stage and T:>Works, as well as independent creatives in Singapore. Her play ANGKAT: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native (2019) won Best Original Script at the 2020 Life Theatre Awards. Her play Inside Voices (2019) won the Outstanding New Work award at VAULT Festival, London, and was published by Nick Hern Books. She is currently under commission by Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Nabilah is the founder of playwright collective Main Tulis Group and theatre collective Rupa co.lab, which centre the voice of Malay playwrights. Nabilah is a trained journalist and editor, an educator, a published essayist and poet.
Appearing at:
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Home: exploring the idea of connectedness, displacement, a place to escape from and/or return to (29 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Erfendi Dhahlan
Lisa See
Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. Ms. See has also written a mystery series that take place in China. Her books have been published in 39 languages. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the History Maker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women. You can learn more about her at www.LisaSee.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Appearing at:
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Lady Tan’s Circle of Women and historical fiction (15 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Patricia Williams
Mike Stoner
Mike is originally from the south coast of the UK, but now lives in the Czech Republic with his wife and two kids. He first came to Prague in 1999 and finally moved there permanently in 2015.
Having had many jobs, ice-cream seller, policeman, and manager to name a few, he is currently a librarian/teacher at an international school. He spent a year living in Medan in Indonesia, which was the inspiration for his book Jalan Jalan. Mike has always loved writing and gained an MA in creative writing at the University of Kent, while working full-time.
He wishes he had more time (and money!) to travel more, but makes do with walking, cycling, playing tennis, and writing when he can find a quiet space. He misses the English sea but enjoys the forests and hills of the Czech Republic.
He finished and self-published his second book, I Am Book, about two years ago, and has just started work on another—hopefully the bestseller!
Appearing at:
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Debate: To self-publish or traditionally publish? (15 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
Bryan Thao Worra
Bryan Thao Worra presents internationally on science fiction poetry and the Southeast Asian diaspora, and served for 6 years as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association working with 400+ poets in over 19 countries. He holds over 20 awards for his writing and community service, and has presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival, the Library of Congress, the League of Minnesota Poets, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the 2012 London Summer Games, and more. The author of 8+ books and featured in 100+ publications, his newest collection is American Laodyssey (2023) from Sahtu Press as his community marks 50 years since the end of the US Secret War in Laos.
Appearing at:
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Telling untold stories from and about the fringes (1 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
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Debate: To MFA or not to MFA? (22 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Decolonizing literature in the face of neocolonization (29 July. 1:00 PM, GMT+8)
Esther Vincent Xueming
Esther Vincent Xueming is the author of Red Earth (Blue Cactus Press), an ecofeminist collection of poetry, and editor-in-chief and founder of The Tiger Moth Review, an independent eco journal of art and literature based in Singapore. She is co-editor of Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore (Ethos Books) and two poetry anthologies. Her second book of poetry is a forthcoming publication at Blue Cactus Press. You can read her essays on ecopoetry, interspecies kinships, ecofeminism and eco spirituality on The Trumpeter, EcoTheo Review, Sinking City Review and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
Appearing at:
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Ecowriting and healing (8 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
Isabel Yap
Isabel Yap writes fiction and poetry, works in tech, and drinks tea. Born and raised in Manila, she is currently based in New York. She holds a BS in Marketing from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her debut story collection, Never Have I Ever, was published in 2021 by Small Beer Press and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Her work has been a finalist for the Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and World Fantasy Awards, and has appeared in venues including Lithub and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. She is @visyap on Twitter and her website is isabelyap.com.
Appearing at:
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Publishing in SEA vs Publishing in the West (22 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
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Reinterpreting local folklore and other narratives (29 July. 10:00 AM, GMT+8)
Image credit: Meg Whittenberger
Dina Zaman
Dina Zaman is known as a writer based in Kuala Lumpur. Her writings have been published into three books, with a new one on the way. The published books are I Am Muslim, King of The Sea and Holy Men, Holy Women. Her new book, Malayland is being revised! She has appeared in international media and literary festivals, such as Aljazeera, the BBC, the Ubud Writer's Festival and the Georgetown Literary Festival. She is also a co-founder of IMAN Research, a local think tank focusing on socio-political and security matters, and a founding member of the Southeast Asian Women Peacebuilders. She has spoken at various conferences on preventing and countering violent extremism.
Appearing at:
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Spiritual journeys and the spiritual self (1 July. 3:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Reinterpreting local folklore and other narratives (29 July. 10 AM, GMT+8)
MAIN PROGRAM
saturday talks
Here’s an overview of the main program, which takes place on all Saturdays in July.
To learn more about each talk, scroll to the next section.
Telling untold stories from and about the fringes
with Bryan Thao Worra
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (GMT+8)
Going beyond basic writing skills
with Tunku Halim
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (GMT+8)
How to build your community as an author or reader
with 8Letters Bookstore & Publishing
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM (GMT+8)
Spiritual journeys and the spiritual self
with Marc Nair and Dina Zaman
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (GMT+8)
Mixer
4:45 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
MAIN PROGRAM
1 july (Saturday)
Telling untold stories from and about the fringes
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (GMT+8)
Why is it important to encourage narratives and creative works on the fringes of the cultural center? This talk will explore what untold stories can teach us; how they can challenge us; and how we can responsibly, compassionately, and ethically support such pieces—and each other—especially when they go against powerful systems.
Speaker:
Going beyond basic writing skills
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (GMT+8)
This talk will cover the basics of storytelling, such as setting, dialogue, character, and plot, and bring to light other creative writing tools that we often forget or don’t think about, so that the work can be more satisfying for the author and the reader.
Speaker:
Bryan Thao Worra
Bryan Thao Worra presents internationally on science fiction poetry and the Southeast Asian diaspora, and served for 6 years as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association working with 400+ poets in over 19 countries. He holds over 20 awards for his writing and community service, and has presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival, the Library of Congress, the League of Minnesota Poets, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the 2012 London Summer Games, and more. The author of 8+ books and featured in 100+ publications, his newest collection is American Laodyssey (2023) from Sahtu Press as his community marks 50 years since the end of the US Secret War in Laos.
How to build your community as an author or reader
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM (GMT+8)
Tunku Halim
Tunku Halim doesn’t want to frighten you. He just likes telling stories, which often end up being scary.
Having been around for a while, his short story won the 1998 Fellowship of Australian Writers competition and his debut novel was nominated for the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Between 2015 and 2017 he had three consecutive wins in the Star-Popular Readers’ Choice Awards.
His books include the novel A Malaysian Restaurant in London (2015), the Middle-Grade Midnight Children trilogy (2021) and his latest short story collection My Lovely Skull & Other Skeletons (2022).
He judges writing competitions and gives talks at schools, festivals and universities on various subjects including creative writing and minimalism.
He is an advocate of environmental and mobile phone addiction awareness. He enjoys travelling, yoga and tai chi and currently lives in Penang.
Belonging to a community with the same passion as you feeds the soul. If you are a writer, chances are, you’ll first approach the people in your community to get their support by buying your book. Or if you are a reader, it would be great to share what you just read with someone who cares because they read it too, right?
But what if you don’t feel like you belong to a certain group? If you start a community, how do you get people to join? How do you build a community around something you love from scratch?
In this talk by 8Letters Bookstore and Publishing founder, Cindy Wong will share valuable tips on how to build a sustainable community around something you love. She will also share her experiences in building and nurturing the 8Letters community.
Spiritual journeys and the spiritual self
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (GMT+8)
Narratives not only take place in the physical realm, and writing about faith and spirituality doesn’t necessarily mean writing about organized religion and religious traditions. This panel discussion aims to show various ways to explore and discuss faith (or lack thereof) in one’s writing, and how writing itself can shape one’s spirituality.
Speakers:
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Marc Nair
Marc Nair is a poet and photographer from Singapore. He has performed spoken word for twenty years and has represented Singapore in international poetry slam competitions. Marc has published six solo volumes of poetry and has released another four books in collaboration with visual artists, photographers and graphic artists. His latest collection of poetry is Sightlines. Marc is the co-founder of Mackerel, an online culture magazine. His third full-length spoken word album, Sounds Like A Buzz, was launched in 2022.
Dina Zaman
Dina Zaman is known as a writer based in Kuala Lumpur. Her writings have been published into three books, with a new one on the way. The published books are I Am Muslim, King of The Sea and Holy Men, Holy Women. Her new book, Malayland is being revised! She has appeared in international media and literary festivals, such as Aljazeera, the BBC, the Ubud Writer's Festival and the Georgetown Literary Festival. She is also a co-founder of IMAN Research, a local think tank focusing on socio-political and security matters, and a founding member of the Southeast Asian Women Peacebuilders. She has spoken at various conferences on preventing and countering violent extremism.
Mixer
4:45 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
A time to meet and mingle with fellow festivalgoers! Get to know each other better through fun prompts and activities.
MAIN PROGRAM
8 july (Saturday)
Ecowriting and healing
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (GMT+8)
So much of our interactions are founded upon fear, acts of violence, and alienation from others. How does writing about our interspecies entanglements offer opportunities for hope, reconciliation and healing? In this session, Esther Vincent Xueming will read an excerpt from her personal essay “Hamsa” and discuss how ecowriting can repair relationships for a more reciprocal co-existence on Earth.
Speaker:
Depicting hardship: accuracy, ethics, and trauma porn
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM (GMT+8)
Coup d’états, colonialism, and class. While the political is personal in most Southeast Asian narratives, writing from one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world means we have the right to explore the ramifications of violence, colonization, and objectification on our own terms. We’ll discuss different structures and forms that best hold our stories as well as create space for our silences, rules of engagement with our idealized readers, and take a look at excerpts of short fiction and essays from Southeast Asian writers in translation and from the diaspora such as Madeline Thien, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Grace Shuyi Liew, Edward Gunawan, Isabel Yap, and more, as examples and inspirations to write subversive and transformative narratives that center our stories. The latter portion will be dedicated to writing exercises, tips, and Q&A.
Speaker:
Esther Vincent Xueming
Esther Vincent Xueming is the author of Red Earth (Blue Cactus Press), an ecofeminist collection of poetry, and editor-in-chief and founder of The Tiger Moth Review, an independent eco journal of art and literature based in Singapore. She is co-editor of Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore (Ethos Books) and two poetry anthologies. Her second book of poetry is a forthcoming publication at Blue Cactus Press. You can read her essays on ecopoetry, interspecies kinships, ecofeminism and eco spirituality on The Trumpeter, EcoTheo Review, Sinking City Review and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
Ploi Pirapokin
Ploi Pirapokin is the Nonfiction Editor at Newfound Journal, and sits on the board for Khōréō Magazine, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction Magazine, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Pleiades, Ninth Letter, Gulf Stream Magazine, Sycamore Review and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Kundiman and others. A graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She currently teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension, WritingWorkshops.com, and the University of Hong Kong. She can be found at ppirapokin.com.
SEArious about comics
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM (GMT+8)
Spend some time with Difference Engine, an independent comics publisher committed to publishing diverse, well-written, and beautifully illustrated comics inspired by Southeast Asia. In addition to their main publishing line, Difference Engine also publishes DE Shorts, an imprint focused on self-contained stories on a wide range of social issues such as mental health, pregnancy loss, and menstruation. Learn more about the comics they have published and the stories they are looking out for. Drop by this session and share your views on the comics you want to read!
Difference Engine will also be holding three consultation sessions during the festival that will delve deeper into the creation process for different types of comics.
Mini Expo
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
Connect with and learn more about exhibitors from the Southeast Asian writing scene. Explore the Mini Expo grounds and step into interactive booths to see what services and tools are available to help in your writing journey.
MAIN PROGRAM
15 july (Saturday)
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women and historical fiction
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (GMT+8)
What is the value of historical fiction, and how does one go about researching to tell historical fiction that feels lived in? Lisa See will answer those questions in this talk by using her latest novel, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, as reference.
Speaker:
Debate: To self-publish or traditionally publish?
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (GMT+8)
This debate, which will take the form of a one-on-one discussion, aims to help writers discern which between self-publishing and traditional publishing suits them better. Mike Stoner and Ploi Pirapokin will share their experiences in and insights on self-publishing and traditional publishing, respectively, so you can expect to learn the benefits and disadvantages of each.
Speakers:
Lisa See
Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. Ms. See has also written a mystery series that takes place in China. Her books have been published in 39 languages. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the History Maker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women. You can learn more about her at www.LisaSee.com. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Mike Stoner
Mike is originally from the south coast of the UK, but now lives in the Czech Republic with his wife and two kids. He first came to Prague in 1999 and finally moved there permanently in 2015.
Having had many jobs, ice-cream seller, policeman, and manager to name a few, he is currently a librarian/teacher at an international school. He spent a year living in Medan in Indonesia, which was the inspiration for his book Jalan Jalan. Mike has always loved writing and gained an MA in creative writing at the University of Kent, while working full-time.
He wishes he had more time (and money!) to travel more, but makes do with walking, cycling, playing tennis, and writing when he can find a quiet space. He misses the English sea but enjoys the forests and hills of the Czech Republic.
He finished and self-published his second book, I Am Book, about two years ago, and has just started work on another—hopefully the bestseller!
Ploi Pirapokin
Ploi Pirapokin is the Nonfiction Editor at Newfound Journal, and sits on the board for Khōréō Magazine, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction Magazine, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Pleiades, Ninth Letter, Gulf Stream Magazine, Sycamore Review and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Kundiman and others. A graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She currently teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension, WritingWorkshops.com, and the University of Hong Kong. She can be found at ppirapokin.com.
Decolonizing the writers workshop
2:45 PM - 3:00 PM (GMT+8)
SEA Lit Circle, a community of writers and readers in Southeast Asia, holds monthly writers workshops for its members. In this talk, it will share its issues with the traditional writers workshop, which is often found in universities, and propose ideas for a more inclusive and supportive workshop design.
Writing the personal, the political, and weaving both
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (GMT+8)
We’ve heard it said before that the personal is political, but some of us still stick to writing stories that are solely personal or solely political. This talk will explore why interweaving the personal and the political aspects is important for the work itself, the author, and the readers, and offer tips and techniques for letting each stand on their own and inform the other.
Speakers:
Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist from Jakarta, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation, with over two decades of professional translation experience. Okka’s work has been presented widely internationally, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, and access as translation. Among her honours, she has been MPT's Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, an Artforum Must-See, and Associate Artist at the UK’s National Centre for Writing. Okka’s books include Indigenous Species, Rope, and Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (as co-editor). Her latest is Ultimatum Orangutan, shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize.
Long Litt Woon
Long Litt Woon (born 1958 in Malaysia) is an anthropologist and Norwegian Mycological Association-certified mushroom professional. She first visited Norway as a young exchange student. There she met and married Norwegian Eiolf Olsen. Her book The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning (Scribe Publications 2019) is currently available in 17 languages. She currently lives in Oslo, Norway. According to Chinese naming tradition, 'Long' is her surname and 'Litt Woon' her first name.
Ploi Pirapokin
Ploi Pirapokin is the Nonfiction Editor at Newfound Journal, and sits on the board for Khōréō Magazine, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction Magazine, and the Ragdale Foundation. Her work is featured in Tor.com, Pleiades, Ninth Letter, Gulf Stream Magazine, Sycamore Review and more. She has received grants and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Creative Capacity Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi, Kundiman and others. A graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She currently teaches at the Writers Program at UCLA Extension, WritingWorkshops.com, and the University of Hong Kong. She can be found at ppirapokin.com.
Mini Expo
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
Connect with and learn more about exhibitors from the Southeast Asian writing scene. Explore the Mini Expo grounds and step into interactive booths to see what services and tools are available to help in your writing journey.
MAIN PROGRAM
22 july (Saturday)
Publishing in SEA vs Publishing in the West
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM (GMT+8)
The publishing scenes in Southeast Asia and the West have their own developments, shortcomings, readership, and aesthetics. In this talk, two Southeast Asian writers who’ve published locally and abroad will discuss their observations and experiences, and offer tips and suggestions for writers who want to grow their audience or have their work reach their intended readers.
Speakers:
Debate: To MFA or not to MFA?
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (GMT+8)
This formal debate will help writers decide if pursuing an MFA in creative writing aligns with their writing goals. Mai Nardone and Bryan Thao Worra will deliver their arguments and answer questions from the audience.
Speakers:
Vida Cruz-Borja
Vida Cruz-Borja is a Filipina fantasy and science fiction writer, editor, artist, and conrunner. Her short fiction and essays have been published in F&SF, Fantasy, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Expanded Horizons, and various anthologies. She won the 2022 IGNYTE Award for Best Creative Nonfiction for “We are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist,” which will be republished in Letters to a Writer of Color in Spring 2023. She is the author of two illustrated fantasy short story collections: Beyond the Line of Trees (2019) and Song of the Mango and Other New Myths (2022). Her work in her different fields has been nominated, longlisted, and recommended for the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. (now Otherwise) Award. Currently, she’s a freelance book editor with Tessera Editorial and The Darling Axe.
Isabel Yap
Isabel Yap writes fiction and poetry, works in tech, and drinks tea. Born and raised in Manila, she is currently based in New York. She holds a BS in Marketing from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her debut story collection, Never Have I Ever, was published in 2021 by Small Beer Press and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Her work has been a finalist for the Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and World Fantasy Awards, and has appeared in venues including Lithub and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. She is @visyap on Twitter and her website is isabelyap.com.
Mai Nardone
Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He lives in Bangkok. Welcome Me to the Kingdom, his first book, was published in 2023 by Random House and Atlantic Books.
Bryan Thao Worra
Bryan Thao Worra presents internationally on science fiction poetry and the Southeast Asian diaspora, and served for 6 years as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association working with 400+ poets in over 19 countries. He holds over 20 awards for his writing and community service, and has presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival, the Library of Congress, the League of Minnesota Poets, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the 2012 London Summer Games, and more. The author of 8+ books and featured in 100+ publications, his newest collection is American Laodyssey (2023) from Sahtu Press as his community marks 50 years since the end of the US Secret War in Laos.
The city as a setting imbued with politics, poverty, struggle
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (GMT+8)
The city can seem alluring with its mass of luxuries and, especially in the central business districts, squeaky-clean surfaces. But we know reality is messier than that due to increasing socio-economic divides, land grabs and the destruction of nature, and the censorship of people who speak their truths, among others. This talk will cover the ways in which writers can capture the grittiness and hardships that come with city living. Why does it matter that the city, as a setting, is alive in one’s stories? And how can one safely challenge or question the state’s narrative that all’s well in the city?
Speakers:
Glenn Diaz
Glenn Diaz’s first book The Quiet Ones (2017) won the Palanca Grand Prize and the Philippine National Book Award. His second novel Yñiga (2022) was shortlisted for the 2020 Novel Prize. He teaches literature and creative writing at the Ateneo de Manila University and lives in Quezon City.
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Marc Nair
Marc Nair is a poet and photographer from Singapore. He has performed spoken word for twenty years and has represented Singapore in international poetry slam competitions. Marc has published six solo volumes of poetry and has released another four books in collaboration with visual artists, photographers and graphic artists. His latest collection of poetry is Sightlines. Marc is the co-founder of Mackerel, an online culture magazine. His third full-length spoken word album, Sounds Like A Buzz, was launched in 2022.
Mai Nardone
Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He lives in Bangkok. Welcome Me to the Kingdom, his first book, was published in 2023 by Random House and Atlantic Books.
Mini Expo
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (GMT+8)
Connect with and learn more about exhibitors from the Southeast Asian writing scene. Explore the Mini Expo grounds and step into interactive booths to see what services and tools are available to help in your writing journey.
MAIN PROGRAM
29 july (Saturday)
Reinterpreting local folklore and other narratives
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (GMT+8)
With the resurgence of local lore and myths, where does one draw the line between “accurate” depictions and contemporary retellings? What do we stand to gain when we shed new light on our folklore or when we uncover silenced histories? This panel will touch on ways to re-imagine and re-analyze the narratives and characters we grew up with, in order to critique or honor our source material.
Speakers:
Joyce Chng
Joyce Chng lives in Singapore. Their fiction has appeared in The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier, Cranky Ladies of History, and Accessing The Future. Joyce also co-edited THE SEA IS OURS: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia with Jaymee Goh. Alter-ego J. Damask writes about werewolves in Singapore. Their YA fantasy, Fire Heart, is published by Scholastic Asia. You can find them at awolfstale.wordpress.com and @jolantru on Twitter. (Pronouns: she/her, they/their)
Katrina Olan
Copywriter. Award-winning filmmaker. Best-selling author. Katrina Olan is a passionate creator with four years of experience in advertising, film, and the comics industry.
By trade, she writes scripts for TVCs, radio, and digital media, and crafts marketing communication plans for top brands around the Philippines. In June 2018, she was the Philippine representative at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Later that year, she was the first-ever Filipino student of the Google Creative Campus. In 2022, she was a Creative Liaisons mentee at the London International Awards.
Aside from work, she is a self-published author with two books—Tablay (Filipino sci-fi) and Skies Above (steampunk fantasy)—a travel filmmaker, and Dungeons & Dragons DM. She is currently working on her first webtoon and her first traditional publishing gig.
Isabel Yap
Isabel Yap writes fiction and poetry, works in tech, and drinks tea. Born and raised in Manila, she is currently based in New York. She holds a BS in Marketing from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her debut story collection, Never Have I Ever, was published in 2021 by Small Beer Press and won the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Her work has been a finalist for the Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and World Fantasy Awards, and has appeared in venues including Lithub and Year’s Best Weird Fiction. She is @visyap on Twitter and her website is isabelyap.com.
Dina Zaman
Dina Zaman is known as a writer based in Kuala Lumpur. Her writings have been published into three books, with a new one on the way. The published books are I Am Muslim, King of The Sea and Holy Men, Holy Women. Her new book, Malayland is being revised! She has appeared in international media and literary festivals, such as Aljazeera, the BBC, the Ubud Writer's Festival and the Georgetown Literary Festival. She is also a co-founder of IMAN Research, a local think tank focusing on socio-political and security matters, and a founding member of the Southeast Asian Women Peacebuilders. She has spoken at various conferences on preventing and countering violent extremism.
Decolonizing literature in the face of neocolonization
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (GMT+8)
This panel will shed light on literary elements, practices, and ideas that stifle or constrict the voices of people of color and other marginalized groups—and discuss how we can relearn to express ourselves and tell our stories based on what feels more natural to us and our relationship with our native languages. It also aims to give writers the strength and choice to overcome standards or systems that exclude us.
Speakers:
Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist from Jakarta, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation, with over two decades of professional translation experience. Okka’s work has been presented widely internationally, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, and access as translation. Among her honours, she has been MPT's Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, an Artforum Must-See, and Associate Artist at the UK’s National Centre for Writing. Okka’s books include Indigenous Species, Rope, and Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (as co-editor). Her latest is Ultimatum Orangutan, shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize.
Digital reading beyond ebooks
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM (GMT+8)
Bryan Thao Worra
Bryan Thao Worra presents internationally on science fiction poetry and the Southeast Asian diaspora, and served for 6 years as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association working with 400+ poets in over 19 countries. He holds over 20 awards for his writing and community service, and has presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival, the Library of Congress, the League of Minnesota Poets, Poets House, Kearny Street Workshop, the 2012 London Summer Games, and more. The author of 8+ books and featured in 100+ publications, his newest collection is American Laodyssey (2023) from Sahtu Press as his community marks 50 years since the end of the US Secret War in Laos.
Vida Cruz-Borja
Vida Cruz-Borja is a Filipina fantasy and science fiction writer, editor, artist, and conrunner. Her short fiction and essays have been published in F&SF, Fantasy, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Expanded Horizons, and various anthologies. She won the 2022 IGNYTE Award for Best Creative Nonfiction for “We are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist,” which will be republished in Letters to a Writer of Color in Spring 2023. She is the author of two illustrated fantasy short story collections: Beyond the Line of Trees (2019) and Song of the Mango and Other New Myths (2022). Her work in her different fields has been nominated, longlisted, and recommended for the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. (now Otherwise) Award. Currently, she’s a freelance book editor with Tessera Editorial and The Darling Axe.
Joyce Chng
Joyce Chng lives in Singapore. Their fiction has appeared in The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier, Cranky Ladies of History, and Accessing The Future. Joyce also co-edited THE SEA IS OURS: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia with Jaymee Goh. Alter-ego J. Damask writes about werewolves in Singapore. Their YA fantasy, Fire Heart, is published by Scholastic Asia. You can find them at awolfstale.wordpress.com and @jolantru on Twitter. (Pronouns: she/her, they/their)
Discover new ways to adapt literary work into digital experiences! Explore online choose-your-own-adventure stories, VR 360 experiences, Google Street View enhancements, AR filters, and more with Tusitala.
Home: exploring the idea of connectedness, displacement, a place to escape from and/or return to
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (GMT+8)
The talk will show the many ways we can explore the idea of “home” in our stories: home as our hometown or motherland; home as our planet that’s being destroyed; as our families, friends, or found families; and the elusive feeling of being in the right place with the right people.
Speakers:
Mai Nardone
Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He lives in Bangkok. Welcome Me to the Kingdom, his first book, was published in 2023 by Random House and Atlantic Books.
Nabilah Said
Nabilah Said is a Singapore-based playwright, editor and artist who works with text as material. She has presented original plays with Singapore theatre companies Teater Ekamatra, The Necessary Stage and T:>Works, as well as independent creatives in Singapore. Her play ANGKAT: A Definitive, Alternative, Reclaimed Narrative of a Native (2019) won Best Original Script at the 2020 Life Theatre Awards. Her play Inside Voices (2019) won the Outstanding New Work award at VAULT Festival, London, and was published by Nick Hern Books. She is currently under commission by Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Nabilah is the founder of playwright collective Main Tulis Group and theatre collective Rupa co.lab, which centre the voice of Malay playwrights. Nabilah is a trained journalist and editor, an educator, a published essayist and poet.
Open Mic
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (GMT+8)
An evening for sharing or performing your work with fellow Southeast Asians writers and celebrating each other’s stories!
mini expo
The SEA Lit Circle Writers Festival isn’t complete without a Mini Expo to connect festivalgoers with exhibitors from the Southeast Asian writing industry. You will get to explore the Mini Expo grounds and step into interactive booths to see what services and tools are available to help you. The Mini Expo will run only during dedicated times, so be sure to check it out when it opens!
Mini Expo hours: 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM (GMT+8) on 8 July, 15 July, and 22 July.
MAJOR EXHIBITORS
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MINOR EXHIBITORS
Teaspoon
Publishing
Vida Cruz-Borja
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Zine market
At SEA Lit Circle, we’re all about empowering individuals to express their truths. So it’s only natural for us to host a Zine Market as a celebration of self-published works. The short and digestible format of zines makes them very accessible to both authors and readers alike.
The Zine Market is open to all authors! The zines will be available to purchase and download on a dedicated online store, which will be open from 1 July to 30 July.
Authors keep 100% of the sales revenue.
The Zine Market is open from 1 July to 30 July
Writers workshop
SEA Lit Circle is composed of thoughtful writers and avid readers who are committed to helping each other tell their stories and produce stronger literary works.
The Writers Workshop at the SEA Lit Circle Writers Festival will be guested by festival speakers Joyce Chng, Vida Cruz-Borja, Marc Nair, Ploi Pirapokin, Bryan Thao Worra, and Dina Zaman, who will give constructive feedback alongside members of the SEA Lit Circle community. Discussions will be author-led to ensure all comments are helpful and productive.
We accept poetry, short fiction, literary essays, and one-act plays or screenplays in English.
Submissions open on 2 July and close on 9 July.
Workshop dates: 18, 23, 25, 27, 30 July
Slots are limited and exclusively for SEA Lit Circle members.