Winnie
M. Li
Winnie’s debut Dark Chapter won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize and was translated into 10 languages, and her latest novel Complicit was a New York Times Editors' Choice. She is an Associate Lecturer in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has mentored for a number of organisations, including Spread The Word, Writing on the Wall, Arvon Foundation and more. Winnie also holds a PhD in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics. winniemli.com
Tania
Tay
Tania Tay’s debut adult novel The Other Woman won Headline's inaugural Modern Stories Open Submissions Initiative, and is published by Headline Accent. Her writing often explores female friendship and motherhood. She’s also the author of Spellcasters, a magical middle grade series under pen name, Crystal Sung. She developed a screenplay with BBC Writers Room, worked as an advertising copywriter, and has an MA in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh. Website: taniatay.com X @taniatay88 Instagram @taniatay88
Stephanie Sy-Quia
Stephanie Sy-Quia is a writer, printmaker, and teacher based in London. Her debut work of poetry, Amnion, won the 2021 Forward Prize for Best First Collection, an Eric Gregory Award, and a Somerset Maugham Award. Her writing has appeared in The White Review, Financial Times, The i, Tank, and Port, among others.
Sojung
Kim-
McCarthy
Sojung Kim-McCarthy is an author-illustrator based in Dorset, UK. After studying VisComm (BFA) at Hong-ik University, she worked as a designer-in-chief for a leading children’s magazine as well as a children’s art and design educator. Sojung won a World Illustration Award in 2021 with her Minari movie postcard illustrations. She has also been highly commended for both the FAB Prize and the Macmillan Prize, as well as being long listed for the House of Illustration & Folio Society Book Illustration Competition. She moved to the UK in 2010 to study Illustration (MA) in Arts University Bournemouth and have been working as an illustrator ever since.
Sinéad
Gosai
Sinéad Gosai is a dynamic and creative PR Consultant with almost two decades of experience working in the media, not-for-profit and publishing industries. She has developed press strategies for international authors and bestsellers, created publicity campaigns for beloved children’s book creators, and managed busy press offices and teams across multiple organisations. Sinéad is passionate about getting a wider range of stories told and expanding people's reading lists. sineadgosaipr.com
Natelle Quek
Natelle is a Malaysian-born illustrator who grew up in New Zealand, and now lives in leafy Southeast England with her husband and their rescue cat, Patch. Natelle currently works with a growing list of clients, focusing on children’s illustration, in particular picture books (including Once Upon A Storytime, written by Gareth Peter, One Day At A Time, written by Rachel Ip), and young fiction (including Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu, written by Maisie Chan, Finally Seen, written by Kelly Yang). Natelle loves to use bold colours and cinematic perspectives to draw audiences into her worlds. Working digitally, her illustrations often revolve around real life themes commingled with fantastical adventures.
In her free time Natelle loves to explore nature trails with her husband, track down delicious pastries from around the world, and tend to her house plants. Find Natelle on Instagram @natelledrawsstuff.
Nadia Mikael
Nadia Mikail has two hugely beloved cats and is angling for another. When she isn't writing, she moonlights as a legal assistant. Her first book, The Cats We Meet Along The Way, was published by Guppy Books in 2022, and it won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2023.
She is @snsknene on Twitter and Instagram
Mina Ikemoto Ghosh
Mina Ikemoto Ghosh is the British-Japanese author-illustrator of the YA fantasy novel Hyo the Hellmaker and adult fantasy novella Numamushi. She has a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and MSc in Japanese Studies from the University of Oxford. You can summon her from the void with offerings of good laughs, noodles and karaoke. She lives in Surrey. Find her on Instagram as @minaikemoto119.
The Mollusc Dimension
Born in 1980, The Mollusc Dimension aka Squid (he/him) is a queer, trans, British-born Chinese, multidisciplinary project-based artist and songwriter with many tentacles! Often about his personal experiences, his work tends to explore mental health, grief and neurodivergence and he seeks to transform trauma via colour, humour and absurdity. His debut autobiographical comic collection, The Weird & Wonderful Surviveries of Squid Horse is out in October 2024. Embarking upon more interactive projects along his squiggly path to comics, he's very excited to join ESEA Lit Fest for his first ever live comic jam.
Maisie
Chan
Maisie Chan is children's author whose debut novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths won the Jhalak Prize and the Branford Boase Award in 2022. She also writes the series Tiger Warrior. She has written early readers for Hachette and Big Cat Collins and has a collection of myths and legends out with Scholastic. She runs the Bubble Tea Writers Network to support and encourage writers of East and Southeast Asian descent in the U.K. She has a dog called Miko who has big eyes. She lives in Glasgow
with her family.
Lui Sit
Lui Sit was born in Hong Kong, raised in Australia and now lives in London. She writes children’s middle grade books, adult short fiction, and nonfiction. She won the 2022 FAB Prize and is an alumnus of the London Writers Award, Penguin WriteNow & Harper Collins Author Academy schemes. Her stories are published in anthologies including Mainstream, Superlative, Short Good Things, Fudoki, City of Stories, Willesden Herald New Short Stories, Meniscus, Wensum and Out of The Box. She has a couple of undergraduate degrees in humanities and social sciences and a MA in Dance Anthropology. Her debut children’s middle grade book, Land of the Last Wildcat will be published in May 2025 and her lower middle grade project with Storymix in June 2025.
www.lui-land.co.uk @lui.land @Lui_Loowee_Sit
Lucy Tandon Copp
Lucy Tandon Copp is a Malaysian-Chinese English children's author and award-winning journalist; her debut picture book is due to publish in August 2024 as the first in a two-book deal. In 2022, Lucy was selected to join Penguin UK's WriteNow Editorial Programme, which champions authors from underrepresented backgrounds. She is now represented by Lydia Silver from the Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency. Lucy is passionate about increasing mixed race and BESEA representation in children's books and on UK bookshelves. Her stories are bursting with heart and spread a message of inclusivity and empathy through lovable characters that everyone can relate to. After reading Classics at the University of Bristol, Lucy completed an NCTJ diploma in multimedia journalism at News Associates in London with a scholarship from the NUJ’s George Viner Memorial Fund, which aims to increase diversity in the British media. She went on to spend 10 years working across newspapers, and consumer and trade magazines, before moving into children's publishing. @lucytc_writes
Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka is a writer, artist, and translator from Jakarta, and former Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Among her honours, she was a UNFPA Indonesian Young Leader Driving Social Change, an Associate Artist at the UK's National Centre for Writing, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Asian Women of Achievement Awards. Okka’s work has been presented widely internationally, and centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis and environmental justice, and access as translation. Her latest books are Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), shortlisted for the 2022 Barbellion Prize, and 2024’s amuk (Nine Arches). khairanibarokka.com
Ivy
Ngeow
Ivy Ngeow was born and raised in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. She holds an MA in Writing from Middlesex University, where she won the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize out of almost 1500 entrants worldwide. Her debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong. Her novels include Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and White Crane Strikes (2022). She is commissioning editor of the Asian Anthology New Writing series. The American Boyfriend was longlisted for the Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize for Commercial Fiction Writers of Colour 2022 and is published by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia in 2023. She lives in London.
Hongwei
Bao
Hongwei Bao (he/they) grew up in Inner Mongolia, China, and teaches at the University of Nottingham. He writes poetry, flash fiction and short stories in English as a second language. His work is largely informed by his migration experience and explores the issue of identity, especially queer and East Asian identities – how they have been historically and socially marginalised and how people live within and without their limits. He is the author of the poetry pamphlet Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (Big White Shed Press, 2024) and poetry collection The Passion of The Rabbit God (Valley Press, 2024). The former narrates a queer, transcultural relationship and the latter is a story of queer Asian migration experience intertwined with a contemporary retelling of the Rabbit God story. His work navigates the in-between spaces between linguistic, cultural and literary traditions. His flash fiction ‘A Postcard from Berlin’ was a runner-up for the Plaza Prize for Microfiction in 2023. His nonfiction work Queering the Asian Diaspora: East and Southeast Asian Sexuality, Identity and Cultural Politics will be published by Sage in December. Find him on X (@Patrickbao1) and Instagram (@Patrickbao123).
Eva
Wong Nava
Eva Wong Nava is a child of the diaspora. She was born in Singapura, a tropical island where a merlion protects its inhabitants from marauding pirates. Eva lives between two worlds, and multiple universes. She is a sixth generation Peranakan-Chinese, a person of Nusantara, who exists in two cultures, heritages, and languages. Eva's ancestors sailed from the Middle Kingdom in the 19th century to plant roots in Nanyang. She combines degrees in English and Art History, and writes for children across age ranges and genres, in the English language. She is the author of Scholastic’s middle-grade classic collection, East Asian Folktales, Myths and Legends, and the best-selling picture book I Love Chinese New Year. Eva lives in the Land of Albion with a goat, tiger, and dog. Contact her on Twitter and Instagram @evawongnava, or find her at ​evawongnava.com.
Emma
Farrarons
Born in the island of Cebu in The Philippines, Emma moved to Paris as a baby. Emma pursued studies at The Edinburgh College of Art and an erasmus at The École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. After moving to London, she found herself drawn into the world of picture book design at Macmillan Children’s Books, where she worked over 16 years. When the pandemic hit, Emma decided to take the plunge and focus entirely on her passion for picture book illustration. Emma's creative journey has led her to team up with author Charlie Castle to create their debut picture book, My Hair is as Long as a River, currently out in book stores. Today, she is developing her author and graphic novel voice for an exciting new project. @emmafarrarons emmafarrarons.com
Eliza Chan
Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born speculative fiction author who writes about East Asian mythology, British folklore and reclaiming the dragon lady. Her short fiction has been published in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine, The Best of British Fantasy and Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror. Her debut novel Fathomfolk — inspired by mythology, ESEAN cities and diaspora feels — was published by Orbit in Spring 2024. She has been a medical school drop-out, a kilt shop assistant, an English teacher and a speech and language therapist, but currently she spends her time tabletop gaming, cosplaying, crafting and toddler wrangling.
Find out more on her website www.elizachan.co.uk.
Cristina Martinez-
Juan
Cristina Martinez-Juan has a PhD in Comparative Literature. In 2017, she spearheaded the creation of Philippine Studies at SOAS under the Centre of South East Asian Studies, an interdisciplinary forum for Philippine-related teaching, research and cultural production in the UK. Cristina has implemented a number of SOAS digital projects that seek to not only provide open access to colonial archives but also create avenues for sourcing and inscribing annotative knowledge from academic and cultural originators in the Philippines and South East Asia. Ongoing Digital Humanities Projects include: Digital Filipiniana and Mapping Philippine Material Culture . She is currently working on a knowledge-base for Decolonizing South East Asian Sound Archives. She is the editor of The 1762 British Invasion of Spanish-Ruled Philippines : Beyond Imperial and National Imaginaries
Candy Gourlay
Candy Gourlay was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her husband during a revolution. Her novels have been shortlisted for many prizes including the Waterstones, the Blue Peter, the Guardian Children's Book Award, the Costa and the Carnegie. Her latest novel for young adults Wild Song transports its characters to the 1904 World Fair in America. It was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and the inaugural Nero Book Award. She loves making comics and waging war on the snails in her garden. “Wild Song is a stunning achievement” The Bookseller. Find her on candygourlay.co.uk • Twitter @candygourlay • Instagram @candygourlay
Callie
Kazumi
Callie Kazumi is a British-Japanese writer who started work on her first book after being gifted Stephen King's On Writing by her father. She lives in London with her husband and their Bichon Frisé, Betsy. Cuckoo is her debut novel.
Anne Chen
Anne Chen is British-Chinese and lives in London with her husband and two children. She studied Physics at UCL and the University of Surrey and worked in research on Ion Beam Analysis. She has a post graduate diploma in Actuarial Science. Anne has written for Oxford University Press and is currently writing MG and YA Chinese fantasy with magical martial arts, secret societies and sentient swords. She also enjoys reading and writing science fiction. Anne is an alumna of the London Writers Awards (2018) and the HarperCollins Author Academy programme (2022). She participates in the MG writing group with the Megaphone Writers Community, which amplifies children’s writers of colour. Anne is a happy member of the Bubble Tea Writers Network for ESEA creatives and enjoys their regular lunchtime meet-ups. Find her on Twitter @AnneChen92016 and Instagram @AnneChen321
Anna
Sulan
Masing
Dr Anna Sulan Masing is an academic, writer and editor. She is co-founder of SOURCED, a public research platform that explores our global food and drink systems; she is also co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cheese Magazine. Anna’s narrative podcast, Taste of Place by Whetstone Radio Collective, explores the history of pepper. Her debut book, Chinese And Any Other Asian, will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Anna has written in various publications, including BBC World Table, CNN, Guardian, Mr Porter, Good Beer Hunting, Waitrose, Gal-Dem. Her work has been shortlisted at the Guild of Food Writers. She spoke at various symposiums around the world on the topic of drinks, heritage, and sustainability. Her doctorate was investigating storytelling practices of the South East Asian indigenous community, the Iban, of which Anna Sulan is part of, and how those practices migrated and how identity changes when space and location changes. This looked at the intersection of performance, food and drink, farming practices and identity. More details at her website: https://www.annasulanmasing.com/
Alex
Maglalang
Barrow
Alex Barrow grew up in Windsor to Filipino and English Parents before moving to South London to study illustration at Central Saint Martins. Today, Alex is a regular contributor and an Art Director for popular science and arts themed children's magazine OKIDO Magazine His first book for children, A Possum's Tail, was published in 2014 and was quickly nominated for the 2015 Cilip Kate Greenaway Medal. Other books include If I had a Dinosaur (now an ongoing series) which has been nominated for the Yoto Carngie medal for illustration 2024 and won the Made for Moms Silver award. It was read on Cbeebies Bedtime Stories by Eddie Redmayne and David Schwimmer. Alex finds a lot of inspiration from old things in bric a brac shops – such as vintage menswear, mid century children's books, hot jazz shellac and antique accordions. @alexmaglalangbarrow on Instagram. Band: @malphino. Website alexbarrow.co.uk