Archives: Authors

Jonel Abellanosa lives in Cebu City, The Philippines. Nominated for the Pushcart, Dwarf Stars and Best of the Net awards, his poetry and fiction have appeared in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, including The McNeese Review (McNeese State University, Louisiana), Agape Review, The Lyric, Poetry Salzburg Review (University of Salzburg, Austria), Anglican Theological Review, The Cape Rock (Southern Missouri State University), Chiron Review and Invisible City (University of San Francisco). His poetry collections include Songs from My Mind’s Tree and Multiverse (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, New York), 50 Acrostic Poems, (Cyberwit, India), In the Donald’s Time (Poetic Justice Books and Art, Florida), Instrumentals (Lemures Press), and Pan’s Saxophone (Weasel Press, Texas). He is a nature lover and an advocate for the environment and animal rights and comforts. He has three companion dogs-Yves, Donna and their daughter Daisy. Healers is his first novel in his planned three-novel series.

Stella Kon’s best-known work is the monodrama Emily of Emerald Hill, which appeared in 1982 and has since been performed almost a thousand times in Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere. She has also written poems, novels and other plays, and librettos for several musicals with composer Desmond Moey. In 2006 she helped to found the arts charity Musical Theatre Ltd, and was its chairperson for 14 years. More about Stella can be found on her website, www.emilyofemeraldhill.com.sg.

Stella loves to travel to visit her two sons and their families — Mark, Colette and children in Harrogate, Yorkshire, and Luke and Gini and children in Sydney, Australia. She meditates regularly with the Singapore branch of the World Community for Christian Meditation.

Plays by Stella Kon: The Bridge, Trial, Emily of Emerald Hill, Dragon’s Teeth Gate.
Collections: 9 Classroom Plays, 3 Stellar Plays
Novels: The Scholar and the Dragon. Eston.
Musicals: Lost in Transit, Peter and Pierre, Merlion, Emily the Musical, Lim Boon Keng the Musical

Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin is one of the Philippine’s foremost author and creative non-fictionist. He is the author of Six Saturdays of Beyblade and other Essays (originally Anim na Sabado ng Beyblade at Iba Pang Sanaysay), which won a National Book Award for Best Book of Nonfiction in Filipino in 2014 from the Manila Critics Circle and National Book Development Board and was a finalist for Madrigal-Gonzales First Best Book Award administered by the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing (UP ICW). The book, since its first edition up to the present, is a consistent bestseller for creative nonfiction in Filipino. Its main story, the Six Saturdays of Beyblade is one of the mandatory readings for the Philippines’ secondary students studying Philippine and Asian Literature. Jarin is a three-time Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awardee for Literature, the Philippines’ most prestigious literary award-giving body. Jarin is teaching Filipino Language and Creative Writing at the Division of Humanities of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas.

John Toledo is an emerging author, translator, and creative nonfictionist from the Philippines. He translated to English the Filipino original of the Six Saturdays of Beyblade and it was first published in the winter issue of the Asymptote Journal (2021). He currently writes criticism and essays about Philippine literature and pop culture in both Filipino and English. A graduate of the Filipino creative writing program at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Toledo teaches Filipino language, Philippine and World Literature and Creative Writing in various universities in the Philippines. Six Saturdays of Beyblade is his first book of translation.

Chew Ngee Tan was born and raised in Singapore with a love for reading and writing. She graduated from the National University of Singapore, majoring in Sociology. She completed a Master’s degree in Liberal Studies at Rice University in Texas, USA, after working as an English Language and Social Studies educator in Singapore for a few years. Always intrigued by her own and others’ experiences, historical events, and nature, she is now a writer who creates stories to capture the beauty of being human and the interconnectedness of life. Sweet Braised Duck is her first novel.

Chua Kok Yee’s debut novel Not A Monster won the 2nd Fixi Novo Malaysian Novel contest. He started writing about fifteen years ago, and his short stories have been published in various anthologies and periodicals including Best Of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020 (Malaysia Writers Society, 2022), Ronggeng-ronggeng: Malaysia Short Stories (Maya Press 2019), Remang (Terrerbooks, 2017) Little Basket: 2016 (Fixi, 2016), KL Noir Blue (Fixi, 2014), Black and White and Other New Short Stories from Malaysia (CCCPress, 2012), Selangor Times, and Esquire Malaysia. He co-authored News From Home with Shih-li Kow and Rumaizah Abu Bakar in 2007, and his own collection of short stories, Without Anchovies, was published in 2010. Three of his stories from Without Anchovies are currently required reading for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia English Literature paper. Follow him on Twitter @ chuakoky33.

Pamda Bure (aka Bunyaporn Burechittinantta) is a BKK-based writer. Educated in Thailand, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, she enjoys exploring many facets of cultures worldwide and drawing inspiration from them. Peripatetic and adventurous, she is never daunted and always looks for the quietly amusing, idiosyncratic side of things regardless of the situation. When not immersed in writing stories or thinking about writing one, Pamda can be found pondering existential meanings. Her life goal is to become a tango gypsy (live in a horse-drawn caravan).

An award-winning writer, Saras Manickam’s story, ‘My Mother Pattu’ won the regional prize for Asia in the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Contest. In 2021, it was included in the anthology, The Art and Craft of Asian Stories, published by Bloomsbury, and in 2022, it was published in The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020. Saras Manickam worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer, copywriter, Business English trainer, copy-editor, and writer of textbooks, school workbooks and coffee-table books while writing short stories at night. Her various work experiences enabled insights into characters, and life experiences, shaping the authenticity which marks her stories. She also won the 2017 DK Dutt Award for her story, ‘Charan’. Some of her other stories have appeared in Silverfish and Readings from Readings anthologies, while one was shortlisted for the 2021 Masters Review Summer Short Story Award. She lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Maryanne Moll has written three books. Her first book, Awakenings (2001), and her second book, Little Freedoms (2003), are both collections of essays. Her third book, Married Women (2014), is a short story collection, and the book was a finalist for the Cirilo F. Bautista Prize for Best Book of Short Fiction in English in 2014. Her short story ‘At Merienda’ won Third Prize in the 2005 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
Her short stories have also been included in anthologies, which includes Philippine Speculative Fiction IV, Philippine Genre Stories: Special Crime Edition, and Anomalous 30. She was a fellow for the National Writer’s Workshops in the University of Santo Tomas (2002), Dumaguete (2002), and the University of the Philippines (2021). Before writing fiction, she was a reporter and columnist for Bikol Daily, and also worked as disk jockey and newscaster for an FM radio station in Naga City, Camarines Sur. She has created and managed some publications for the Philippine National Police. More recently, she has worked as a Publications Specialist for a government-owned-and-controlled corporation for more than ten years.
She has earned units for the degree Master of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman, before transferring to a different degree program. She is currently working on her thesis for Master of Arts in Comparative Literature, Major in Literary Theory, at the UP Diliman.

Born in 1971 in Haifa Israel, Guy Wachs grew up immersed in the family’s hospitality business and went on to train in hospitality administration and management in Germany at the prestigious Hotelfachschule Villingen-Schwenningen. Having developed a passion for fine wine and dining and armed with his new professional skills, Guy moved to New York City where he gained more experience in well-known establishments like the iconic Cafe Luxembourg and then Cafe Centro, winning awards along the way for his innovation.
Guy moved to Asia in 2004 and began working in Bangkok for the Singapore based Raffles Hotel Group. A subsequent move to Singapore led to the opening of his own restaurant, Wild Honey in 2009. Since then, Guy’s business has expanded into three popular outlets. Guy now spends his time managing his restaurants and mentoring budding entrepreneurs and guest speaking at the Singapore Management University and the Culinary Institute of Singapore. On weekends, Guy can be found bike riding around the coast of Singapore and enjoying experimenting with new culinary creations to introduce to his loyal customers.
Today, some thirteen years later in a post-Covid world, Guy has rewritten the rule book of how to operate and keep sane in a business so dependent on adapting and remaining agile. Singapore continues to be home, but Guy is infused with optimism and hopes that perhaps Wild Honey may cross Singapore’s borders and open overseas.