Archives: Authors

Leila S. Chudori is an Indonesian author and female journalist. She worked at TEMPO news magazine from 1989 to 2017. Leila is the author of several anthologies of short stories, two novels, TV and film scripts. Her novel Pulang (Home), also translated into English by John H. McGlynn, won the Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2013 and was included as one of the 75 Notable Translations of 2015 by World Literature Today. Pulang was also translated into French, German, Dutch and Italian.

Daryl Lim was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1984. He migrated to Sydney as a young child and grew up surreptitiously imbibing stories of his parents’ homeland. His writing has appeared in Peril Magazine, been short-listed for a Varuna House Fellowship and is a recipient of a Writing NSW Mentorship. He loves all kinds of fiction but novels like The Quiet American, On the Beach, The Sheltering Sky, or anything by Kazuo Ishiguro, Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx (among others) seem to be the ones that linger in his psyche. The Snow in Kuala Lumpur is his first novel.
He currently lives in Sydney with his wife and son (in an apartment run by two sleepy cats).

Dawn is a feminist academic researcher and writer who strives to bring the stories of erased or forgotten women and their role in history to centre stage. She called Singapore home for twelve years during which time she made lasting friendships, was a volunteer guide for the city’s museums, began her fiction-writing career and found publication. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia and now lives in Perth. She misses many things about the vibrancy of multicultural Singapore, especially the food.
She has published five novels, including The Straits Quartet, four novels set in nineteenth century colonial Singapore (2007-2013); and Finding Maria, a mystery set during Singapore’s post-war race riots (2017) which was shortlisted for the Penang Monthly Literary Prize (2018). Her short stories have featured in anthologies in Southeast Asia and Australia. In 2013 she won the Melbourne Athenaeum Library Short Story Prize. She also writes for stage and screen and won the NexGen Short Film Festival Prize in Perth for her screenplay The Wallpaper.
Amongst other things, she is currently writing a crime/detective series set during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. She is passionate about history and heritage conservation and volunteers with the National Trust of WA.

Uma Rudd Chia is Executive Creative Director and Cofounder of KVUR, a boutique advertising agency specialising in beauty, fashion and innovation brands.
She is a highly awarded creative and a sought-after global keynote speaker specialising on the topics of technology, innovation, women empowerment and creativity. She has spoken at over 14 countries to over 200,000 people in total in the past five years at events organised by Forrester Global, Facebook, Google, She Loves Data, Pause Fest and South by Southwest. Uma is the founder of The Female Idea, a platform she uses to advocate, mentor and champion female creative leaders.
A mother of two inquisitive kids and a feisty fur baby, Uma has sang in two acapella albums, created her own award-winning phonics programme-Reading PANTS™-and has authored three best selling books. Her recent Kindle Best Seller, 10 Things Brands Could Do To Survive a Crisis, was described by marketers and The Straits Times as ‘the toolkit for brands to take positive action to survive Covid-19’.

Carissa Foo is a writer and lecturer. She received her PhD from Durham University where she worked on spatiality and modernist women’s writing. Her research and writing interests centre on women’s experiences and expressions. Her first novel If It Were Up to Mrs Dada was longlisted for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize and was published in 2018 (Epigram Books). Her second novel What We Learned from Driving in Winter was published in 2022 (Epigram Books). No Wonder, Women is her first short story collection.

Amitav Acharya is a distinguished professor and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. His major works on Southeast Asia include: The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia (Oxford, 2000); Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia: ASEAN and the Problems of Regional Order, 3 edns. (Routledge, 2001, 2002, 2014), Whose Ideas Matter: Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism (Cornell and ISEAS, 2009); Civilizations in Embrace: The Spread of Ideas and the Transformation of Power (Singapore: ISEAS, 2012); The Making of Southeast Asia (Cornell and ISEAS, 2013); and East of India, South of China: Sino-Indian Encounters in Southeast Asia (Oxford, 2017). His articles and op-eds have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Affairs, World Politics, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune/ Global New York Times, Times of India, Australian Financial Review, and YaleGlobal Online. He has been interviewed by BBC, CNN, CNBC, and National Public Radio (NPR) and other world media.

Scott Anthony is a journalist and historian. His writing has appeared in Air Mail, The BBC, The Guardian, The Spectator, The New Statesman, The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times among many other outlets. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at IVAA in Yogyakarta. This is his first novel.

Sindu Sreebhavan is a leading mindset coach and consultant, design thinker, entrepreneur, speaker and author. Sindu specialises in guiding individuals and teams to expand their innovation potential by developing their growth mindset and innovative mindset so that they can discover their own infinite potential and maximize that. She has worked as a management consultant advising world-leading corporations around the world on innovative business practices and cutting-edge technology. Her clients have included Honeywell Aerospace, HP, A*star, Sony, and Schering-Plough. As a person who is passionate about youth development, Sindu is the founder of International Youth Leadership and Innovation Forum (IYLIF) where she brings youth around the world in dialogues with educators, parents, and industry thought leaders to reimagine youth education and education, in the era of shocks.
Sindu is the author of Infinite Possibilities: Unlock Your Real Potential with the Secret Recipes of Superachievers, 30-Day Gratitude System, Great Growth Mindset Challenges and numerous resources on building growth mindset and resilience in both adults and children.
Sindu is the recipient of the Exceptional Woman of Excellence award at Women Economic Forum (WEF) and is a graduate of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, National University of Singapore and UCLA Anderson School of Management. Science Centre Singapore featured her as a maker to look forward to in the book they published on the occasion of SG50.

Caro Saracho is a journalist and editor at ActitudFem, an irreverent space for the concerns of today’s young women. Her columns are polemical as she breaks with the traditional ideas that most women have about love, marriage and fidelity, along with other topics like sexuality, professional development and attitude.

Reta Lee is currently working as an editor-in-chief for an online media brand and has previously written for many Malaysian, Singaporean and International publications.
Reta’s first foray in publishing began in 2006 after university, when she was writing for two entertainment magazines, hot and HELLO! in Malaysia, covering both lifestyle and entertainment beats (both magazines have since ceased). Then, she rode the digital wave in 2009 onwards, when she wrote for MSN and Business Insider. As an entertainment journalist by heart – she’s interviewed everyone from Lady Gaga, to James Marsden, Sophie Turner, John Lithgow and Susan Downey. She is also the author of a book, #thatPRStory.
When Reta is not writing, she finds time to moderate panel sessions at the previous Millennial 20/20 Summit in 2016 and 2017, and Fashion Tech Summit as part of Singapore Fashion Week in 2017. She also loves catching up on drama series, practising yoga, reading, travelling the world and dabbles in analog photography.
She lives in Singapore with her partner and two cats.