Archives: Authors

Writer-historian Sandeep Ray was born in Malacca in 1969 and has lived in Kolkata, Massachusetts, and Singapore. He began his career as a documentary filmmaker, transitioned to academia and subsequently taught at universities in the United States and in Southeast Asia. In 2021, Nikkei Asia described him as an author who ‘writes with the zeal of a historian and the passion of a film critic’. Sandeep’s own award-winning films have screened at numerous festivals internationally. Hailed as ‘cinematic and deeply resonant’, A Flutter in the Colony is his first novel.

Ven. Dr. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile, Ph.D., is an award-winning research scientist, educator, and author. Professor Gentile conducts research on the media’s impact on children and adults, as well as how mindfulness practices can reduce anxiety and improve happiness. Named as one of America’s best 300 professors by the Princeton Review, he is a fellow of several scientific organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. In addition, Ven. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile is a Zen Buddhist monk and meditation teacher. With decades of scientific research and training in several styles of Buddhism under his belt, he has dual expertise in Western psychological science and Eastern philosophy.
He wrote and narrated the best-selling audiobook Buddhism 101: How to Walk Easily over Rough Ground and Meditation: The Busy Person’s Guide to Cultivating Compassion and Positive Mind States. Dr. Gentile has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and the BBC World Service, and his work has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.
Holding a doctorate in child psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Gentile is the author or editor of several books and well over 140 peer-reviewed scientific studies. He holds a M.Div. from Buddha Dharma University and has also trained at the multi-lineage Interdependence Project in New York City.

Laurie Hashim lives with her husband, three boys, and two dogs in Santa Barbara, California. Laurie graduated many years ago with a degree in economics from Tufts University. She has worked in management consulting in Boston, advertising in Kuala Lumpur, and software in San Francisco. But these days when she is not writing or doing research for writing, she is hiking, biking, and travelling.

The island of Penang has captivated the author ever since she married into a sprawling, multicultural family from this metropolitan mosaic almost thirty years ago. Hashim is grateful to the Penang historical society, fastidious colonial records, and a generation of Penangites devoted to writing memoirs, which have helped her place her imagined characters in their proper time and place.

Fahd Razy graduated from Royal College of Surgeon in Ireland and currently a practicing medical officer at Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Terengganu. Started producing creative writing since 2000, he had been writing in various genres including short-stories, poetries, play-script, anecdotes, essays, and other non-fictional writings. Among his published books include Menggeledah Nurani (poetry), Ikan dalam Jiwa (poetry), Kota Subuh (poetry), Pascasejarah (novel), Cinta Menyala di Constantinople (short-stories), Mencari Jalan Pulang (play-script), Sains Menulis Puisi (poetry guide-book), and Enam Tulisan Skema tentang Puisi (essays). He also wrote medical related non-literature books including Cakar Ayam Seorang Doktor, Doktor tanpa Kot Putih, Bukan Doktor Gugel, Rokok Terakhir di dalam Asbak, Diagnosis 3 and others. In 2011 he was invited as one of the panellists in Singapore’s Writers Festival and attended MASTERA literature program at Bogor, Indonesia in 2017. Two of his poems were selected in the literature text-book for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia syllabus. He was the founder of Grup Karyawan Luar Negara which used to be active in promoting literature and writing among Malaysian overseas students and currently the owner of Penerbitan Kata-Pilar (Kata-Pilar Books), publishing literature and medical related books. For writings and publication, he had received around 50 awards and literary prizes. This includes four Malaysia Premier Literary Prizes (Hadiah Sastera Perdana Malaysia), three National Book Awards (Anugerah Buku Negara), twelve Kumpulan Utusan Literary Prizes (Hadiah Sastera Kumpulan Utusan), fourteen Darul Iman Literary Prizes (Hadiah Sastera Darul Iman), six E-sastera.com Literary Prizes (Hadiah Sastera E-sastera.com), an Islamic Literary Prizes (Hadiah Sastera Berunsur Islam) and a Student Literary Prize (Hadiah Sastera Siswa). His book Menggeledah Nurani won best poetry books in Hadiah Sastera Darul Iman 2013. His book Kota Subuh won ITBM-PENA-BH Writing Competition (2013) and best poetry books in Hadiah Sastera Darul Iman (2015). His short-stories book, Cinta Menyala di Constantinople won best teen short-stories books in Hadiah Sastera Darul Iman (2017). His novel Pascasejarah won the first prize in ITBM-PENA-BH Writing Competition (2015). It also won best short-stories book in Hadiah Sastera Darul Iman (2017), and finalist in Hadiah Sastera Perdana Malaysia (2017).

Kenneth Paul Tan is a tenured Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, which hired him under its Talent100 initiative in February 2021. He teaches and conducts interdisciplinary research at the Academy of Film, the Department of Journalism, and the Department of Government and International Studies. He is a member of the university’s Smart Society Lab. Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He was the school’s Vice Dean during the most rapid and critical years of its growth and served in its senior leadership team for almost a decade. He has received numerous teaching awards over the years, including NUS’s most prestigious Outstanding Educator Award. His books include Singapore: Identity, Brand, Power (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Governing Global-City Singapore: Legacies and Futures After Lee Kuan Yew (Routledge, 2017), Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension (Brill, 2008), and Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics (NUS Press, 2007). He has also published numerous articles in leading international journals, reflecting an innovative and interdisciplinary research agenda that bridges Political Science, Public Management, Policy Studies, Sociology, Urban Studies, Cultural Studies, and Film and Media Studies. He is a member of the National Arts Council (Singapore)’s Arts Advisory Panel and the National Museum of Singapore’s Advisory Board. He chairs the Board of Directors of theatre company The Necessary Stage (Singapore). And he was the founding chair of the Asian Film Archive’s Board of Directors.

Moe Moe Inya was born in DaikU in 1944. While attending Yangon University in 1964, she began writing poems under her pseudonym from Inya Dorm. She wrote her first novel, Pyauk-thaw-lann-hmar san-ta-war in 1972 and received the National Literature Award for it in 1974. She also received short novel awards in 1980, 1982 and 1986 for the novel and short novel collections. Her books have been translated into English, Russian, Japanese and Chinese.

Her family owns and runs Sarpaylawka Publishing House, winner of the lifetime accomplishment award at the 2020 Publishing Awards in Myanmar.

She worked as the editor of Sabel Phyu magazine from 1989 to her death in 1990.

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) and his elder sister, Mary Anne Lamb (1764–1847), collaborated on three books for children, of which Tales from Shakespeare is the best known. It was the first book to clarify Shakespeare’s stories and played a major part in raising people’s awareness of the great playwright. 

Charles and Mary Lamb were born at Crown Office in the Inner Temple in London, where their father was a confidential clerk to one of the lawyers. Charles won a scholarship to the charitable school Christ’s Hospital, and while there became friendly with an older student, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1789 Lamb started work as a clerk, first with a city merchant, moving in 1791 to work at South Sea House, and then finally to work for the East India Company, where he filled in ledgers for thirty-three years. He described his time there as ‘a prisoner to the desk . . . almost grown to wood’. Members of the Lamb family were prone to mental instability and for a short time in 1795 Charles was confined to a mental institution. Although his stay there was brief, he lived under a shadow of madness and suffered from other breakdowns during his life. In 1796 Mary, in a fit of insanity, stabbed both their parents, fatally injuring their mother. The court judged her insane and Mary spent about a year in a lunatic asylum before being released into Charles’s care. He looked after her for the rest of his life and she in return repaid him with great sympathy and kindness. Forced to move from house to house because of malicious gossip concerning Mary’s past, they lived in London, and then from 1823 in Islington, Enfi eld and Edmonton. Charles Lamb died in 1834. Neither Charles nor Mary ever married. 

Charles Lamb started writing poetry in the early 1790s and to-gether with Coleridge wrote sonnets for the Morning Post. Through his friendship with Coleridge, Charles and Mary got to know the Wordsworths, Southey, Hazlitt and other major literary figures; their various houses became important gathering places for literary friends. Charles tried his hand unsuccessfully at drama and one of his plays, Mr H., a farce, was hissed off the stage at Drury Lane in 1806. His best work is found in his essays and criticism and also in his stories for children – along with Tales from Shakespeare (written jointly with Mary in 1807) he wrote The Adventures of Ulysses (1808) and Beauty and the Beast (1811). Regarded by some as the finest critic of his time his Specimens of English Dramatic Poets Who Lived about the Time of Shakespeare (1808) stimulated interest in the old English dramatic authors. In 1820 he started contributing essays signed by ‘Elia’ to the London Magazine. These were successfully collected as The Essays of Elia in 1823; a subsequent volume appeared in 1833. A warm-hearted and well-loved man, Charles was also a great letter-writer and some of his best observations are scattered throughout his correspondence. 

In addition to collaborating with her brother on Tales from Shakespeare and Poetry for Children (1809), Mary also wrote the greater part of Mrs Leicester’s School (1809), a book of stories for children which draws heavily on autobiographical detail. 

Prof. Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D., is an award-winning research scientist, educator, and author. Professor Gentile conducts research on the media’s impact on children and adults, as well as how mindfulness practices can reduce anxiety and improve happiness. Named as one of America’s best 300 professors by the Princeton Review, he is a fellow of several scientific organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.
In addition, Ven. Douglas Cheolsoeng Gentile is a Zen Buddhist monk and meditation teacher. With decades of scientific research and training in several styles of Buddhism under his belt, he has dual expertise in Western psychological science and Eastern philosophy.

He wrote and narrated the best-selling audiobook Buddhism 101: How to Walk Easily over Rough Ground and Meditation: The Busy Person’s Guide to Cultivating Compassion and Positive Mind States. Dr. Gentile has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and the BBC World Service, and his work has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.

Holding a doctorate in child psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Gentile is the author or editor of several books and well over 100 peer-reviewed scientific studies. He holds a M.Div. from Buddha Dharma University and has also trained at the multi-lineage Interdependence Project in New York City.

Ashadi Siregar first came to public attention as a writer in Indonesia in the early 1970s for his humorous novels about campus life, which were best sellers and are still in print. Many were turned into film. Ashadi was born in North Sumatra in 1945, the year that Indonesia declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule at the end of World War II, and spent his childhood there. Upon graduation from high school in 1964, he moved to Yogyakarta in Java, where he completed his university studies in political science at Gadjah Mada University, and has lived there ever since.

Apart from his literary work, Ashadi Siregar has had a stellar academic career. Until his retirement in 2010, he was a faculty member at his alma mater in the Department of Political Studies and the Department of Communications, as well as teaching in the Postgraduate Centre for Performance Studies. From 1992-2014 he was director of the Institute for Research, Education and Publishing (LP3Y), a non-government institute in Yogyakarta that focuses on the development of journalism and journalistic training.

Ashadi lives in Yogyakarta.

Angelo R. Lacuesta has won many awards for his writing, among them three Philippine National Book Awards, the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award, the NVM Gonzalez Award, and numerous Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards and Philippines Graphic Awards.

He has written several books, including five short story collections, two non-fiction books, and a collection of graphic stories. He has participated in many international literary residencies, fellowships, festivals and conferences.

He is Editor-at-Large at Esquire Magazine (Philippines) and is a member of the Board of the Philippine Centre of PEN International (Poets, Essayists, Novelists).

He lives in Manila with his wife and son.