Archives: Authors

Sheng Keyi is the author of several novels and short stories. Northern Girls, the first of her full form works to be published in English, was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Death Fugue is her latest novel to be translated into English. She currently resides in Beijing, China.

Born in 1976, Natasha is a creative communications specialist with 19 years in education, creative arts and the media industry. Her work was instrumental in creating the communicative arts curriculum design for Taylors’ Design School under the School of Architecture, Building and Design at Taylor’s University from 2004 – 2010. She also designed and taught the Performing Arts module at Taylor’s School of Communication for over 6 years that paved the way for its first Performing Arts Conservatory launched in 2019. A signature of her work fuses performative, visual and fine arts with strong advocacy on cultural preservation and cross-culture literacy, as powerful expressive and therapeutic tools having collaborated with Kakiseni, the Malaysian Invention & Design Society and UNESCO under the Venezuelan embassy.
Her work under the BAC Education Group from 2014 – 2019 includes spearheading IACT College with a series of high-impact industry projects centered on social development targeting marginalized communities and controversial issues such as LGBT, rare diseases and Humanitarian work creating a strong alliance with the Make It Right Movement (MIRM), Mercy Malaysia and SEED Foundation. Her role includes redesigning the entity’s communication curriculum programmes to facilitate increased youth employability and to promote innovative teaching and learning.
Natasha was part of the UNICEF team with HELP University in 2006 to conduct two meaningful research: the traumatic effects of the 2004 Aceh tsunami on children and a nationwide research on bullying across Malaysian schools. Her exposure in these areas intensified her passion to travel across the country to create, provide and promote workshops on creative pedagogy based on trauma, emotional constructs and performative design.
In 2019 Natasha served as COO at Tandemic, a regional innovation firm specialising in Design Thinking (DT) training and Agile management, consultancy on innovation lab work, and social research. Her portfolio covered business development and strategy, and as a DT trainer with clients such as MyXpats, CIMB, UOB FinLab, Coca-Cola, TalentCorp, Penang Council, and Novo Nordisk.
Natasha is currently the CEO of a social impact batik company that produces batik textile Gahara focusing on its domestic and international corporate strategy; Executive Committee member of the Malaysia Craft Council in pushing for education on and advocacy in artisanal representation for local arts and crafts; Industry Advisor for the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM), and is pursuing her doctorate in Business Administration specializing in the areas of organizational behavior, design and transformational leadership.

A recipient of multiple leadership coaching awards and voted 2020 Executive Coach of the Year by Singapore Prestige Brands, Marcel Daane is a thought leader who believes that if we want different results in life, we need to possess the capacity to do things differently.

A Mind-Body Leadership, Life- and Executive Coach, Marcel is considered one of the world’s authorities in mind-body leadership, a combination of mindfulness and body-awareness to inspire authenticity, openness and trust in leadership, strategy, teamwork, change-management, and communication. He is the author of his critically acclaimed book and App called: Headstrong Performance and is a renowned neuroscience and leadership researcher exploring the link between physical and mental wellness and their impact on leadership and performance capacity in individuals, teams, and organizations.

Marcel is a life-long practitioner of Martial Arts and is the son of a celebrated Political Activist who taught him early on that life has greater meaning when we are of service to others rather than merely to ourselves. This value shines through in everything Marcel has done in his 30-year professional evolution ranging from serving in the military, to developing elite athletes, coaching chronically ill patients, conducting ground-breaking neuro-leadership research, and in his executive coaching work transforming today’s top managers into tomorrow’s top leaders.

In his free time, Marcel volunteers as a Mental Health & Wellness advocate supporting professionals struggling with mental wellness challenges and loves to spend quality family time traveling with his wife, Ursula, and Daughter, Kilani.

Marcel holds a post graduate degree in the Neuroscience of Leadership from Middlesex University an Undergraduate Degree in Complementary Medicine from Charles Sturt University coupled with advanced certifications in Executive Coaching, Fitness, and Sports Performance.

R. G. Peter was born in Singapore in 1988. He studied at the Anglo-Chinese School and Raffles Junior College before reading law at the University of Cambridge. He is a practicing lawyer who focuses on contentious construction litigation before the Singapore Courts. His literary influences include Evelyn Waugh, Eileen Chang, Graham Greene, Jack Kerouac and R. K. Narayan.

Elizabeth Smith Alexander was born in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1954, although her family moved to England a few years later. Her earliest memories include producing a newspaper with the John Bull printing set she was given one Christmas. She wrote and directed her first play, Osiris, at age 16, performed to an audience of parents, teachers, and pupils by the Lower Fifth Drama Society at her school in Bolton, Lancashire. Early on in her writing career, Liz wrote several short stories featuring ‘The Dover Street Sleuth’, Dixon Hawke for a D.C. Thomson newspaper in Scotland. Several of her (undoubtedly cringe-worthy) teenage poems were published in An Anthology of Verse.

Liz combined several decades as a freelance journalist writing for UK magazines and newspapers ranging from British Airway’s Business Life and the Daily Mail, to Marie Claire and Supply Chain Management magazine, with a brief stint as a presenter/reporter for various radio stations and television channels, including the BBC. In 2001 she moved to the United States where she earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in educational psychology from The University of Texas at Austin.

She has written and co-authored 17 internationally published, award-winning non-fiction books that have been translated into more than 20 languages.

In 2017, Liz relocated to Malaysia. She lives in Tanjung Bungah, Pulau Pinang where she was inspired to embark on one of the few forms of writing left for her to tackle: the novel.

Ian Hamilton is the acclaimed author of fourteen novels in the Ava Lee series and three in the Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung series. His books have been shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Arthur Ellis Award, the Barry Award, and the Lambda Literary Prize, and are national bestsellers. BBC Culture named Hamilton one of the ten mystery/crime writers from the last thirty years who should be on your bookshelf.

Mookie KATIGBAK-LACUESTA is the author of four poetry collections: The Proxy Eros (2008), Burning Houses (2013), Hush Harbor (2017), and Eros Redux (2019). She obtained an MFA from the New School University in 2004, and has since taught in major universities in Manila. Katigbak-Lacuesta has also co-edited various literary Filipino poetry anthologies for the Cordite Poetry Review and Vagabond Press. In 2019, she co-edited The Achieve Of, The Mastery, a survey of contemporary Philippine Poetry in English, with Dr. Gemino Abad.

Widely-awarded for her work in the Philippines, Katigbak-Lacuesta has also been the Filipino delegate to international literary festivals in Rotterdam, Medellín, San Francisco, Macau, and Kuala Lumpur. In 2015, she completed a writing residency for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Leila Aboulela is an award-winning novelist and playwright. Translated into fourteen languages, her novels were all longlisted for the Orange Prize and include The Translator (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Minaret and Lyrics Alley (also Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards). Aboulela grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and now lives in Aberdeen.

Matthew S. Friedman is the founder and CEO of The Mekong Club. Matthew is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and philanthropy advisor and has worked for the World Bank, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations. He is considered the leading catalyst of the anti-slavery movement in Asia’s business sector by captains of industry. His expertise has been recognized globally, and he has advised heads of governments and intelligence agencies. Matthew is also a popular motivational speaker who has given over 1,200 presentations to over 95,000 people in twenty nations. He is the author of fourteen books.

Sylvia Yu is an award-winning filmmaker, author, TV host, and philanthropy advisor. She has led philanthropic initiatives in Asia for some of the world’s wealthiest families. She is a trailblazer in the fight against human trafficking, and her three-part documentary series on the subject won her the prestigious 2013 International Human Rights Press Award. Sylvia is the author of five books, including Fearless: A Guide to Freedom and Fulfilling Your Fullest Potential, A Long Road to Justice, and Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women, the only journalistic account of historical Japanese military sex slavery during WWII. She is a highly sought after inspirational keynote speaker.