The list of Eastlit writers December 2013 is alphabetical by first name. This month we also include artists.
Andrew J. West
Andrew J. West is a Bangkok-based writer who has written extensively about Thai art, and is also a writer of art fiction. He is author of Prateep Kochabua: Destiny to Imagination (2013) and the forthcoming Contemporary Thai Directory of Artists. His art fiction novel Silpa: the Art of Love (Ruk Nai Roy Silp) was published in the Thai language in 2008, and his short stories have appeared in Eastlit. His first art exhibition of “photo-poetry” will be shown at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) in January-February 2014. West was born in 1967 in Armidale, Australia, and studied writing and journalism at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), graduating with an MA (Writing), and has been living in Thailand since 2003. West is currently teaching at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) and has guest lectured in art criticism at Silpakorn University.
Bruce Gundersen
Bruce Gundersen is a New York visual artist who researches the myths and folklore of Southeast and South Asia. In the past ten years Gundersen has traveled to Asia to photograph images that are incorporated into his photomontages reinterpreting these narratives in a contemporary digital media. He has exhibited extensively throughout these regions.
Cesar Polvorosa Junior
Cesar Polvorosa, Jr. is a professor teaching economics and world geography courses at the Humber Business School, Toronto, Canada. He is a published writer in economics, business and literary fields. His poems and/or short stories had been published in Philippine magazines, a Japanese English daily and a Canadian University literary journal. His fiction had been anthologized. He was a Writing Fellow at the University of the Philippines Creative Writers’ Workshop. In Toronto, he was a 2008 Emerging Writer of Diaspora Dialogues and a Board Director of Story Telling Toronto. He had been a scholar in his BA, MA and PhD studies.
Charlie Canning
Charlie Canning taught English for ten years at three universities in Japan before enrolling in the PhD program in creative writing at the University of Adelaide. He has written a novel set on a Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan called The 89TH Temple (Outskirts Press, 2012) and many articles and reviews. The Sign of Jonah, from which this excerpt appears, is his second novel and takes place on an island in the Philippines.
Gerard Sarnat
Gerard Sarnat is the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections, 2010’s “HOMELESS CHRONICLES from Abraham to Burning Man” and 2012’s “Disputes.” His work has appeared or is forthcoming in seventy or so journals and anthologies. Harvard and Stanford educated, Gerry’s a physician who’s set up and staffed clinics for the disenfranchised, a CEO of health care organizations, and Stanford professor. For “The Huffington Post” review and more; visit GerardSarnat.com.
Kristin Ronzi
Kristin Ronzi is currently a sophomore in the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is pursuing a degree in Regional Comparative Studies with a focus on Western Europe and Asia. She has been previously published in Leodegraunce’s flash fiction anthology.
Mark Frederick Lining Bulandus
Born on January 5, 1980, Mark Frederick Lining Bulandus has experienced teaching in the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels. He finished his bachelor’s degree in Education major in English at the Philippine Women’s University in Manila. He is currently focusing on his Master’s Degree in Literature from the Philippine Normal University.
Miguel Gomez
Miguel Gomez is best described as a working-class poet born and based in Manila, Philippines. Graduating with a degree in Computer Science, he continues to pursue his passion, poetry, along side his IT career. His poetry has been featured in Incandescent Poetry Magazine and Anak Sastra Literary Magazine.
Pauline Lacanilao
A former Literature and English professor at Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines in Diliman, Pauline Lacanilao now writes full-time. Her work has been published in Women’s Voices for Change, Kritika Kultura, and The Normal Review. She resides in Pasig City, Philippines.
Stefanie Field
Stefanie Field is a graduate student pursuing a Master’s Degree in International Relations in Bangkok, Thailand. She also works as an intern at Human Development Forum Foundation. She hopes to become fluent in Thai and Japanese to translate Asian literature in the future.
Steve Rosse
In 1988 Steve Rosse took a break from a career in the New York City film and television industry for a three-month holiday on Phuket, an island off the Western coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea.
He decided he liked Phuket more than he liked New York, and without any idea of what he’d do for a living, he took up residence on the island. He supported himself, and eventually his wife and children, for most of the next decade as a freelance journalist and columnist.
His column, “The Rock”, appeared in The Nation, Thailand’s Independent Newspaper, every Sunday for five years.
In 1997 he moved to Iowa for the surfing.
Susan Lewington
Susan Lewington has just completed her Master of Creative Writing degree at Macquarie University and enjoys writing poetry, plays and short stories. Some of her work relates to her experiences teaching in multi-cultural schools and the lively experiences entailed, making interesting reading. She lives in Sydney with her son and a menagerie.
Tendai R. Mwanaka
Tendai R. Mwanaka was born in the remote eastern highlands district of Nyanga, in Mapfurira village, grew up there and did his primary, secondary, and high school in this area. He left Nyanga for Chitungwiza city in 1994, and started exploring writing that year, when he was barely twenty. He has also worked in the sales and marketing field for over 8 years, and has a graduate diploma in marketing (GradSaim). Tendai has stayed in South Africa for two and half years, but he is now back in Zimbabwe, where he stays in Chitungwiza city.
His first book to be published, Voices from Exile, a collection of poetry on Zimbabwe’s political situation and exile in South Africa was published by Lapwing publications, Northern Ireland in 2010. Keys in the River: Notes from a Modern Chimurenga, a novel of interlinked stories that deals with life in modern day Zimbabwe’s soul was published by Savant books and publications, USA in 2012. A book of creative non-fiction pieces, The Blame Game, will be published by Langaa RPCIG( Cameroon 2013). A follow up novel to Keys in the River, tentatively entitled, The River Runs Dry will be published by Savant books and publications USA (2013). A novel entitled, A Dark Energy will be published by Aignos publishing company, USA (2013). His Poetry books: Revolution, Logbook Written by a Drifter, and Voices from Exile, were all short listed for the Erbecce Press Poetry Prize in 2012, 2011, and 2009 respectively. Another poetry book entitled Pearls of Awareness was short listed for the Twoz Creations Chapbook Prize in 2012. Tendai was nominated for the Pushcart twice, in 2008 and 2010. He was commended for the Dalro Prize in 2008, and he was nominated for and attended the Caine African Writing Workshop in 2012. He has published over 200 pieces consisting of short stories, essays, memoirs, poems and visual art in over 100 magazines, journals, and anthologies in the following countries: the USA , UK , Canada , South Africa, Zimbabwe, India , Mexico, Kenya, Cameroon, Italy , Ghana, Uganda, France , Zambia, Nigeria, Spain , Romania, Cyprus, Australia and New Zealand.
Vasan Sitthket
Vasan Sitthiket has built his artistic career on confronting the establishment and addressing taboo social and political issues—both national and international. Vasan, who has become known as the country’s enfant terrible, was presented the Silpathorn Award (Thailand’s highest art award) in 2007 from Ministry of Culture’s Office of Contemporary Art and Culture.
