The list of Eastlit Writers January 2016 is alphabetical by first name:

Ashwin Mudigonda

Ashwin is a roboticist by day, and a writer and a travel photographer otherwise. Having grown up in Madras, he writes about the way of life in the coastal Indian city. His first book, Kamappan’s Revenge, was self published on Amazon. His short stories have appeared on EastLit and The Better India. You can read his latest project, Pleasant Days, on www.reynoldspen.wordpress.com and follow his photography onwww.flickr.com/photos/ashwinmudigonda He lives in Nashville, TN, where is he working on his fourth novel.

Avijeet Musafir Das

Avijeet Musafir Das is a poet and writer living in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a social activist who supports causes related to ‘environment’ , ‘education’ and ‘equality’ for a better world.
He also teaches and coaches students to ace in global level university entrance examinations.

Chitralekha Sreejai

Chitralekha Sreejai is an aspiring writer with a deep passion in eastern and western literature, art and music. She published her first book of poems titled ‘The Divine Hand In The Dark ‘ with India books, Kerala. Some of her writings have appeared in some of the widely popular India based magazines like Woman’s Era and Alive (Delhi press magazines) and online issues of The Khaleej Times (UAE) .Her poems have been published in The Galway Review and Writer’s Ezine. The poem in Writer’s Ezine was chosen for their ‘Exceptional poem award’. She currently resides in Ireland with her family. She earned her PhD in Sanskrit from India.

She maintains a blog at Beneath the rain clouds

Eileen Lian

Eileen Lian is full-time stay-at-home mum who writes poetry and fiction in her spare time. Both her short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies by Fixi Novo, MPH Publications, the Asian Centre Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English and WordWorks. Before motherhood, Eileen was group editor at a regional trade publishing firm in Singapore. She currently lives in Kuala Lumpur.

Ian Rogers

Ian Rogers spent two years teaching English in the Japanese prefecture of Yamanashi just before the great tsunami.  His fiction and nonfiction have elsewhere appeared in The Millions, Seek Japan, The Drunken Odyssey, and Great Plains Quarterly, and he is currently at work on a novel about foreigners fighting back against the Japanese corporate world.  Aomori is one of his favorite places.

Jordan Stivers

A Kentucky native, Jordan Stivers currently lives in Sacramento, California with her partner and two cats where she enjoys running, cooking, and playing video games. As a new Californian, she has developed a fondness for wine but still prefers bourbon after a night of writing. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Russian History and Economics from the University of Louisville. Stivers works primarily with flash and short fiction and has work forthcoming in Beorh Weekly. The granddaughter of sheep farmers, she also occasionally knits but it rarely turns out as anything wearable.

Kate Rogers

Kate Rogers’ new poetry collection is Foreign Skin (Aeolus House, 2015). It debuted in Toronto at Art Bar in July 2015 and at the Hong Kong Fringe Club on October 7th. Kate’s poetry about the Occupy Central protests has appeared in The Guardian and the Asia Literary Review. Other publication credits include Cha; Morel; The Ontario Poetry Society; Kyoto Journal; ASIATIC: the Journal of English Language and Literature at the Islamic University of Malaysia; Contemporary Verse II; the New Quarterly; Orbis International and Many Mountains Moving. Kate’s previous books are City of Stairs (Haven 2012) and Painting the Borrowed House (Proverse 2008). Kate is co-editor of the OutLoud Too anthology (MCCM 2014) and Not A Muse: the inner lives of women (Haven 2009).

Kate Rogers Lectures on Literature and Cross-cultural Communication at the Community College of City University, Hong Kong.

Michelle Chan

Malaysian-born Michelle Chan has tried her hand at journalism, and is now exploring the realm of fiction as an outlet for her overactive imagination. Her short stories have been published on Many Stories Matter, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Every Day Fiction.

Myrtle Vortichez

Hailing from the UK, Myrtle has been living, travelling and working in various regions since 2010. Fifteen months of this time she spent in Mainland Southeast Asia, living for a year in Hanoi. Exploring the neighbouring peninsula countries provided her ample opportunity for reflection and to put pen to paper, as so many taking up residence in this city find. Being part of the Hanoi Writers Collective, she was able to share work, collaborate, and present at the regular spoken word evenings Noi Hanoi, run in conjunction with The Word magazine.

The first of her featured poems refers to the ancient Khmer Empire (a so-called water civilisation).

Myrtle was particularly struck by the discovery of ODA Cambodia (Opportunities for Development thru Art) amidst the temples in the former city of Angkor Thom. Leng Touch and his wife SryOn have provided for children orphaned through conflict or AIDS, giving them amongst other skills artistic ones, enabling them to sell their creations. They accept donations through their website http://www.odaopportunitiescambodia.org/

The second poem was written about the former capital of the Lao People’s Republic, Vieng Xai. A lot still needs to be done to protect the population throughout the country from unexploded ordnance (UXO). For more information http://www.nra.gov.la/

Nichole L. Reber

Nichole L. Reber writes nonfiction and poetry about art, architecture, and travel. She also writes a blog series covering Asian lit and indigenous literature from around the world for Ploughshares. Find her most recent work, “I Dare You,” on TheFanzine.com http://thefanzine.com and follow her on Facebook or Twitter. /i-dare-you/

Paula Tan

Kuala Lumpur-based writer Paula Tan takes the roles of editor and copywriter with Malaysian satellite cable television giant, Astro. Born on the island of Penang, Malaysia to an English speaking family, she has a B.Sc [TESL] from Walla Walla University, Washington. Being fluent in two languages and her native dialect, Hokkien, connects her to her grassroots, colouring her freelance travel articles on both local and international destinations for Malaysia’s The Expat Group media company. Paula writes the occasional biographical piece and observation for other Malaysian publications and is an avid photographer. Having also created theatre workshop pieces well-received by the Australian National Institute for Drama & the Arts, Paula’s second short story publication in Eastlit, Mending The Sky, is set against the Hokkien community of the 1950’s in Penang.

Pijush Kanti Deb

Pijush Kanti Deb is a new Indian poet with around 261 published or accepted poems and haiku in around 90 nos of national and international magazines and journals [,print and online] like Down in the dirt, Tajmahal Review, Pennine Ink, Hollow Publishing, Creativica
Magazine, Muse India, Teeth Dream Magazine,Hermes Poetry Journal, Grey Borders, Dagda Publishing, Blognostic Black Mirror Magazine, Dissident Voice Journal , Indiana Voice Journal Aji Magazine Calliope Magazine, Leaves of Ink Magazine and many more.
His best achievement so far is the publication of his first poetry
collection,’’Beneath The Shadow Of A White Pigeon’’published by Hollow
Publishing is available on AMAZON.

Sharon Y. Sim

Singapore-born and bred, Sharon Y. Sim now lives in the United States and runs a Los Angeles-based communications firm. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Master of Professional Writing program and has been published in The Straits Times (Singapore’s leading daily), Reed Magazine, Tribes, AsianWeek, Silicon Valley Business Ink, PR Week, Daily Texan, Lone Star Events, Justice and others.

Shuli de la Fuente-Lau

Shuli de la Fuente-Lau was born in a kampung at the edge of Kuala Lumpur but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an elementary educator by day and a poet in the in-between times. She currently lives in Penang, Malaysia with her husband and their two cats. Most recently, she was a writer for the VOICES writing program for the George Town Literary Festival. Her writing is ignited by small, ordinary moments and hazy parts of a person’s history.

Tam Lee

Tam was born in Saigon, Vietnam and immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was four years old. She derives most of her writing inspiration from Vietnamese music and renovated theatre, and is currently pursuing an MA degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Ting Wei Tai

Ting Wei Tai was born in China and grew up in Singapore. He graduated from Raffles Institution and will commence his undergraduate studies at Yale University in 2015. His poetry has previously been featured in the Eunoia Review and ARTBEAT CO-.

Victor N. Sugbo

Victor N. Sugbo lives in Tacloban, Philippines and has been a Professor of Communication at the University of the Philippines Visayas. A poet, he writes in English and Waray (his mother tongue). His poetry has been included in national anthologies and periodicals in his country. He has likewise published in  literary journals and anthologies abroad.

William Tham Wai Liang

William Tham Wai Liang is a Malaysian student currently studying in Vancouver, Canada, where he is a Biochemist-in-training. He is mostly preoccupied with studying but still tries to find time to write, and hopes to be able to graduate sooner than later-he’s been in school a bit longer than expected.

Zara Raheem

Zara Raheem has a B.A. in English Literature and a Single-Subject Teaching Credential from California State University, Fullerton. She currently lives in the Bay Area with her husband, and spends her time taking writing workshops at San Jose State University and organizing events for the Muslim Writers Collective, a movement aimed at inspiring young Muslim Americans to share their experiences through poetry, art, storytelling, spoken word, etc.