Author Archive for admin

Call for submissions: The Asian Writer

The Asian Writer is inviting writers to contribute new writing on the theme ‘Celebration’ for a collection.

9. Snapshot Peru – Cara Cullen (USA)

Solid Foundations
The Peruvian woman wasn’t sure where to get the mud we needed, but she set off up the dirt road, her young son in his red Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt and me, a volunteer with ProPeru, in tow.
Mud is one of the elements the community must have to successfully build clean-burning stoves. Our [...]

8. Snapshot Singapore to Bintan Island – Jacyntha England (Canada)

International Waters: Singapore to Bintan Island
Bintan Island is by no means the most interesting or exotic of Southeast Asia’s destinations, but it does offer a lot of appeal for city-weary Singapore residents in need of a quick fix of sea and sand.  We make up most of the island’s visitors, and to get there we [...]

7. Snapshot: Backyard Dandenongs, Vic Australia – Jennifer Compton

Local Knowledge
Our fire siren can sound at any time and it gets all the dogs in the village barking.
If you can hear the siren down in Upper Ferntree Gully as well then it may be serious.
The stretch of Burwood Highway down out of the Yarra Ranges is called [...]

Poem by Valerie Nunis (Singapore)

Mongrel
I used to be
brown, with a tinge of yellow
and could never quite colour in the right shade of my skin,
skin dusted with hair that was
brown and black on my head,
with a tongue claimed by two civilisations,
though my heart could call neither its own.
Roots snarled over questions of origin, and what,
exactly, I was.
‘混血儿’ 1
is what a bus [...]

3 Poems by Raksha Mahtani

Elegy to the Ingratitudes

She roosts at home, braless, sagging,
picking at nails yellowed with tumeric
and caws at me to learn our native tongue.
Her language, rather,
one that has no word for thank you.
A language living in the nose,
one that crinkles up in disgust
at the Chinese boys I sometimes bring home
to help fix her faulty stove.
This apathatic [...]

A Tea Story by Shakil Rabbi (Bangladesh)

He walked down the incline but did not head towards the gate. It was already dark and he was very tired.

Poem by Jose Dalisay Jr. (Phillipines)

Airports are where
The families of the poor
Reconstitute themselves
Around the loss
–Albeit temporary–
Of one bound for money.
His passport gleams;
Again he checks the spelling
Of his unusual name.
His contract clads
His abdomen in iron;
No one will go unfed.
While businessmen
Rush past him, wifeless and cool,
To Tokyo, Rome, and LAX,
Deserts blanket
His cold brain.  He dwells on their
Irrigable vastness.
Cousins bemoan
The porkless tracts of [...]