The Hong Kong Writers Circle‘s launch of Lost in Transition at the Hong Kong Lit Fest has sold out a week after Poetry, Stories and Mental Health! This means I only have one lit fest event left where you can still grab a ticket! Please act fast to book for the Women in Publishing Society‘s launch of Imprint 22 at the FCC on 7 March! This one’ll cost you, but includes free wine or bubbles, a delicious buffet, two copies of the anthology per guest and a full evening’s entertainment at the FCC from 7-10pm, where I will be among the readers. Hope to see you there!

https://www.hkwips.com/event/launch-of-imprint-22 

https://hongkongwriterscircle.org/lost-in-transition/

Thanks to Mind HK for organising an evening of storytelling and poetry inspired by mental health with me and fellow ambassadors Vish and Derek at the Anita Chan Lai-ling Gallery 4 March! Unbelievably, this Hong Kong International Literary Festival event sold out before I had a chance to write a post about it! 😮 Not even I have a ticket! 🤣

Happily, tickets ARE still available for Mind HK‘s Conversations of the Heart event at Tai Kwun Sat 24 Feb! Vish, Derek and I will be among the ambassadors sharing stories and poems from 10.30-11.30am. I promise you Vish is off-the-scale, Derek is a rising star, and I am Poet Laureate of my bathroom. You can get tickets here!

We are just the warm up act for a whole day of inspiring talks, panel discussions and presentations by awesome Mind staff and other ambassadors. I will be there all day. Hope to see you there!

The Hong Kong Writers Circle‘s 19th anthology, Lost in Transition, will launch at the 2024 Hong Kong International Literary Festival March 6! The event will be held 7.30pm – 8.45pm in the Jockey Club Studio at the Hong Kong Fringe Club. This year’s anthology contains 30 short stories and poems inspired by Hong Kong’s underground life-support system – the MTR! (I also set my own theme of ‘Yakult’.) Tickets are FREE but you must book now as there are very few left!

As well as contributing, I assisted Stewart McKay to edit this anthology, which is the thickest yet! (That’s thick in terms of width, not talent.) It contains many weird and wonderful poems and stories by local writers so please support and if you write, join us! HUGE thanks to my good pal Philippe Joly for helping design the cover and my nephew Kaz for taking the cover shot!

So stand back from the platform door and please don’t find yourself lost in transition…

https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/book-launch-lost-in-transition-tickets-821645061497

The Women in Publishing Society‘s 2023-2024 anthology Imprint 22 is launching at the FCC as part of the 2024 Hong Kong International Literary Festival 7 March! Last year, I had the joy of performing Bake Fail at the HKILF 2023 launch of Imprint 21. This year, I’ve also been invited to read, although I haven’t yet decided what. Join me and the women with WiPS from 7-10pm at the FCC for another evening of fun and frivolity celebrating women’s voices!

https://www.hkwips.com/event/launch-of-imprint-22

https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/book-launch-imprint-22-womens-voices-tickets-823328446547

Thank you to editor Carol Dyer and the Women in Publishing Society for inviting me to read Bake Fail at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival launch of Imprint 21! It was the first time I had performed it in front of a live audience and I had a blast!

Bake Fail was published as A Piece of Cake by the South China Morning Post in 2022, which meant it couldn’t be included in the anthology, but you will find two of my other humorous short stories tucked inside; Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow from Sharp Pains, which broadcasted on RTHK, and a restaurant review by my poodle, Mojo, which I helpfully translated.

Imprint 21 is available from bookstores including BookazineLion Rock Press and Vibe. You can also pick up a copy from the FCC, where the event was held. Congrats to the Women with WiPS for putting on a cracking event and to the HKILF for curating such a literary feast! 

https://www.hkwips.com/2023/imprint-comes-of-age-at-the-fcc/

The story behind this year’s HKWC anthology, A Book of Changes, has been a lot more dramatic than anything you are likely to read inside! Hats off to the editors who have somehow kept their sanity. My chocolate horror story, Toot, is a bit of a departure from the usual stuff I write and I am excited to see it in print! The anthology doesn’t officially launch until the 2023 Hong Kong International Lit Fest in March 2023 but will be uploaded to Amazon shortly before. Sneak peak of the cover art below!

Also launching in March 2023 is the Women in Publishing Society‘s anthology Imprint 21, which will be held at the Foreign Correspondents Club. A couple of my humorous short stories are buried deep inside, like splinters of smashed Heiniken bottles nestled amongst precious emeralds…

More anthology news TBA Nov 18!

2023 HKWC Anthology

I had an absolute blast taking part in my first lit fest last weekend reading an excerpt from my absurdist short story Shitstorm at the 2021 Hong Kong International Literary Festival! Shitstorm is one of many short stories published by the Hong Kong Writers Circle in their 2021 anthology After The Storm.

The book is now available to buy in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon, in Bookazine and (from next Friday) Kidnapped in Sai Kung! Thanks to Hong Kong Buzz for their cheeky little plug and to the Writers Circle for introducing me to some of the best people in Hong Kong! If you’d like to join our Circle, click here! And if you’d like to support the HK Lit Fest by sponsoring an event or becoming a patron, click here!

When you really don’t trust the people you’re with (or just forget to remove your mask!)