Mojo likes books. He likes the smell, he likes the pictures, he likes the shape of the words, but most of all, he likes to eat them. Mojo eats books. You know that phrase ‘everyone has at least one book in them’? Well, Mojo has at least three. The last book he ate was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Where’s Wally? He’s lodged inside Mojo’s digestive tract. Mojo treats Bookazine like a buffet. His greatest literary ambition is to finish off War and Peace. He may have bookworms. Books are not the most exotic meal Mojo has ever had. He spent the morning eating magnetic fridge letters. The next poo he does could spell ‘disaster’.

Congratulations to Mojo! The Home Kong Kitchen mascot had his short tail published in the Women in Publishing Society‘s anthology Imprint 21. Despite being male. And a dog. And a poodle. His story is a restaurant review called The Foodie Poo. The anthology launched March 9 at the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival and can be bought from Bookazine, Kidnapped, Vibe, the Lion Rock Press and the Foreign Correspondents Club, which hosted the event. Mojo is now toying with the idea of setting up the Poodles in Publishing Society (PiPS), a literary dining society for poodles who enjoy a good book as much as he does.

Excited to have joined Everybody Media as a podcaster in their Collective! The London-based media company was founded by Naomi Mellor to produce and support podcasts that raise the voices of women and non-binary podcasters. The company partners podcasting giants like Wondery and is home to the annual International Women’s Podcast Awards. Being nominated for ‘Moment of Comedy Gold‘ by the IWPA in 2022 was one of the highlights of my year and I can’t wait to collaborate with them in 2023! Sharp Pains has just been uploaded to their site! You can find it and explore other podcasts here!

IWPA 2022 on IMDb

My latest humour column for RTHK Radio 3 just got tutted up on VYP! It features a funny turn by my partner in crime Philippe Joly. This one’s the stuff of nightmares and called Dream On

Sharp Pains will be back with a few new bells and whistles in the Lunar New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi, amigos!

Living the Dream on RTHK Radio 3

Catch me on Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Skyler Jett‘s Music for Global Change broadcast later this year! God only knows what the lead vocalist of the legendary Commodores wants with me (unless it’s Bake Fail tips?) but I’m excited to be a guest on his broadcast! Plus, once he has interviewed me, he has agreed to let me interview him on one of my podcasts. In case you are interested, our conversation went like this: “Hello? Is it me you’re looking for? Or have you made some catastrophic error?”

Excited to find out the 21st Women in Publishing Society anthology Imprint 21 will launch on International Women’s Day (March 9) at the FCC as part of the 2023 Hong Kong International Literary Festival! Two of my humorous short stories are among the contributions and I am excited to have been invited to read Bake Fail at the event! Bake Fail broadcasted as an episode of Sharp Pains on RTHK Radio 3 and was published by the South China Morning Post as A Piece of Cake in 2022.

Bake Fail was nominated for Moment of Comedy Gold by the 2022 International Women’s Podcast Awards and an Official Select of the 2022 On Air Fest in Brooklyn. Sharp Pains was also shortlisted for Best Comedy Program by the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards and some of the stories long-listed by the 2022-2023 Comedy Women in Print Prize. More festival updates soon!

It’s a wrap! Finito! Done! Thanks to the magnificent Resolve Foundation for the opportunity to serve as a mentor on this year’s fellowship. It’s been a wild ride and I have loved every minute of it. Most of all, thank you for matching me as a mentor with the dynamo of creativity and enthusiasm that is Eny Bawse! The fellowship may have ended, but our collaborations are only just getting started! I could not be prouder of Eny for all she has achieved and all that I know she will go on to achieve with her talent, wit, drive and inspired Self-Love Cupid project.

To support Resolve‘s work empowering community leaders to bring about social change, click here!

Thank you to everyone who braved the filthy weather and turned down Thanksgiving to show up at Mind HK‘s poetry event Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words in SoHo last night! The event was part of a week-long exhibition More Than A Label: I Was. I Am. I Will Be. I loved sharing and listening to the stories of the two other poets, the incredible Vish and Derek, and chatting about the stigma of mental illness in Hong Kong. There was an overwhelming amount of love in the air at the intimate event at the uber-cute gallery on Lyndhurst Street. I can’t wait for the next one!

Thanks to Mind for the endless encouragement, opportunity to read Imagine Nation, and for curating such a powerful exhibition of letters and artwork. I loved reading every single one of the letters on display and the psychedelic 3D artwork of Mind HK ambassadors’ brains! Thanks especially to Odile for emceeing and sharing her own insightful observations. If you’ve not already seen it, you’ve still got a chance! The exhibition is open until Monday.

#More Than A Label #Poetry for Mental Health: The Healing Power of Words #I Was. I Am. I Will Be

I will be reading one of my strange experimental poems at a poetry event organised by Mind HK in Central Nov 24! The Healing Power of Words is part of an exhibition of art and letters by Mind HK ambassadors to celebrate the first anniversary of the charity’s More Than A Label anti-stigma campaign. Please join me and support Mind! I’m not really a poet but I will be pretending to be one by shouting and wearing a hat.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-for-mental-health-the-healing-power-of-words-tickets-467482271057

I am away with the fairies that two of my strange experimental poems, Imagine Nation and Tidal Slave, have received places in the 2022 Proverse Poetry Prize and will be published in Chinese University Press and Proverse Publishing‘s anthology Mingled Voices 7. The anthology will be launched at the Proverse Spring Reception April 27, 2023. The winners and finalists were announced last night at the Proverse Autumn Reception at the Helena May. You can catch me reading one of them at a poetry event organised by Mind HK this coming Thursday! Click here for the lowdown!

My first poem, War of Voices, was awarded a place in 2020 and published in Mingled Voices 5. You can hear me reading it on VYP here. Thank you, Proverse! You have made me very happy.

The Foot In It episode of my RTHK Radio 3 and SCMP humour column, Sharp Pains, has just flown out of my mouth and trodden on VYP! PS. I’ve got nothing to do with the choosing of photos on VYP. My choice would be the one below.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3126994/horror-and-humour-my-husbands-huge-ugly-feet