The list of Eastlit Writers December 2015 is alphabetical by first name:

Abhay K.

Abhay K. is an Indian poet-diplomat. He is the author of two memoirs and five collection of poems.  He has been awarded the SAARC Literary Award 2013 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2013. His poems have appeared in leading literary journals in India, Russia, UK, and USA and have been translated into Irish, Russian, Italian, Nepali, Hindi and Chinese.  His most recent collection of poems The Seduction of Delhi was  published by Bloomsbury India. He is the editor of CAPITALS — an anthology on the national capital cities of the world. The SAARC Songpenned by him has paved way towards an official SAARC Anthem. His call for an official Earth Anthem has been lauded by UNESCO and supported by the Habitat for Humanity. www.abhayk.com.

Andre Nguyễn Văn Châu

Andre Nguyen Van Chau was born in the Citadel of Hue, the old capital of Imperial Vietnam. He grew up with classmates who have become known writers, poets, composers and painters.

After obtaining a doctorate degree in the humanities at the Sorbonne, Paris, he taught English and creative writing at various universities in Viet Nam for twelve years.

In 1975 he began twenty-five years of work for migrants and refugees around the world, ten of which were spent at the head of the International Catholic Migrations Commissions with 84 national affiliates and with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

He has traveled and worked in over 90 countries.

Back to the United States after Geneva he was for ten years  the Director, Language and Accent Training at ACS, then Xerox before retiring in Austin, Texas and beginning a  new career as a full-time writer.

One of his published works, The Miracle of Hope, a biography, has been translated into nine different languages.

The New Vietnamese-English Dictionary, on which he spent an inordinate number of hours in the last twenty years, was finally published in September 2014.

A Lifetime in the Eye of the Storm, second edition, a  biography, 2015

Journeys into Drakness and Light, a collection of short stories and poems, 2015

He and his wife, Sagrario, have four children: Andrew, married to Jodie Scales, Boi-Lan, married to Rodolphe Lemoine, Michael, married to Rachel La Fleur and Xavier. They have seven grand-children: Katelyn, Géraldine, Alix, Drew, Noah, Isabelle and Luke.

China De Vera

China Patria De Vera is a grade school teacher, striving writer, storyteller and human rights advocate.  Now, she’s trying to finish her MA in Philippine  Studies while drinking tea and coffee in between.

Clare Mercado

Clare Mercado is sixteen year old undergraduate from De La Salle University Philippines and is currently taking up Psychology and Legal Management. She is planning to pursue a career in law or creative writing in the future.

Eiman Ilyas

Eiman Ilyas was born in Oman, spent his childhood in Ireland, and then returned to Pakistan, where he is originally from. He developed his love for writing, there, in Pakistan, where he became more and more conscious of his surroundings and his feelings. Right now he is 15 years old and will be starting 11th class in September. Alongside studying for my O levels exams, he continues to write as a pastime.

Ganggang Guidice

Ganggang Guidice is a software engineer, writer and artist. She was born and grew up in Beijing, China and moved to Atlanta, Georgia after receiving a MS in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Her prose, poems and music reviews have been published in multiple languages since 2003. Her artwork has been seen in exhibitions worldwide. She also enjoys singing and making music videos.

Hong-My Basrai

Hong-My Basrai was born in Saigon, Vietnam. She studied in Belgium for two years. At age twenty-two she moved to Southern California and never looked back. In her memoir,Behind the Red Curtain, currently seeking an agent or publisher, she writes about the seven years she spent inside the fallen Saigon. Besides English, she is fluent in French and Vietnamese. Writing and language are her passions.

Kamakshi Lekshmanan

Kamakshi Lekshmanan, a nature enthusiast, is mostly found toddling through some of the Indian jungles. She captures events from nature, be it animals, birds or landscape. She dreams of walking through The Himalayas inch by inch.  She is a  happy housewife with a compassionate spouse and an inquisitive nine-year-old daughter:-)

Khor Hui Min

Khor Hui Min works as a book editor in educational publishing. She believes in a healthy, balanced lifestyle and loves yoga and fitness in general. In her free time, she likes to write, bake, cook and volunteer with NGOs, especially those that champion environmental causes such as the Malaysian Nature Society.

Minglu Zeng

Minglu Zeng was born in China and graduated from Peking University with a major in Chinese Linguistics and Literature. She came to the U.S. in 1989 and has been a full time computer programmer for over 15 years.  In her spare time she pursued creative writing as a second career.  So far she has published Chinese poetry and prose collections, novels, and short stories. She has also won several literary awards and one of her stories was turned into an English short movie.  Recently her poems and short stories have been translated to English and published on English magazines like Eastlit and GUWAHATIAN‏.

Nosheen Irfan

Nosheen Irfan is from Lahore, Pakistan. She holds a Masters in English Literature. She has worked as English teacher at school level. She is an avid reader of fiction and poetry. She takes inspiration from both classic and contemporary literature. To her, literature and music are life. She makes it a point to write daily so she could express herself creatively.

Noushin Hamid

Noushin Hamid was born and raised in New York, where she lives now. The child of immigrant parents from Bangladesh, she’s used her experience with the dynamics between a first generation American and immigrant parents as a subject of her writing. Noushin is a graduate of The City College of New York, where she majored in Creative Writing.

Richard Lutman

Richard Lutman has a MFA in Writing from Vermont College.  He has taught composition and literature courses at Rhode Island Community College, Fairfield University, The Learning Connection in Providence, Rhode Island, and short story classes as part of Coastal Carolina University’s Lifelong Learning program.
His fiction has appeared in publications including Epiphany Magazine, The Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and Prick of the Spindle.  He was a 2008 Pushcart nominee in fiction and the recipient of national awards for his non-fiction, short stories and screenplays.   His first novel is due out in 2016. http://www.wordrealm.net

Shivaji Das

Writer, traveller, and photographer; Shivaji Das is the author of ‘Journeys with the caterpillar: Travelling through the islands of Flores and Sumba, Indonesia’ and ‘Sacred Love: Erotic art in the temples of Nepal’

Shivaji Das was born and brought up in the north-eastern province of Assam in India. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, subsequent to which he completed his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. He is presently working as a management consultant in Singapore.

Shivaji’s writings have been published in magazines such as TIME, Asian Geographic, Venture Mag, Jakarta Post, Conscious Magazine, PanaJournal, Freethinker, etc.

He has given talks on topics ranging from Travel Writing, Humour in Cross-Cultural context, and the culture of Indonesia in universities and forums in Singapore, Morocco, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil. His interviews have been featured on BBC, CNBC, Channel News Asia, Travel Radio Australia, Around the World TV, Radio Roaming, and Singapore Discovery Centre’s IFD exhibition.

His photographs in collaboration with his wife, Yolanda Yu, have been exhibited in the Darkroom Gallery, Vermont (USA), Kuala Lumpur International Photography Festival (Malaysia), the Arts House (Singapore), and the National Library (Singapore).

Shivaji also takes an active interest in migrant issues and is associated with Singapore based organization Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2). He is the conceptualizer and one of the key organizers for the Migrant Worker Poetry Contests in Singapore and Malaysia. http://www.shivajidas.com

Steve Young

Steve Young was born Christopher Morita in New York of Japanese immigrant parents. Both his parents died during Young’s early childhood and he was eventually adopted by white parents.  Young is a radio reporter and news editor who has filed over 150 stories for NPR and has won numerous national awards including a 2007 du-Pont Columbia award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. He has an MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published eight previous short stories. He plays jazz piano and currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Zara Adcock

As well as writing poetry, Zara Adcock is the author of children’s fantasy novelette The Giant Bookworm, and the creator of personal book shopping service, Bookommended. To find out more please visit www.zara-adcock.com.