Join us for an evening of conversation about the intersections between queerness, East Asian identity, and literature. The discussion features three award-winning writers from different generations and writing traditions: Chi Ta-Wei (The Membranes), Eric Yip (Exposure), and Ewen Ma (Where the World Goes Sharp and Quiet). The three writers will discuss their bodies of work, creative processes, and their hopes for the future of queer Asian literature. This intergenerational and genre-bending conversation explores the shifting landscape of queer writing in Asia, and the expansive possibilities of storytelling.

Speakers:

Chi Ta-wei is a renowned writer and scholar from Taiwan. Chi’s scholarly work focuses on LGBT studies, disability studies, and Sinophone literary history, while his award-winning creative writing ranges from science fiction to queer short stories. He is an associate professor of Taiwanese literature at the National Chengchi University.

Eric Yip is from Hong Kong. He won the 2021 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2023 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. His pamphlet, Exposure (ignitionpress, 2024), was shortlisted for the 2024 Michael Marks Poetry Award. His writing has appeared in Best New Poets, The Forward Book of Poetry, The Guardian, Oxford Poetry, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, and Poets & Writers. He is the poetry editor at Cha.

Ewen Ma is a Hong Kong-born speculative fiction writer-poet, editor, theatre deviser, and a lapsed film and visual cultures scholar. Ewen has been published in Uncanny Magazine, The Deadlands, Fusion Fragment, Apparition Literary, Anathema, Liminality, and the Hong Kong-based poetry magazine Voice & Verse, among other venues. Ewen’s short story “Where the World Goes Sharp and Quiet” is forthcoming in the anthology Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity in 2025.