Lantern Review speaks to Tammy Ho

Poet and Cha co-editor Tammy Ho has a conversation with Lantern Review staff writer Ada Yee. You can read the interview on the Lantern Review blog. You can also read Lantern Review's conversation with Luisa A Igloria here.

CHA contributors in QLRS

Cha contributors Reid Mitchell, Philip Holden and Yew Leong Lee have new creative works published in the latest issue (January 2010) of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. Read Reid's poem "Never Give a Clock to a Dead Person", Philip Holden's story "Host" and Yew Leong Lee's "Faith".

• Reid Mitchell is consulting editor of Cha.
• Philip Holden's fiction has been published in issue #4 of Cha.
• Yew Leong Lee's fiction has been published in issue#6 of Cha.

Nominate a Cha story for 2010 Million Writers Award

If you like a story published in Cha in 2009, please consider nominating it for the storySouth's Million Writers Award. The following stories are eligible for the competition, i.e. they are first published in Cha online and are at least 1000 words in length:

• The Disappearance by Yew Leong Lee (Issue 6, February 2009)
• In the Flesh by Nicole Wong (Issue 6, February 2009) **Nominated by Cha editors
• Coming of Age by by Caitlin Militello (Issue 7, May 2009)
• Taste by Surajit Chakravarty (Issue 7, May 2009) **Nominated by Cha editors
• Manuel Santo Earns Fifty Cents by by E.K. Entrada (Issue 7, May 2009)
• The Subcontinent Pride by Janet McClaskey (Issue 7, May 2009)
• Parable by Christopher Luppi (Issue 8, August 2009)
• Improv by Drew Calvert (Issue 9, November 2009) **Nominated by Cha editors

Million Writers Award -- Cha's nominations

Our readers may remember Cha won the storySouth Million Writers Award for best new online magazine or journal for 2008. This year, we have nominated the following three stories for the 2010 Million Writers Award:

• Story 1: "In the Flesh" by Nicole Wong, first published in Issue #6 of Cha. (February 2009)
• Story 2: "Taste" by Surajit Chakravarty, first published in Issue #7 of Cha. (May 2009)
• Story 3: "Improv" by Drew Calvert, first published in Issue #9 of Cha. (November 2009)

Congratulations and good luck!

Arlene Ang in Metazen

"Love Bytes", a story co-written by Meg Pokrass and Cha contributor Arlene Ang, is now published in Metazen. You can read it here.

Arlene Ang's poetry has been published in issue #1 of Cha.

Open House for New MFA in Creative Writing

Department of English
City University of Hong Kong

OPEN HOUSE FOR NEW MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING

On Saturday February 6, City University of Hong Kong will host an OPEN HOUSE from 2:30 pm at City Top, 9th Floor, Amenities Building to introduce its new low-residency Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing. Our "low-residency" format is ideally suited to working professionals, as well as those wishing to gain postgraduate qualifications for a career in the creative industries, publishing and teaching. The programme curriculum includes:

-an international faculty of award-winning writers who are experienced teachers
of creative writing
-brief, intensive residencies comprised of classes, lectures, workshops
-exclusive, informal sessions with well-known visiting writers
-individualised mentoring throughout the semester
-a rigorous 45-credit, 2-year programme benchmarked against MFAs at leading
universities worldwide

This degree will specialise in Asian writing in English for creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, and will accept a limited number of students each year, beginning in summer this year. Based in the Department of English, this innovative new programme is designed to meet the highest international standards. The Hong Kong writer Xu Xi assisted in its development and from March onwards, as the Department's first writer-in-residency, and will be overseeing the programme. The faculty writers include Tina Chang, Marilyn Chin, Luis Francia, Robin Hemley, Justin Hill, Sharmistha Mohanty,Jess Row, James Scudamore, Ravi Shankar, and Madeleine Thien. The internationally renowned novelist Timothy Mo will be Visiting Writer during the first summer residency.

If you've dreamt about becoming a writer, come to our OPEN HOUSE and learn what it takes. There will be presentations and Q&A with the programme leader Xu Xi & faculty member Justin Hill. Light refreshments will be served.

For details about the MFA, please visit http://www.english.cityu.edu.hk/MFA. For further information about the Open House, please call Ms Winnie Cheng at 3442 2388 or email mfawriting@cityu.edu.hk.

Jee Leong Koh in The Raintown Review

Jee Leong Koh's new poem "I pluck my theory of winter from the violin" is published in the current issue of The Raintowbn Review. You can purchase a copy of the journal here.

Jee Leong Koh's poetry has been published in issue#6 of Cha.

Inara Cedrins in Writers Connect

Three new poems by Inara Cedrins, "You Linger", "Heavy Metal Joy" and "Disparate Trajectories"are now published in Writers Connect. Read the poems here.

Inara Cedrins's poetry has been published in Issue #6 of Cha.

Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, City University of Hong Kong

Department of English
City University of Hong Kong

FOR GENERAL MEDIA RELEASE

In January 2010, City University of Hong Kong will begin accepting applications for the first, low-residency Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing in Asia. This 45-credit, two-year degree will specialize in Asian writing in English for creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry, and will accept a limited number of students each year. Based in the English Department, this innovative new program was designed to match international standards for the MFA. The Hong Kong native author Xu Xi assisted in its development and will join the department next March as their first writer-in-residence to help oversee the program.

"We anticipate the majority of applicants to be from Asia," Xu says, "but many writers in the West, both of Asian and non-Asian ethnicity, are increasingly drawn to Asia, especially China. They're not always best served by MFA programs in the West where there's little focus on either a contemporary or historical Asian perspective or Asian literature." The faculty will all be writers who "know Asia, live Asia, read Asia, write Asia" as their launch ad reads. The program's mission is to produce the best writers of Asian prose and poetry, and the top criteria for admittance will be the quality of creative work.

This initiative is part of an overall strategy to develop the creative curriculum at the university. Professor Kingsley Bolton, head of English at City University says, "Our English Department is a very young one, but probably one of the most dynamic and innovative departments of its kind in Asia. In the next few years, we are aiming to make the English Department here a leading centre for creative writing, drama, and cultural studies, not only for Hong Kong but also for the whole of the Asian region." The MFA is generally considered a professional degree, qualifying students to work in professions where good writing skills are required, as well as providing the groundwork for an international writing and publishing career.

The low-residency graduate degree model is relatively new in Asia. A long-established pedagogical model in the U.S., such programs are especially suited for the creative arts. In particular, this program is ideally suited for working professionals who cannot afford to spend two years as full-time graduate students in a traditional writing program. Structured for individualized learning, students work via distance learning with writing mentors on a one-on-one basis during the semesters, and attend brief "residencies" at the university two to three times a year. The low faculty-to-student ratio allows for intensive feedback on the student's work and approximates the professional editor-writer relationship.

The first residency is scheduled for summer 2010. The internationally renowned novelist Timothy Mo will be visiting writer and the faculty writers for the 2010 class features an international cast from Hong Kong, India, the U.K, Canada and the U.S., with connections and roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere. The writers include Tina Chang, Marilyn Chin, Luis Francia, Robin Hemley, Justin Hill, Sharmistha Mohanty, James Scudamore, Ravi Shankar, Jess Row and Madeleine Thien. For further information, please visit http://www.english.cityu.edu.hk/MFA or email mfawriting@cityu.edu.hk.

O Thiam Chin in Karavan

O Thiam Chin's short story "Pebbles", first published in issue #8 of Cha, is now published in Swedish in the latest issue of Karavan.

O Thiam Chin's fiction has been published in issue #8 of Cha.

Steven Schroeder's new book On Not Finding Rome

Steven Schroeder's new book On Not Founding Rome is now available from the Cascade Books imprint of Wipf and StockPublishers. "This book is an attempt to critically embrace a tradition—a culture—in which the author was formed and against which he has often found himself in resistance, using academic disciplines in which he is well versed but about which he is deeply suspicious. This book began to come together as a book in a series of lectures on the history of Western thought at Shenzhen University in the People's Republic of China, an opportunity to cultivate disciplined criticism that might afford a second look at traditions behind the West which are being embraced all too quickly. In a time of acceleration, this book offers a meditation on the virtue of hesitation. The book is an invitation to philosophy and the history of ideas, but it is also a sustained critical reflection on the religious dimensions—explicit and implicit—of those ideas, with enough utopian visionleft to imagine a city in which violence is not necessary."

Steven will be in Oklahoma and Texas in February and March for readings from A Dim Sum of the Day Before, and he would be happy to coordinate those readings with events related to this book. Email Steven at steven_schroederATearthlinkDOTnet.

Steven Schroeder's poetry has been published in issues #5 and #8 of Cha. You can also read an analysis of his poem "Guidebook Says" here.

Ching-In Chen's The Heart's Traffic

Ching-In Chen's The Heart's Traffic has been selected by Hyphen Magazine as one of the ten Notable Asian American Books of 2009.

Ching-In Chen's poetry has been published inissue #6 of Cha. The Heart's Traffic is reviewed in issue #8 of the journal.

Jaipur Literature Festival 21st-25th January 2010

To learn more about the event, please visit the Jaipur Literature Festival website.

Sam Byfield in Heat

Sam Byfield's new poems "Harbour" and "Altitude" are now published in Heat (Issue #21). You can learn more about the issue here.

Sam Byfield's poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in issue#5 of Cha. He will serve as the guest poetry editor for issue #11 of the journal.

Marco Yan in 34th Parallel

Marco Yan's new poem "One Last Breath" is now published in the nineth issue of 34th Parallel. You can download/purchase the document here.

Marco Yan's fiction has been published in the debut issue of Cha.

Iris Law in Writers Connect

Iris Law's three new poems, "Bones", "Airport, T-Minus-Four Hours" and "Spare the Air Day" are now published in the Singapore-based Writers Connect. You can read the poems here.

Iris A. Law's poetry has been published in issue #7 of Cha.

Sam Byfield reviews the APC New Poets Series

Sam Byfield reviews the Australian Poetry Centre "New Poets Series" (four chapbooks: Canyon by Andrew Slattery, Little bit long time by Ali Cobby Eckermann, Evengelyne by Helen Hagermann and Awake During Anaesthetic by Kimberley Mann) at Cordite. You can read the article here.

Sam Byfield's poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in issue#5 of Cha. He will serve as the guest poetry editor for issue #11 of the journal.

Sam Byfield in Southerly and Island

Sam Byfield's poem "Writing My Way Back to Her" is now published in Southerly (Vol. 69, No. 1) and his poem "Ashes" is published in Island (Issue #118).

Sam Byfield's poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in issue#5 of Cha. He will serve as the guest poetry editor for issue #11 of the journal.

Nirmala Pillai in Literature SouthWest

Nirmala Pillai's poems "Cell Poetry" and "Meeting Again" are now published in Literature SouthWest.

Nirmala Pillai's fiction has been published in issue #5 of Cha.

Sushma Joshi in World Literature Today

Sushma Joshi's "The Little Girl Who Died" is now published in World Literature Today. You can read it here.

Sushma Joshi's fiction has been published in issue #3 of Cha.