Michelle Ha is an award-winning multi-genre writer who has won national awards for her short stories and TV scripts. After graduating with a first-class honours in Psychology, she started writing professionally in 1997. She later earned a Master of Social Science in Psychology from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2001. Creating and writing original works have always been a twin passion for Michelle. Besides works of fiction, many top selling magazines like Young Parents, Young Parents Baby, Young Parents Preschool Guide, Simply Her, Family and Today’s Parents, have also published her other works. Her book The Something Under My Bed is one of the 14 books under the First-Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing Initiative Jointly organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and the Media Development Authority.


Born in 1963
A school teacher, Heng has Honours and Master s degrees in Literature from NUS and a Masters s degree in Information Studies from Nanyang Technological University.

Heng s first collection of poems, Crossing the chopsticks and Other Poems (1993), was followed by my city, my canvas (1999) and the slim Contouring (2004). Her poems are brief, attenuated observations or meditations on a particular image or word, which is drawn out by linguistic play. The detached tone, often wry and flat, and the neat stanzas of spare , deliberate lines furnish poems of improbable possibility as metaphor or image is taken to its logical conclusion.

Heng was Honorary Fellow at the University of Iowa s International Writing Programme in 2000. She edited the online journal, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore [see Toh Hsien Min, p.19] from 2002-2004.


Bonny Hicks was a writer and model who died in Silk Air crash in Indonesia. Her publications in the region includes Excuse Me Are You A Model? the Bonny Hicks story, Flame of the Forest (1990); Discuss Disgust, Flame of the Forest (1992).


(1962 - ) Sid Gómez Hildawa is a poet, visual artist and professional architect. As an artist, he was among the recipients of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award and the British Council Fellowship for art and architecture in 1990. He has participated in many group and solo exhibitions, among them the 2000 International Art Biennale of Havana Cuba, and the 2002 artist-in-residency program at Fujino, Japan.

As an architect, he designs houses and offices on a freelance basis. As a writer, he was a poetry fellow to the UP National Writer's workshop in 1995 and the Iligan National Writer's workshop in 1997. He won 2nd place twice in the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards for poetry, in 2001 and 2004.

Hildawa is currently pursuing a PhD Literature degree from the De La Salle University, after obtaining his Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing there in 2004. He now works full-time as director for the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Visual, Literary, and Media Arts Department.


Lee-Ling was the recipient of the 2006 First-Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing grant awarded by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS). With the grant, Stephanie wrote and illustrated the children's book, 'Samsui Girl', for children 8 to 11 years old. In 2008, she published a sequel to the book entitled 'Wayang Girl'.

Lee-Ling is also the author of a series of picture books for younger children based on the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child: The Boy with a Tree on His Head, The Shadow, The UGB and SHUSH!. The books are published and distributed by Singapore's Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).


Born in 1951
Born in Burma, Ho grew up in Thailand and Singapore and graduated from Tunghai University (Taiwan) and Cornell (US). Ho developed Sing to the Dawn, a 1975 prize- winning story, into a novel (1984) which was turned into a musical (1996). Sing is being made into an animated film for release in 2008. Tanjong Rhu won first prize in the 1982 Singapore Short Story Competition and the 1983 Asiaweek Short Story Competition. Ho s second novel, Rice Without Rain (1986), won the 1988 NBDCS Award (Fiction), and was runner-up in the 1987 Commonwealth Book Awards. Ho s books for younger children, like Hush! A Thai Lullaby (1996), and Maples in the Mist: Children s Poems from the Tang Dynasty (1996), have earned her recognition in the United States, where she lives. Journeys (2007), a collection of short stories and essays, will be released in October.


Born 1946, Educ: University of Singapore (MA English 1987). Teacher at Raffles Junior College. When the Tabebuia Bloomed at Soochow Gardens; Katong and Other Poems, Uni Press, 1994 (Commended NBDCS Book Awards 1996).


Born in 1960
An architect by profession, with a calling as a writer, Isa is best known for his novel, Satu Bumi (1998), which delved into issues surrounding wartime and post war Singapore, even though he started off with poetry. His poetry collection, Sumur Usia, received the National Book Development Council of Singapore Award (1997). A dynamic writer, he is currently one of Singapore’s more experimental novelists, as evidenced by Kiswah (2003) and Tawassul (2004). Isa also writes plays such as Dua Wajah (2003) and Mengejar Bayangan (2004). He received the prestigious SEA Write Award in 2007.


Fiction and non-fiction writer. Born 1943. Educ: Univ of Singapore (BSc Physics 1965). Publications: Relatively Speaking, 1984 (Commended NBDCS Book Awards for Non-Fiction 1984); Star Sapphire (Highly Commended NBDCS Book Awards for Non-Fiction 1986); Hotel New World Collapse, 1987 (Commended NBDCS Book Awards for Non-Fiction 1988); Tidal Fortunes: A Story of Change, the Singapore River and Kallang Basin, 1990.


Judith was the recipient of the British Young Poet of the Year award three times in 2001, 2003 and 2004, which saw her on week-long poetry courses in Yorkshire, England, where she was mentored by poets Mario Petrucci, Moniza Alvi, Philip Gross and Fiona Sampson. As Head of Hwa Chong Lit Wing from 2003-2004, she organized the More Than Words exhibition as well as YAWP!, a performance poetry competition. She has been published in One-Winged, From This Tree as well as but. She recently conducted a poetry course at her alma mater, RGS, now runs a business selling handcrafted earrings, and will attend Harvard University later this year on a Loke Cheng Kim Scholarship.