We’re a small band of translators who translate Southeast Asian literature into English. We have come together for the following purposes:
to promote Southeast Asian literature in translation
to run events and workshops beneficial for emerging and aspiring translators of Southeast Asian literature
and to share useful information and provide moral support to others in the field.
Members
Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III
Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III is the author of the novel, Aklat ng mga Naiwan [Book of the Damned] (Balangiga Press, 2018), co-editor and co-translator of Wiji Thukul’s Balada ng Bala [The Ballad of a Bullet], and translator of Mga Himutok sa Palikuran (Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2021), the Filipino-language edition of Eka Kurniawan’s collection of stories. He teaches courses on Southeast Asian literature and creative writing at the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature in the University of the Philippines Diliman. Mendoza is also a co-editor of Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines (Gaudy Boy, 2021) and several other upcoming anthologies.
Christina Ng
Christina Ng is a Singaporean writer, journalist and translator based in Berlin. Her Chinese to English translations include poetry by Singaporean poets Liang Wern Fook, Ting Kheng Siong and Dan Ying. Some of her forthcoming translations include Liang Wern Fook’s short story collection tentatively titled Joy of Being a Left-Hander.
Jeremy Tiang
Jeremy Tiang is a Singaporean novelist, playwright and translator from Chinese.
Kaitlin Rees
Kaitlin Rees is a translator, editor, and teacher based in New York City with reachings toward Hanoi. She translates from the Vietnamese of Nhã Thuyên, with whom she co-founded AJAR, the small bilingual journal-presse that organizes an occasional poetry festival. Her translations include Moon Fevers (Tilted Axis, 2019), words breathe, creatures of elsewhere (Vagabond Press, 2016), and the forthcoming book of poetry taste of waters (seeking publisher!).
Kristine Ong Muslim
Kristine Ong Muslim is the author of nine books of fiction and poetry, most recently The Drone Outside (Eibonvale Press, 2017), a short story collection whose German-language edition is forthcoming from WhiteTrain . She co-edited the British Fantasy Award-winning anthology People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, as well as Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines and Sigwa: Climate Fiction Anthology from the Philippines. She is also the translator of Filipino authors Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles, Marlon Hacla, and Rogelio Braga.
Mui Poopoksakul
Mui Poopoksakul is a lawyer-turned-translator with a special interest in contemporary Thai literature. She has translated two story collections and a chapbook by Prabda Yoon and a story collection and a novel by Duanwad Pimwana. Her translation of Saneh Sangsuk’s novel tentatively titled The Understory is forthcoming in 2023.
Natascha Bruce
Natascha Bruce translates fiction and sometimes poetry from Chinese. Her work includes Lonely Face by Yeng Pway Ngon and Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong. She's currently working on Owlish by Dorothy Tse and Mystery Train by Can Xue. She lives in Amsterdam.
Tiffany Tsao
Tiffany Tsao's translations from Indonesian to English include Happy Stories, Mostly and Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu; Budi Darma's People From Bloomington; and Dee Lestari's Paper Boats. Her translations of Pasaribu's work have been awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize in the UK and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. She also writes fiction. Her third novel The Majesties was longlisted for the Ned Kelly Award.
YZ Chin
YZ Chin is the author of Edge Case, a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR pick for best books of 2021. She also wrote Though I Get Home, which won the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the Asian/Pacific American Award For Literature honor title. In addition, YZ is a MacDowell fellow and the translator of The Age of Goodbyes by Li Zi Shu. Born and raised in Taiping, Malaysia, she now lives in New York.