2022 | Meet the Slow Currents Writing Workshop
Liminal & Satellites present
the Slow Currents writing workshop.
An international Asian diaspora workshop of eight early-career writers, the workshop brings together talented writers from Australia and Aotearoa: Bryant Apolonio, Saraid de Silva, Elizabeth Flux, Hasib Hourani, Nathan Joe, Rose Lu, Cher Tan and Chris Tse.
Formed through slow and intentional dialogue between Leah Jing McIntosh (Editor, Liminal) and Rosabel Tan (Director, Satellites), the two organisations partnered with the Asian American Writers Workshop for their pilot year.
The 2022 workshop brings together these eight writers into dialogue with George Abraham, Piyali Bhattacharya, Alice Sparkly Kat, Hua Hsu, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Charles Yu.
Meet the Slow Currents Writing Workshop
Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. She is an editor at Liminal and the reviews editor at Meanjin. Her critically-acclaimed essay collection, Peripathetic, was published with NewSouth in 2024.
Elizabeth Flux is an award-winning writer, and the Arts editor at The Age. In 2019 and 2020 she was a convening judge for the VPLAs. Her fiction and nonfiction work has been widely published.
Bryant Apolonio is an award-winning writer and lawyer currently living on Larrakia Country. He won the Deborah Cass Prize in 2021. His writing has appeared in places like Liminal, Kill Your Darlings, Mascara Literary Review and Overland. He is working on a collection of stories.
Hasib Hourani published rock flight, his debut book of poetry on suffocation and the occupation of Palestine, with Giramondo in 2024. He is a 2020 recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Scheme. You can find his work in Meanjin, Overland, and Going Down Swinging, among others.
Nathan Joe is an award-winning playwright and performance poet. He is the curator of BIPOC spoken word event DIRTY PASSPORTS. He is the 2020 National Slam Champ and was awarded the 2021 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.
Saraid de Silva has been freelancing as a journalist and writer since 2018. In 2022, she is working on the podcast and video series Conversations With My Immigrant Parents for Radio New Zealand, with her co-host Julie Zhu. After winning the inaugural Crystal Arts Trust Prize, Saraid published her debut novel Amma in 2024.
Chris Tse is the Poet Laureate of New Zealand. He is the author of three poetry collections published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, HE'S SO MASC and Super Model Minority. He and Emma Barnes are the co-editors of Out Here: An anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa.
Rose Lu gained her Masters of Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2018 and was awarded the Modern Letters Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Her first essay collection, All Who Live on Islands, was published to critical acclaim in 2019.
Producers
Leah Jing McIntosh is a critic, researcher, and the founding editor of Liminal, an anti-racist literary project. As part of her work for Liminal, Leah has published books, produced literary events, created mentorships and fellowships, established national literary prizes, and directed the inaugural Liminal Festival, to create new spaces and opportunities for community.
Rosabel Tan is a writer, strategist and creative producer of Peranakan Chinese descent. She is the Director of Satellites — a production house focused on work that explores the contemporary diasporic experience of Asian communities in Aotearoa — and the founding editor of arts and culture publication The Pantograph Punch. In 2022, she was the inaugural Curator: Asia for the Auckland Writers Festival.
The Slow Currents Writing Workshop has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts funding and advisory body.
