Moderators

Amanda Ruiqing Flynn is an artist, writer, Chinese-English translator and creative writing teacher who has lived and worked in the UK, Taiwan and Singapore. She holds a BA in Chinese and Development Studies from SOAS and an MFA in Art and Design. Amanda has won several competitions for her writing and artwork. She is the author-illustrator of The Woof that Went Weng, her first children’s picture book, which will be published by Balestier Press in 2024. On most days, she is chief storyteller to her son.

Amit Virmani has led multiple lives in advertising, filmmaking and virtual reality production. He directed the critically-acclaimed and APSA-nominated documentary, Menstrual Man. Together with his producing partner, he’s now using tech to empower people to document their own life stories for future generations.    

A former English teacher, Angela is currently working as the secondary librarian at United World College. Her current research interests include reading as empathy training and didacticism in children's and young adult literature. When she is not matching books to readers, she likes exploring Singapore's green spaces and watching films at The Projector.

Angela is Director, Professional & Education Development at PAP Community Foundation. She has over 10 years of experience in the education sector, planning and overseeing the development and implementation of the school’s curriculum. She works with her team of specialists to lead curriculum change, and pedagogical direction and ensures that the curriculum meets children’s developmental needs.

Azhagunila (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s books and comics) is the author of Mozhivazhi Kanavu, Sang Kancil, Sirukattu Chunai and Oranju; Mozhivazhi Kanavu won the Singapore Literature Prize 2022. Sirukattu Chunai was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2020. She has also published four picture books for young readers: Kondama Kendama, Melissavum Merlionum, Melissavum Japaniya Moothatiyum and Pa Ang Bao. The former won the ‘Beyond Words’ competition by Singapore Book Council in 2015. She was selected as a writer-in-residence for the National Arts Council - Sangam House Residency 2022-23. 

Ben Lai is a toy designer by day and a picturebook maker by night. He believes play is a way of doing things and not just something we do. He loves picturebooks and solving problems through art, design, and play. His picturebooks, I Can and We Can, were both shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children's Book Award.

Charlene Shepherdson is an interdisciplinary writer based in Singapore who creates experiences using visual text, interactive narratives and historical archives. The breadth of their practice spans poetry, creative nonfiction, visual art installations and social sculptures; with a deep focus on communities and the ideas that exist in the in-betweens. 

Cheeno Marlo M. Sayuno, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Communication, Research, and Children’s Literature from the University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños. He has received recognition from the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippine Board on Books for Young People’s Salanga Prize (honorable mention), and the Normal Awards for Gender-Inclusive Literature by Philippine Normal University for his stories for children. He has published storybooks with Adarna House, Lampara Books, Anvil Publishing, Chikiting Books, and Save the Children Philippines, as well as textbooks in communication, media, and related fields.

Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips is a writer and performer, educator from Singapore. She is an Associate Artist with Checkpoint Theatre and a Young ASEAN Storyteller (2022). She has written poetry, spoken word, plays, podcasts and short stories. She can be found at linktr.ee/thepoeticscientist    

Photo by Joel Lim @ Calibre Pictures. Courtesy of Checkpoint Theatre

Chong Lingying is a Jack of all trades with experience in writing, translating, editing, publishing, and selling content in print and digital formats. She is a co-founder of COMIX.SG, the online home for Singaporean comics.

Curious Chimeras is an independent experience design studio based in Singapore, specialising in game design and player engagement. We create various forms of playable experiences, including immersive puzzles and tabletop roleplaying games.

We've made our mark designing bespoke games and experiences for a variety of settings, from urban exhibitions and international conventions, to artistic festivals and cultural events.

Darel is an illustrator and educator whose multi-disciplinary practice examines the overlapping stories in nature and culture. He explores learning through the power of stories, imagination and play, which comes to life through characters, murals, comics, interactive experiences and, of course, picture books. 

Denise is a bookseller who has worked with children’s literature for over a decade. In 2013, she very delightfully co-founded Closetful of Books. With Closetful of Books, she shares her love for stories by bringing bookfairs, talks and workshops with authors and illustrators to local and international schools.

A former journalist, Desmond F. X. Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé has authored 18 books, and edited over 25 titles. He is the recipient of the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, Singapore Literature Prize, two Illumination Christian Book Awards, two Independent Publisher Book Awards, and four Living Now Book Awards. For more, visit: desmondkon.com    

Donna Lim is a lecturer with the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She specialises in primary English Language (EL) methodology courses. Her interest area is in developing literacy with a focus on teaching writing. She has considerable teaching experience with young learners and finds it fulfilling to work with schools to enhance EL teaching and learning.    

Evelyn is a children’s author who has been involved in AFCC since its first festival in 2010, curating publications, programmes and partnerships. Drawing on her years of experience as researcher and educator advocating decent work and an inclusive society, she is writing and sharing stories to spark children’s imagination with hope for real and sustainable change. 

Fa'izah Ahmad is the Assistant Director (Early Literacy), Programmes and Services, National Library Board, Singapore. She oversees the Early READ Programme that offers a suite of library services and resources that aims to help preschool educators and parents nurture a love for reading among young children aged 0 to 6.

Galen Yeo is an award-winning director of The Moving Visuals Co, one of Asia’s leading TV & Digital content creation companies (www.tmvc.sg). His diverse career includes writing, developing and producing documentaries; dramas; factual entertainment and kids shows for all platforms.    

Herman is a language teacher turned librarian with NLB’s Collection Planning & Development (Malay Language) team. He enjoys working on collection development, content creation, partnership and community engagement as well as running reading related programmes. Writing is his passion, with some literary awards in his bag.

Dedicated to life-long learning and bringing stories, books and people together, Jane Hayes, has worked for more than four decades as a teacher, librarian and senior education officer in Australia, the USA and the UAE. She is currently enjoying her fourth year as Senior School Teacher Librarian at Dulwich College, Singapore.

Jenny Faith Koh is a writer and mental health advocate from Singapore. She writes stories to give voice to the overlooked and unheard. Her stories have appeared at the Singapore Writers Festival, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of a mental health podcast, I Feel Fine Really.

Jyotirmoy Saha is a media entrepreneur and the Founder of August Media Holdings, a top content creator for kids and youth that has titles on air in 120 countries. His company has won multiple international awards and he is personally credited on over 60 TV and film titles.    

Dr Karine is the founder of Polylinguo.xyz, offering global services around language acquisition and wellness language. Having transformed her youth dream of having twins -to study how they would develop language skills- into parenting her two children towards multilingualism, she specialized into children’s language development and also trained as Storyteller, Yoga and Music together® teacher. 

Kate Brundage has been an Elementary School Librarian at the Singapore American School for the past 16 years. She is currently serving as the International School Libraries Network (ISLN) representative on the AFCC Teachers and Parents Programme Committee. 

Katie Day is an American teacher-librarian who has lived in Asia since 1997, including Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. She is actively involved in the Red Dot Book Awards (Singapore), the Neev Book Awards (India) and the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI) YA Translated Book Prize.    

Kim Beeman has worked worked as a teacher-librarian in international schools in Thailand and Singapore for the last ten years. She now works as the Head of Library in the Senior School at Tanglin Trust in Singapore. She holds a degree in English from Harvard College, as well a Master's degree in Library Science and a PGCEi. Kim is also a member of the executive committee of the International Schools Library Network and sits on the Authors and Illustrators Committee for AFCC. Kim is passionate about reading, writing, and research.    

A photographer and educator, Lee Siew Weng, aka Sweng, is involved in a range of work which allows him to explore his interests revolving the visual arts and technology. He currently works as an adjunct lecturer in both NTU/NIE and TP/NIEC.

Leslie W is the pen name of Kayce Teo. She graduated with an English Literature degree from the National University of Singapore, and was one of six mentees selected for the Mentor Access Project’s Fiction category, an annual programme by the National Arts Council, Singapore, which develops young and emerging writers in Singapore’s four official languages. The Night of Legends, the first book in the trilogy of the same name, was written under the mentorship of prolific local writer, Dave Chua. The sequel and second book, The Light of Stars, was published in December 2022. Two of her short stories were published in an anthology Pulp Toast / Roti Bakar.    

Loh Chin Ee is Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) at the English Language and Literature Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. She is the co-editor of Little Things, Poetry Moves and co-author of Teaching Poetry to Adolescents: A Teachers' Guide to Little Things by Ethos Books. She is also the co-editor of Literature Education in the Asia-Pacific: Polices, Practices and Perspectives in Global Times (Routledge, 2018).

Luanne has been involved with playmaking and producing works for young people since 1999. She is interested in creating platforms that designs thoughtful experiences for young audiences through the arts and is currently spearheading “The Artground – A curious place to be”, a dedicated arts centre for children in Singapore, developed in collaboration with the National Arts Council (Singapore). Inspired by the poem, 100 Languages of Children by Loris Malaguzzi, The Artground with its indoor and outdoor play spaces hopes to encourage curiosity, in adults and children, through play.   

Dr Connie Lum has worked in the early childhood field for over 20 years. She is currently Director, Mother Tongue Languages (NTUC First Campus). She works closely with principals and teachers in delivering the Chinese curriculum and programmes to children through curriculum writing, training of teachers, evaluating children’s learning environment, and conducting continuous review of curriculum tools and techniques.    

Meihan is the author of The Formidable Miss Cassidy (Epigram Books Fiction Prize co-winner 2021, Singapore Book Awards Best Literary Work 2022), its upcoming sequel The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (shortlisted for EBFP 2023), and The Messiah Virus (2019). She also just happens to be a character in the Sherlock Sam series!    

Melanie is the author of the graphic novel series Amazing Ash & Superhero Ah Ma, the picture book series, The Adventures of Squirky the Alien, and the travel guide series Out & About in Singapore. She is also a part-time communications lecturer.

Tay Meng How holds a MA in Translation and Interpretation (2nd for Dissertation and 3rd in Overall Performance) from the Nanyang Technological University, where he was awarded the NTU-TLT Translation Scholarship. He volunteers actively as a Friend of SGTT, ME4 Apprentice (NS) and translator for his Grassroots Adviser to connect the local communities in Singapore. He is currently an Associate Faculty with the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar has translated children’s picture books, fiction and poetry since 2017. She won the Inaugural MASTERA Translation Prize for Poetry in 2019 and has conducted translation workshops for students. She is also an editorial consultant and an author of eight children’s picture books.    

Okky Madasari is an award-winning Indonesian novelist, columnist and researcher. She is now finishing her PhD thesis on censorship, silencing and knowledge production with the Department of Malay Studies at National University of Singapore. Okky has published 11 books and novels. Four of her novels are children novels, telling stories about a girl adventuring across the Nusantara archipelago. Her other books, Entrok (The Years of the Voiceless) and Maryam (The Outcast) each describes about violence against women, while Pasung Jiwa (Bound) embarks on sexuality, sexual violence, and a struggle of becoming a transgender within Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Multi-award winner illustrator, Patrick Yee, is one of Singapore's leading children's picture book illustrators with more than 200 children's books under his belt. Two-time winner of the prestigious Macmillan Children's Picture Book Award (UK), Patrick is also the record keeper of 'The Most Prolific Illustrator' award from the Singapore Book of Records, 2016. His publishing credits include: Little Buddy, Rosie Rabbit, Winter Rabbit, and On Being Happy by UK publishers, Walker Books and Orchard Books. His picture books "Harry "series about our late Lee Kuan Yew and SR Nathan sold 30 thousand copies in Singapore alone. Patrick has also worked as a freelance illustrator for clients in Singapore such as Epigram Books, September 21, A Story A Day Production House, Longman, Asiapac Books, Landmark Books, MandarinaKids and HDB Educational Department.

Has an extensive knowledge of Tamil language and literature. She is a voracious reader of Tamil books, continuously reding books for more than fifty years. Keen observer of all the trends in Modern Tamil literature.
As a Senior Curriculum specialist, she is involved in the development of Primary and Secondary Tamil Instructional Materials for the past eight years.

Dr Sadie-Jane Nunis is the Wordsmith Extraordinaire at editorial consultancy Superlative She and a passionate advocate of reading and a Book Fairy. She sits on various councils and is a speaker or facilitator for local/global events. Dr Nunis has various journal articles in library and management fields under her belt.    

Shreya Davies is the Editor at Difference Engine and has worked on editing comics, as well as literary fiction and non-fiction publications. Her writing has appeared in The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories (Vol 4) and Mahogany Journal. She never leaves home without a book in tow.

Sim Ee Waun is a writer of children's historic creative non-fiction. She is the author of bestselling books including 'The Little Singapore Book', 'The House on Palmer Road', 'The House on Silat Road' and most recently, 'We Shall Remember: The Story of Singapore at War'. Before that, she was most deeply connected with the F&B scene in Singapore. For almost 30 years, she was a food writer and editor of food & travel magazines, including publications like Wine & Dine and BBC Good Food (Asia), and sat on judging panels for various restaurant guides and travel awards.    

Wong Kwang Han is a consecutive and simultaneous interpreter as well as a translator. He has translated three books and is working on another two works. He is also a filmmaker, playwright, and director.

Zed Yeo (Benedict Yeo) is author of over 10 books, including Half Ghost and all of the Saurus Series. A recipient of the National Arts Council’s Presentation and Participation Grant, Zed has spoken at Asian Festival of Children’s Content and Young Writers Festival. As Benedict Yeo, he is Research Librarian (Social Sciences) at Singapore Management University, a premier university in Asia.