Writing Across Cultures
Christopher Kloeble, Helder Beja, Helen Burns with Anna Solding
Christopher Kloeble
Bio
Christopher Kloeble is an award-winning scriptwriter and the author of three novels, a short story collection and a memoir. He has taught at Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, Cambridge University and Hong Kong University, among others. His books have been translated into nine languages. He lives in Berlin and New Delhi.
Helder Beja
Bio
Hélder Beja is a Portuguese writer, reporter and arts curator. He moved to Macau in 2010 and in 2012 he co-founded the Macau Literary Festival, acting as its Programme Director until 2018, curating literature sessions as well as film screenings, visual arts exhibitions and music acts. He won a prize for Best Short Story in a Macau Daily Times competition in 2012, with “Slow Fire”. His first film, Once Upon a Time in Ka Ho, premiered the same year. Hélder is now preparing his second film, as a result of his master degree in Visual Anthropology: an archive-film using footage of movies made by Portuguese filmmakers in Macau and other Asian territories (Goa, East Timor) since the 1930’s. He keeps contributing for several publications, writing about Asia-related topics. Beja is also the co-coordinator of the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators annual conference. He co-wrote a feature film and TV series titled Projecto Global, scheduled to be released internationally in 2024.
Helen Burns
Bio
Helen Burns is an Australian writer and poet. After devoting three years to Asian Studies with a major in Hindi at The Australian National University, the call to venture deeper overtook the need for a degree. Travel to India and beyond continues to fuel her writing life. Helen’s first book The Way is a River of Stars, a Camino memoir, was published in 2013. Her recent debut novel Andal’s Garland (Odyssey Books, 2021) is a story steeped in the mythical lore of Tamil Nadu. an ancient and contemporary tale of two women. Its companion volume A Garland of Love, created in collaboration with photographer Alison Taylor, contains Helen’s interpretive translations of verses composed by Andal, the eighth century Tamil poet and goddess. Her work has ben awarded residencies at Byron Bay Writers Festival, Hachette / Queensland Writers Centre and Varuna, Australia’s National Writers House.
Anna Solding
Bio
Anna Solding is the founder and director of independent publishing company MidnightSun Publishing. Anna is also the co-founder and director of the Australian Short Story Festival.
She has travelled the world as a publisher, partaking in delegations to China, Korea and India, and she has published many books that have been shortlisted for or won awards, both in Australia and internationally. A writer and editor, Anna has a Masters and a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Adelaide and is the co-founder of two literary magazines.
She loves stories that have language that sings and characters that sweep you away.