This March, Ng Yi-Sheng reviews tales from five trans writers of Asia.

“You are a waste of good fortune,” I spit in Mandarin. “Through no effort of your own, you are an American.”–a short story by Alice Stephens.

“The gold in a nugget is more precious than any artwork made up of pure gold because it has soil in it,” a new essay by Jeyamohan—what to expect from the Living Tamil Literature Festival, to be held in New York City, on April 3 and 4, 2026.

‘It was enough to see Chinese teenagers spending a Saturday doing a church thing.’–an essay by Celestine Woo on evangelising as a Southern Baptist in California.

“Yoked with violence”: Chong Jing Gan reviews Boh Beh Zhao, by Cheng Him.

Tan Yanrong examines aesthetic form and form-defying motherhood in Mia Ayumi Malhotra’s Mothersalt (Alice James Books, 2025).

What consumes us? Three poems by Alison Clara Tan.

#YISHREADS returns with the theme of sequels, you know, that genre that everyone loves to hate.

In a short story by Yu Xi, translated by Ng Zheng Wei, a gnawing hunger consumes everything.

‘Style, tone, and form aren’t just decoration—they’re the architecture of meaning... A plastic chalice cannot hold sacred wine.’ – an essay on meaning-making by Chadawan Yuddhara.

In Taiwan Travelogue, ‘twinned souls… are at once lost, but also found, in translation.’ A review by Eunice Lim.

‘But later… we didn’t talk about love. We talk about the land and its people.’ – a short story by Kaushik Ranjan Bora, translated from the Assamese by Aruni Kashyap.

“Like the man who wears a vest saying negotiator in a hostage situation, I want one that says prioritizer.” Three poems by Satya Dash.

New year, new column. In this January’s instalment of ‘Felix: The Comics’, Felix Cheong (and his cats) introduces us to four graphic memoirs by women authors. 

‘A vicarious glimpse [into]... Singapore’s artistic milieu from the millennial generation.’ – Melody Lee reviews Daryl Yam’s Be Your Own Bae. 

Cheryl Narumi Naruse reviews how a city is produced and contested in Angelia Poon’s survey of Anglophone Singapore literature.

‘It was early January, and the snow had come down that day like an epiphany.’ – an essay by Max J. Nam. 

‘The first clean air came quietly. Felt wrong, almost. Like walking into your house after a funeral.’ – A short story by Ian Mark Ganut. 

Is the immovable “nation/of know” opposed to or running on an unstoppable force? Three poems by Ren Phung.

This Christmas season, Ng Yi-Sheng takes us to the Middle East.

“Blackouts bring us together.” Three poems on civil war by Maung Htike Aung.

Ashley Marilynne Wong reviews Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception.

Excerpt: Shyamasri Maji reviews Shilpi Suneja’s House of Caravans.

This November, Ng Yi-Sheng reviews five literary works that deal with the legacy of HIV. 

‘A stub, a shard—discarded by most, but enough to begin again.’—an essay by Shumin Tan.

With these three poems, Abuyuan-Llanes shows us the tender passing of time – while “being too young”, while kissing men in clubs, while on highways.

‘I miss you until I can’t breathe sometimes. It’s nothing new.’–an essay by C. Zhang.

What is it that “no one wants to explain”? Three poems that echo around the world by Sabyasachi Roy.

Read the winners on a grandmother’s wok, a Sunday service, and an unrepentant clockmaker.