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At the end of July, we’re excited to launch the Margins notebook, QUEER TIME: A SPECIAL NOTEBOOK OF TAIWANESE TONGZHI LITERATURE / 酷兒時間：台灣同志文學, co-edited by Ta-wei Chi and Ariel Chu. To celebrate this unique collection of contemporary Taiwanese queer literature, this bilingual event will feature dialogues and readings with several of the contributors and translators of this notebook, including Hsin-Hui Lin, Ye Odelia Lu, Petit, Yahia Zhengtang Ma, Leah Yang, Jenna Tang, Yang Shuang-zi, and Lin King, with segments introduced by Ta-wei Chi and Ariel Chu.

As Ta-wei and Ariel write in their introduction, “queer stories serve as assertions of self and community, narratives that refuse to be assimilated into dominant political frameworks.” We invite you to join us in holding this time and space, alongside our writers and translators.

Event graphic image is by Kira Wei-Hsin Jacobson.

This event will premiere on the Asian American Writers’ Workshop YouTube channel. Please note that this will be a bilingual event, with subtitles provided. 

With a PhD in Comparative Literature at UCLA, Ta-wei Chi is associate professor of Taiwanese literature at National Chengchi University in Taipei, where he teaches LGBT studies and disability studies. His academic monograph discusses a history of queer literature in Taiwan from the 1960s to the new millennium. His queer science fiction novel, The Membranes, originally published in Chinese, is available in Japanese, French and English. His story collection, The Pearls, is available in French. Visit him at taweichi.com.

Ariel Chu is an incoming PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, where she will be completing a short story collection and novel with the support of a Steinbeck Fellowship. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at Syracuse University in 2020, where she was awarded the Shirley Jackson Prize in Fiction. A former editor-in-chief of Salt Hill Journal, a 2019 P.D. Soros Fellow, and a 2020-2021 Luce Scholar in Taiwan, Ariel has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best Small Fictions Anthology, and the Best of the Net Award. Her writing can be found in The Common, The Masters Review, and Sonora Review, among others. Visit her at ariel-chu.com.

Hsin-Hui Lin 林新惠 is a science fiction writer and literary critic based in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the author of the sci-fi short story collection Human Glitches (瑕疵人型), which investigates the blurring boundaries between humans and non-humans, the surreal moments that happen in our mundane life, and the loss and loneliness that consume us in the age of technology. As a debut novelist, she was awarded the 2020 Taiwan Literature Award for Books, one of the major literary prizes in Taiwan. In addition to creative writing, she frequently publishes reviews and essays on major media, intersecting literature with current events and cultural activities. Currently, she is a Ph.D. student at the National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature. Her research concerns the relationship between literary texts and ecological and technological humanities.

林新惠

1990年生，現就讀政治大學台灣文學研究所博士班。她的作品關注人與非人之間模糊曖昧的界線，以及平庸日常的超現實時刻。她的第一本小說集《瑕疵人型》獲得2020台灣文學金典獎。目前受國家文化藝術基金會補助，寫作長篇小說。她也在各種媒體上發表評論，主要關注文學與科技人文及生態人文的交織。

Ye (Odelia) Lu is a translator and nonfiction MFA candidate at Columbia University. She has lived, studied, and worked mostly in China and the US. She mainly translates from Chinese. She is also the Print Translation Editor for the Columbia Journal Issue 59. Her work has appeared in Sine Theta Magazine Issue 11.

Petit 夏慕聰 was born in 1977 and has independently published a zine and two novels. These novels primarily use the roles of gay men and BDSM gender fluidity to explore relationships and love. His works are mainly published in the form of public online serialization, giving encouragement and strength to those who have come out of the closet or are hiding in its depths. 

In August 2003, Petit began serializing Military Dog on a BDSM Forum, allowing him to come out with his SM identity. In 2004, he organized Taiwan’s first BDSM society with a group of like-minded friends (BDSM Company, 「皮繩愉虐邦」). From 2011 to 2013, he participated in BDSM Theatre and presented dog training to the public in the form of performances. Military Dog has since been adapted into a short film for film festivals. 

1977年生，曾獨立發行過個人誌，商業出版過兩本小說。2003年8月在BDSM論壇開始連載軍犬，是其SM身分的出櫃。2004年帶著軍犬，與一群志同道合的朋友組織了台灣第一個BDSM社團「皮繩愉虐邦」，在台灣SM運動上貢獻一己之力。曾於2011－2013年參與皮繩愉虐邦劇團，將訓犬調教以表演形式呈現在公眾面前。2018年參與籌拍《Military dog軍犬》電影版短片，為2019 Outfest開幕片之一。
小說作品多以男同性戀及BDSM多元性別流動的角色，探討著關係與愛。主要以網路公開連載方式發表，給予已出櫃或深櫃躲在暗處的禁羈人們溫暖與力量。

Yahia Zhengtang Ma is a Chinese-English translator and Ph.D. student in the Asia Institute at The University of Melbourne where he is undertaking a research project on the translation of male same-sex desire in Chinese-language literature through the lens of Queer Translation Studies. In addition to the English translations of numerous texts about contemporary Chinese art, his English translation of Ta-wei Chi’s 1998 short story “Howl” has been published in Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader edited by Howard Chiang by Cambria Press in 2021. Yahia’s critical work has appeared or is forthcoming in Melbourne Asia Review, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, American Journal of Chinese Studies, Taiwan Insight, and Translation Studies.

Leah Yang 楊隸亞 was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1984. An essayist and novelist, Leah published a first collection of essays《女子漢》in 2017. Many of Leah’s works have been published in online newspapers and literary magazines in Taiwan and Shanghai. Leah has also served as the Chinese Literature Biweekly Guest Writer at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and has also been invited to participate in numerous exchanges with the Beijing Writers’ Association and Shanghai Writers’ Association. Leah’s creative writing focuses on themes such as the lives of contemporary urban women and issues surrounding multiple gender identities.

Leah Yang 楊隸亞，1984年生於台灣台北。散文家、小說家。2017年出版第一本散文集《女子漢》。作品多發表於台灣、上海兩地的網路報紙與文學雜誌。曾擔任吉隆坡馬來亞大學中文系文學雙周受邀作家，也多次受邀參與北京作家協會、上海作家協會交流。創作書寫主題關注當代都會女性、多元性別議題等。

Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer, literary translator, and interpreter based in New York. She translates from Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. She received her MFA in Fiction Creative Writing from The New School. Her translations are published in Restless Books’ international anthology And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, Latin American Literature Today, and more. Her interviews can be found at World Literature Today and Words Without Borders. She is one of the selected translators for the 2021 ALTA Emerging Translators Mentorship program with a focus on Taiwanese prose.

Yang Shuang-zi was born in Taichung in 1984. The pen name “Shuang-zi,” literally “twin,” is in memory of her twin sister, who was also a writer. She started to write fiction in 2003, and to publish lesbian fiction with allusions to Taiwanese historic details. Devoted to themes on women’s love for women, she is concerned with gender equality, Taiwanese folklore, and the public history of food. She lives with her wife and two cats in New Taipei.

楊双子，本名楊若慈，1984年生，台中烏日人。「双子」取自日文漢字，意指雙胞胎姊妹，這個筆名是雙胞胎姊妹共同創作的象徵。2003年起開始創作羅曼史小說以及嚴肅文學小說，2016年起正式使用筆名「楊双子」創作台灣歷史百合小說。從事寫作以來，始終以女性情誼為創作主題。關心議題諸如性別平權、台灣民俗與飲食文化。現與妻子及兩隻貓居住於新北市

Lin King is a writer, translator, and teacher from Taipei. Her work has been published in SLICE, Columbia Journal, and e-flux, among others, and has been awarded the PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers. She is currently pursuing an MFA in fiction and literary translation at Columbia University, where she teaches first-year writing.