My first school talk for 2025 was my signature “What You Can Do With Your Phone: Make Good Art” at the Kowloon-based Tak Oi Secondary School for girls. As I gazed at the chairs, neatly lined in rows in the massive hall, and feeling the butterflies fluttering around in my tummy, I thought back to how this particular talk had come to be created: from an idea hatched during a lunchtime chat many years ago with my ex-colleague, the former Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival to an offer some months later, extended by a librarian to speak to students at the Harbour School in Hong Kong. I had only published a handful of small pieces of writing at that time, but buoyed and emboldened by their faith and trust in me, I created a talk that I would have wanted to hear when I was a tween/teenager, where I would be given permission, and be inspired, to create art that only I could create. Over the years, I’ve revised and fine-tuned this talk to the point that you’d think I’d be bored with it by now, but every time I stand in front of a group of students, their faces eager, curious and waiting, I feel a rush of excitement and I’m humbled, grateful and honoured to be able to share my words with them.

If you’d like to find out more about my talks, check out the Talks & Workshops section of my website and get in touch. I look forward to collaborating with you!