My Writing

A selection of Asian-inspired WRITING

In this classic Malaysian folktale, the beloved trickster Sang Kancil thinks she's the fastest animal in the forest. But then the mouse deer meets Snail who has a trick or two of his own up his sleeve ...

Written for early readers to enhance their vocabulary alongside their decoding skills.




In a race to the finish line, who will win?

 The Deer and the Snail

Oxford University Press

If I can create a mirror for even one child in the world, I will have accomplished something meaningful

Read this poem, and a second, A Moment in Poetry, which are both letters to versions of me at different times. 

Selected as one of two jury favourites for PeaceVerse 2024, an initiative of Prajnya, a Chennai-based non-profit.

This poem was published in the anthology Imprint, with two other poems and two photographic art pieces.

The poem appeared alongside a second musing, Ching Ming in Sheung Wan. 

My poem appeared in the January 2024 issue of the Hong Kong poetry print publication.

Porch Literary Magazine

Prajnya PeaceVerse

Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong

voice & verse poetry magazine

Visiting My Younger Self

Peace Offerings – for a ceasefire 

Awake at 3 a.m 

A Whale of a Time

Poetry

Included in this anthology are poems and musings.

A teenager grapples with the poignant aging of his grandfather. Will the sounds of Hong Kong heal them both?

Included in this anthology is a short story set in the time of the Covid pandemic about feeling trapped. 

The poem appeared alongside a second musing, Ching Ming in Sheung Wan. 

Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong

Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Women in Publishing Society Hong Kong

Hong Kong, 2021

Life We Can No Longer See 

Visiting my younger self

Hong Kong, 2020

Hong Kong, 2019

Hong Kong, 2019

Flash fiction published by Porch Literary Magazine and long-listed for the 2021 Bridport Prize. 

My short story for teens chronicles my year in Japan as an exchange student. What memories remain?

Porch Literary Magazine

A Tapestry of Colours 1: Stories from Asia

The Banquet

Itterasshai - Go Well and Come Back 

Short Stories

I write about a walk I took in the pre-dawn hours in a slowly, but surely, changing part of Hong Kong. 

This literary article about a mamak eatery in Ipoh was published in Kyoto Journal, an award-winning,
quarterly magazine.

Two young booksellers in Hong Kong are brought together by their passion for community, connection, and books (illustrations by Erica Eng).

I submit regularly to this  refreshingly eclectic and uplifting digital magazine edited across three time zones by three enterprising and tireless women.

My reflection written on 4 June 2023 was one of several similar submissions about Hong Kong from writers in various parts of the world.

Mekong Review, May-July 2021

Kyoto Journal

Mekong Review, May-July 2024

Coffee & Conversations

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Kennedy Town, 5:30 a.m.

Old Strangers, New Friends

Gentle Reading

Regular contributor

Just Another Day

Articles

Read my musings as a Malaysian writer, wandering the earth, listening to the universe and writing the stories behind my photographs. 

Freshly-brewed stories and photographs,
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Join me on substack

Join me on substack

Join me on substack

Maureen Tai is a Malaysian award-winning writer, storyteller and notable speaker based in Hong Kong. Her agent is Karly Dizon at Fuse Literary.

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