In her words: A conversation with Diana Rahim & Josephine Chia

About the Programme:
In celebration of International Women's Day, City Book Room is hosting Diana Rahim (author of new short stories collection We Saw Mountains) and veteran author Josephine Chia for an intimate chat on the art of writing, by women and for women. How has the writing landscape, in Singapore and elsewhere, changed (or not), and what stories still need telling? How do stories help us with agency and self-determination? Moderated by Ethos Books editor Cassandra Yeap, this panel is an invitation to reflect on the stories we tell about women and why they remain critical at this time.

About the Speakers:
Diana Rahim is a writer and visual artist whose work circles around the themes of gender justice, the experience of the environment and the politics of public space. Her visual work has been exhibited in National Gallery Singapore and Museum of Modern Art Saitama, Japan. She is also part of Beyond the Hijab, a collective sharing critical perspectives, personal stories and research on Muslim women in Singapore. We Saw Mountains is her first book.

Josephine Chia is proud of her Peranakan heritage. She is internationally published in both adult fiction and non-fiction. She was born in Kampong Potong Pasir in colonial Singapore. Her first short stories were published in SINGA, a Singapore literary journal published in the 1980s and 1990s. She has run Creative Writing workshops for the National Book Development Council, the National Arts Council, the National Library Board and the Ministry of Education’s Creative Arts Programme, and is a mentor to aspiring writers under the National Arts Council’s Mentor Access Programme (MAP) and the Ministry of Education’s Creative Arts Programme.