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Asian Festival of Children’s Content

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Explore how children’s books have sought to depict difficult issues such as abuse, exploitation and social injustice in this session. The speakers will share about the preparatory work they have undertaken to familiarise themselves with the context at hand, as well as the possible social or cultural biases to avoid when presenting such topics to children.

Diversity Mental Wellness

Cheeno Marlo Sayuno

Cheeno Marlo Sayuno (Philippines)

Cheeno is an Assistant Professor of Communication, Research, and Children’s Literature at the University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños, and a PhD communication candidate at UP Diliman. He has received the prestigious Carlos Palanca memorial awards for Literature and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People’s Salanga Prize (honorable mention) for his stories for children. He has published storybooks, various textbooks in communication, media, and related fields.

Lee Geum-yi

Lee Geum-yi (Korea)

Geum-yi is an author of children’s and young adult fiction. Since her debut in 1984, Geum-yi has published more than 50 titles that contributed to an explosive progress in South Korean Children’s Literature. Her Young Adult fictions have brought about the birth and the expansion of its genre in South Korea. Her work has also been adapted into a TV mini-series, a musical, and a webcomic. Her short stories and excerpts have appeared in various school textbooks, and many of her books have been selected for the One City One Book Campaign and the One Semester One Book Campaign.

Nicolas Verstappen

Nicolas Verstappen (Thailand)

Nicolas is a lecturer and comic scholar at Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). He is the author of The Art of Thai Comics: A Century of Strips and Stripes. His research interests mainly focus on the history of Thai comics, comics as a language of psychic trauma, and experimental comics composition. He is the editor of the GAP comics zine series and the XeroXed interview-zine series, and an occasional panel moderator, exhibition curator and workshop organiser.

Bijal Vachharajani

Moderator Bijal Vachharajani (India)

When Bijal is not reading a children’s book, she’s editing or writing one. She’s the author of multiple planet-friendly books including A Cloud Called Bhura, Savi and the Memory Keeper, and Kitten Trouble. As a commissioning editor at Pratham Books, she dreams up picture books. She’s now a certified climate worrier.

All programme dates and times are subject to change and existing COVID measures.

* : Pre-registration is required for in-person events. Seats are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

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