Moderators

Adan Jimenez is a writer, translator, and prose, comics, and localization editor. He is the proud son of Mexican immigrant parents and became an immigrant himself when he moved to Singapore. He loves comics, LEGO, books, games (analog and video), science fiction, and food.

Ames began her career as a humanities teacher, before moving on to volunteer as an English teacher in parts of Southeast Asia. Ever passionate about education, she now trains students in leadership and communication skills as a freelancer. Motherhood ignited her joy of storytelling, and she is now learning to share the stories of others. She chose to pen books for children as she fi rmly believes in the potential of the next generation to effect change.

David Liew, an illustrator of children’s books, also crafts miniature worlds. Formerly a junior college teacher, he transitioned to professional illustration. His works include series like "Ellie Belly," "The Plano Adventures," and "Change Makers." Liew instructs Picture Book illustration at the National Institute of Early Childhood Education and teaches art at Republic Polytechnic. He serves as Regional Advisor for the Singapore Chapter of the Society of Children’s Books and Illustrators.

Hwee Goh leads the editorial and strategic communications team at The Media Consultants Singapore. Apart from media and presentation training, her forte is in teaching news-related writing to clients in government, as well as the private, and social services sector. 

Hwee was a MediaCorp scholar classically trained at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism. She spent 16 years at Channel NewsAsia, traveling on the political beat with three of Singapore’s Prime Ministers. As a leading journalist and commentator, Hwee wrote Opinion Editorials for TODAY newspaper on topics ranging from politics to her personal life. Hwee curated daily local news coverage and content on CNA as news editor from 2005-2010. 

Hwee is actively engaged on @hweezbooks where she regularly reviews books and is followed for both her own reads and as well as upcoming middle grade/teen reads. Since 2014, Hwee’s Book Share Club (FB/IG) has also made space for promoting SingLit. Hers is a bookish account dedicated to celebrating reading, collecting books, loving book characters and creating content with fellow authors, publishers and book distributors.

Hwee is also the bestselling author of 12 children’s books and is most appreciated for her experience as a journalist, and her insights on reading and writing. She is well known on the Singapore bookish circuit, regularly speaking at schools and moderating international and local authors. Hwee has held book chats with Samantha Shannon, Ruta Sepetys, and with Singapore authors published internationally such as Rachel Heng and June CL Tan.

Janice Khoo is the co-author of Sing a Song of Hawker Food, a collection of fractured nursery rhymes re-written to feature Singapore hawker culture. The title received the second prize in the English (Children) category at the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards 2022. At AFCC 2024, she will introduce two new picture books – Shelby and Mona, and The Emperor’s Gazillion New Toys, co-written with Lianne Ong.

Kate Brundage has been an Elementary School Librarian at the Singapore American School for the past 16 years. She is currently serving as the International School Libraries Network (ISLN) representative on the AFCC Teachers and Parents Programme Committee. 

Kimberley Chiu is a librarian with Singapore’s National Library Board. She works in collection development, selecting and purchasing books for children and teens. She is deeply interested in role that pleasure and delight play in developing childhood literacy, and in how Singaporean culture affects readers' and librarians' relationships with books and with the library. In her spare time, Kimberley enjoys cooking, petting cats, and playing Stardew Valley. She writes songs, is working on a novel, and tries to read a little every day.  

Lauren Ho is a critically acclaimed multi-genre fiction novelist of adult and children's fiction. Her debut novel, Last Tang Standing, was an international and local bestseller, and her Disney YA novel Bite Me, Royce Taslim was the first Disney young adult novel set in Southeast Asia. She is currently based in Singapore.

Loh Chin Ee is Associate Professor at the English Language and Literature Department and Associate Dean (Impact & Partnerships) at the Office for Research at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Her research focuses on reading at the intersection of equity, technology and globalisation.

She is the co-editor of Little Things: an Anthology of Poetry (Ethos, 2013) & Poetry Moves (Ethos, 2020). Her most recent edited book is The Reading Lives of Teens: Research and Practice (Routledge, 2025). You can read more about her work on https://www.lohchinee.com.

Nur-El-Hudaa is an editorial consultant and a published author and translator of children's picture books, short stories and poetry. She has received awards such as the inaugural Mastera Prize for poetry translation and the Golden Point Award for her short stories and translation. In 2023, she was selected by the National Arts Council to join the Virtual Residency programme for poetry translation at the National Centre for Writing in UK.

As an editorial consultant, she helps writers and publishers develop books for publication. Nur-El-Hudaa volunteers withe National Library Board as a storyteller.

Award-winning British children’s author Pippa Chorley lives in Singapore. Trained as a primary school teacher, Pippa loves to write stories that take children on adventures into magical worlds. A passionate advocate for Singapore’s cultural diversity, rich history and beautiful nature, Pippa created Eye Spy Singapore, to celebrate everything that makes Singapore special.

Rachelyn Gordon grew up inventing stories to get out of trouble. Though her stories did not often work, the practice came in handy for her job as a primary teacher. Teaching with colourful stories did not quell the ideas in her head. It pushed her to write and publish Rosie And The Mamak Shop in 2020 and Curly in 2023. Rachelyn is currently working on her next picture book and transitioning out of mainstream teaching to teaching private creative writing workshops.

Dr Sadie-Jane Huff is the Wordsmith Extraordinaire at Superlative She—where she transforms words from mundane to magnificent. The powerhouse speaker, facilitator, and emcee with local and global presence is a fierce advocate for reading and a bonafide Book Fairy. 

With a quill in one hand and all formats of books in the other, Dr Huff is ready to tackle the world by bringing stories to life. Follow her: @theSgTrekkieReads 

Muhammed Shahril Shaik Abdullah bertugas sebagai pustakawan bersekutu di Perpustakaan Negara Singapura di mana beliau mengendalikan beberapa program bacaan untuk kanak-kanak dari umur 1 hingga 9 tahun. Beliau memegang Sarjana Pendidikan dari Universiti Monash dalam bidang kepimpinan, dasar dan perubahan. Minat penyelidikan beliau termasuk sastera kanak-kanak dan pedagogi kritis.

Muhammed Shahril Shaik Abdullah is an Associate Librarian with the National Library Board where he oversees reading programmes for children aged 1–9. He holds a Master of Education from Monash University, with a research interest in children’s literature and critical pedagogy.

Shilpa Dikshit Thapliyal is a former computer professional and a bilingual poet from Singapore. She is a Pushcart nominee and author of Between Sips of Masala Chai (Kitaab International, 2019). She was awarded second place for the Letter Review Poetry Prize 2022. Her poems have been featured in QLRS (Vol 19,20), Trivium (Kyoto Writers Residency), Yearbook of English Indian Poetry-2020, 2021, To let the light in, Shot Glass Journal (#24,28,32,34,38), amongst other anthologies and journals. Some of her poems have been translated into Spanish, Japanese and Chinese Art. Shilpa is currently pursuing a Masters (Creative Writing) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

孙宝琦, 新加坡教育学院/新加坡南洋理工大学教育学硕士、博士，目前任职于新加坡教育学院儿童发展研究中心，主要研究领域为儿童认知发展，双语早期阅读及双语教学。近期主要研究本地中小学阅读文化和学生双语阅读习惯，探索如何结合家庭，学校和各种社会资源的力量来培养孩子良好的双语阅读习惯。

Sun Baoqi is Senior Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research encompasses socio-cultural-cognitive perspectives on language learning with particular focus on children’s bilingual education and biliteracy development. One of her recent projects focuses on primary school children’s reading habits in their two languages, and how schools, families, and communities can work together in building a bilingual reading culture.

Half of Hwang Yuree’s family lives in Korea, and the other half lives in America. She was born in the United States, completed her studies in Korea, started working in the States, and now lives in Singapore. She had worked as a product designer, but is now the owner of the bookstore bommoi, still designing things. Currently, she lives with her husband, two children, one cat, a small aquarium and various tropical plants.