Woman at Work

Bhakti Mathur grew up in Delhi, India, and with a graduate degree in economics and a postgraduate degree in finance from Delhi University pursued a career in banking for 22 years. In 2000, she and her husband moved to Hong Kong, which she now calls home and where both her children were born.

In 2010, unable to find a picture book on Holi, the Indian festival of colours, for her young sons, she decided to write one herself. This started the “Amma Tell Me” series, a collection of children’s picture books about Hindu festivals and mythology with 13 published titles.

She received an MFA in creative writing from Hong Kong University in 2017, then had her two course manuscripts published by Penguin India as Amma Take Me to the Golden Temple and Amma Take Me to Tirupati. These began the “Amma Take Me” series, exploring different faiths through their important places of worship. The series has four published titles.

Bhakti has conducted story-telling sessions and reading and writing workshops at schools and literary festivals in Hong Kong, Singapore and India. She freelances as a journalist and writes features on culture, health and fitness for the South China Morning Post.

Bhakti also loves hiking and running – she ran the New York Marathon in 2017 – and is currently studying yoga through the Iyengar Yoga in Depth programme. An avid reader, when not writing or chasing after her young boys, Bhakti is happiest curled up with a book in one hand and a hot cup of chai in the other.

www.bhaktimathur.com

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Elizabeth Vongsaravanh is a Hungarian artist who has lived in Laos for more than two decades. She received a degree in English studies in Hungary after spending two years in Canada out of spite for not getting accepted into art school. 

She kick-started her artistic journey after settling into her new home in Laos, adapting quickly to the unfamiliar environment, culture and traditions, which are manifested and reflected in her pieces. Her works of art, poetry and design are the result of attention to detail both metaphysical and the experimental in a world of her own making. Her artistic expression is a mixed media of emotion, experience and self-examination. 

Stunned by the intricate beauty of hand-woven textiles and silk in Laos, Elizabeth opened Fusion Gallery in 2003. She created her first designs to honour her mother and to define herself, and as she did so, like-minded travellers discovered her shop and connected with pieces that made them feel beautiful. 

In 2009, a venture of passion had her open a bar in Luang Prabang, which is now not only the town’s oldest bar, but to her great pride is listed among the world’s best bars. She believes that everything is personal and that there is always a little magic, even in the darkest of times. 

Her poetry has been shared with many over the years, and her books of poems, “My Mekong Secret” and “Hours of Strange”, will be soon available at her cherished cocktail bar in Luang Prabang, Icon Klub. 

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Elsie graduated from HKU, majoring in English, and taught at King’s College, Hong Kong, before leaving for her master’s programme at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her husband’s studies and work took them to Columbus, Ohio, then Chicago where she acquired a master’s degree in library science. Raising their three sons in Chicago, Elsie balanced her role as homemaker with a career as a librarian. In 1987, the family moved back to Toronto where Elsie worked with the Toronto Public Library. At the same time, she took creative writing courses at Toronto’s Humber School for Writers. Her first novel Hui Gui, about China and Hong Kong in the 20th century, was nominated for ForeWord Magazine’s Best Fiction Award, 2005.

Elsie’s extensive travels with her husband for his work have taken her to exotic places. These she used as locations for her subsequent novels. Heart of the Buddha, set in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, was published by Greenleaf Publishing, Texas, in 2009, and nominated for ForeWord Magazine’s Best Multicultural Fiction Award. Elsie won the inaugural Saphira Prize for her manuscript “Ghost Cave: a novel of Sarawak”, published by WiPS in 2014. All three published novels are distributed worldwide.

Since 2015, Elsie and her husband have made California their home. Her latest novel, “Sea Fever”, a mystery thriller set in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, is the product of much travel and research in that post-Soviet republic. It is looking for a publisher at this time.

At age 23, Rinkoo worked briefly for the now defunct Asiaweek magazine, where she received her first byline. Shortly after the publication of her book review of Memoirs of a Geisha, she accepted a job offer from a corporate giant, and like a reliable Gen Xer, she followed the money for the next 22 years.

While sourcing and supply chain served her well throughout her career, in her mid-40s, she decided it was time to pursue a rather different purpose. Rinkoo is now an executive coach and leadership facilitator. At around the same time, she also came home to her writing.

Rinkoo received her MFA (Dist.) from HKU in 2017, and was a recipient of The HKU MFA Threshold Fellowship in 2020 during the course of which she completed her manuscript, Losing Yashoda, a tribute to the life and loss of her beloved mother who died in 2012, and her father whose death followed shortly thereafter.

Recently, Rinkoo was requested to develop a workshop for a global company on the therapeutic benefits of writing. Excited by the prospect of combining corporate training with writing, Rinkoo created a workshop that was very well received, resulting in an invitation to repeat it.

In between coaching clients and delivering workshops, Rinkoo writes personal essays and short stories, and is a volunteer editor for the SPCA. Someday, she will share Losing Yashoda with the rest of the world, but not just yet. She also maintains a blog about personal development and leadership at http://www.unlockedcoaching.com/category/blog/.

Mary-Jane Newton is an educational publisher and poet. She was born in India and grew up in Germany. She lived in Hong Kong until December 2019 and then returned to Europe to live in the UK. Mary-Jane has been a member of WiPS since 2009 and was a committee member 2011-2013. She serves as the IMPRINT poetry editor.

Mary-Jane started her career teaching learning impaired children and adults before joining Oxford University Press as an Assistant Editor. She spent five years at Macmillan in various editorial roles and rejoined Oxford in 2016, where she was first responsible for publishing in China before overseeing publishing for the Asia region, including China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and South East Asia. She is now Regional Market Development Director, planning market entry strategies for new areas of business. She holds a number of degrees, including an MBA from the University of Hong Kong and a post-graduate diploma from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

In her free time, Mary-Jane writes poetry. She has published two collections with Proverse Hong Kong and one with Orient Occident Press. She has been published in journals and anthologies internationally. Read or listen to her poetry at www.maryjanenewton.com.

Mary-Jane is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the Oxford Union, and Women on Boards. She cares deeply about the universal right to education and freedom of speech and press.

After a career in the UK, which included the civil service, Macmillan Publishers and KPMG, Sarah relocated to Hong Kong in 1992. She worked initially as a copywriter and proofreader for an electronics firm manufacturing BT telephones (writing the manuals and testing the phones). This was followed by an assortment of freelance jobs including with Ink Publishing working on Oasis Hong Kong Airline in-flight magazine, a hugely enjoyable experience as it involved writing about food and entertainment in business class. With the closure of Oasis, Sarah completed a teaching qualification which led to a bizarre NET teacher experience on day one when a range of coloured chalks and a duster were included with the manual!

For many years now, Sarah has worked at HKUST, first as a research assistant working with MBA students and co-editing a couple of research papers included in Global Electronic Commerce: Theory and Case Studies (MIT Press, 1999). When that contract ended, a chance meeting at a WiPS event led to a successful application for a communication tutor position in the School of Engineering, where she remains.

Sarah’s main focus is with UG and PG students, as well as editing papers for faculty. Students typically take IELTS and TOEFL exams in their final year at HKUST and preparation for these also falls within her job specification. Additionally, she assists with improving interview skills, and this year, having become familiar with Zoom, is more easily able to liaise with students and offer various courses.

Joining WiPS has provided Sarah with a wonderful connection to her earlier publishing experience at Macmillan as well as friendships and shared interests.