Latest issue
Latest issue
February 2026
Moving beyond
Soobin Kim
By making Kintsugi, Lim Ji-soo found a way to tell her story of surviving sexual assault.
February 2026
Spaces
Robert Wood
Ranjit Hoskote’s practice is one of art world curation, poetry, translation, and cultural theorising.
February 2026
Power and conquest
Soham Gadre
Ferdinand Magellan was a famous explorer, but Diaz makes it clear that his film isn’t some graceful portrait of the man.
February 2026
Trading words for bullets
Oliver Raw
There’s poignancy in the idea of artistic ambition sacrificed for something as fundamental as war. And Myanmar embroiled in civil war, it’s perhaps only natural that poets, like many of their countrymen, have taken up arms.
February 2026
The tracks of history
Leong Kar Yen
Sri Lanka’s railways aren’t just conveyances with spectacular views; they’re also an integral part of the country’s story.
February 2026
LANGA
Ruhaini Matdarin, translated from Malay by Pauline Fan
A short story by Ruhaini Matdarin, translated from Malay by Pauline Fan.
February 2026
New springs
Kirsten Han
We don’t know how history will remember or talk about the Milk Tea Alliance. But it isn’t the only recent manifestation of transnational solidarity with the youth at its core.
February 2026
Quiet persistence
Adil Amin Akhoon
Kashmir has lived many seasons of erasure: newspapers censored, cable channels muted, voices disappearing overnight. But books linger in the physical world longer than speeches or tweets.
February 2026
To the Timor Sea
Lila Roberts
A trip across Timor-Leste turns into a lesson on its history, its people, and its hope for the future.
February 2026
Straight outta Kutaraja
Ilya Katrinnada
In Aceh, hip-hop is more than just a genre; it’s also an opportunity to express pride in one’s homeland and pay homage to tradition.
February 2026
“I am Chinese”
Frankie Huang
Tyrus Wong’s extraordinary 106 years on earth, told in meticulous detail by Karen Fang, is a story of resilience and triumph.
February 2026
A borderlander’s reckoning
Wavie Hu
“The mountains are high and the emperor far away.” Reckonings from a borderland—on walls, my friend J, and choosing a life in diaspora.
February 2026
Street cries
Phạm Thu Trang
Street cries in Vietnam are more than simple calls of commerce; they form an urban soundscape—a way of sensing time, place, and season.
February 2026
Let them sing
Tashny Sukumaran
The documentary Araro Ariraro traces the history of Tamil plantation labour in Malaysia through folk songs.
February 2026
Small things
Paul French
With When Sleeping Women Wake, Emma Pei Yin takes her place in a long-running and constantly evolving tradition of Chinese female-centred historical fiction.
February 2026
Pragmatic idealism
Isaac Neo
An idealistic and highly personal approach to foreign policy is what sets Tommy Koh apart from many of his fellow luminaries in Singapore’s diplomatic sphere.
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From the archive
Narrow Circles
Maung Day
A poem from Maung Day
A party man
Martin Laflamme
Despite enduring humiliation, punishment, and incarceration, Xi Zhongxun’s loyalty to the Party—and even his “emotional attachment” to Mao Zedong—never wavered.
Floating people
Parthiban Muniandy
Undocumented and displaced communities in Malaysia
The stubborn writer
Khai Q Nguyen
Few people outside of Vietnam have heard of Nguyen Binh Phuong
Wounded queen
Michael Freeman
Hieu Minh Nguyen anatomises the wounds and scars of his identity
Lit beacon
Abu Sayeed Asiful Islam
The secrets of their success
Seeing red
Michael Reilly
Under Chinese influence or guilt by association?
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