Language and Lineage: Poetry Reading

South East Asia is one of the most culturally diverse areas of the world, yet can often be perceived a monolith. This event features poetry exploring some of the region as well as diasporic experiences.

Troy Cabida is the author of War Dove (Bad Betty Press, 2020) and Symmetric of Bone (fourteen poems, 2024), the PBS Pamphlet Choice for spring 2025. His debut collection, Neon Manila, is forthcoming with Nine Arches Press in 2025.

First generation Malaysian-Chinese immigrant Vera Chok (they/them) is a poet and performance maker. As a writer, Chok is best known as a co-author of The Good Immigrant. Their debut play, Rice! was funded by The British Council, and The Paper Man, written collaboratively with Improbable Theatre to explore power dynamics and oppression, toured the UK and Europe. Their debut poetry collection, Angry Yellow Woman, is out now.

Natalie Linh Bolderston is a Vietnamese-Chinese-British poet. In 2020, she received an Eric Gregory Award and co-won the Rebecca Swift Women Poets’ Prize. Her poem ‘Middle Name with Diacritics’ came third in the 2019 National Poetry Competition and was shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. In 2024, she was Creative Future’s writer-in-residence for Stoke-on-Trent, her hometown. Her pamphlet, The Protection of Ghosts, was published by V. Press in 2019. She is now working on her first full-length collection.

Nina Mingya Powles is a writer and poet from Aotearoa New Zealand currently living in London. She is the author of several books of poetry and creative nonfiction including Slipstitch (2024), Magnolia 木蘭 (2020) and Small Bodies of Water (2021). She writes a monthly substack on food and memory, titled Crispy Noodles. Her next poetry collection, In the Hollow of the Wave, is published by Nine Arches Press in 2025.