Allan Cho
Editor-in-Chief & Publisher
Allan Cho is Executive Editor of Ricepaper Magazine and Festival Director of LiterASIAN Festival, North America’s first Asian writers festival. He is an academic librarian at the University of British Columbia. Allan is actively engaged in several initiatives in the community. He has served on the board of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Society (ACWW), Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC) and Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS). He has written for the Georgia Straight, Diverse Magazine, and Ricepaper. His fiction has appeared in the anthologies The Strangers and Eating Stories: A Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck. He blogs on publishing, diversity, and libraries at Allan’s Library.
JF Garrard
Deputy Editor
JF Garrard is an award winning speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher. She is the President of Dark Helix Press and serves as the Co-President for the Canadian Authors Association’s Toronto Branch. Her portfolio of books and short fiction is listed on jfgarrard.com and you can find her on Twitter @jfgarrard, Facebook and Instagram @jfgarrard.
Kendra Ellis
Literary Editor
Kendra Ellis is a Korean adoptee and transplant from Seattle with a background in the disparate fields of comparative literature and computer science. When not buried nose-first in a text, she can be found hunched over a keyboard, trying to make a computer do helpful and/or delightful things.
Silvia Leung
Literary Editor
Silvia Leung has written and edited various pieces in the non-profit, private, and public sectors, from academic to creative, business to multimedia, and technical to policy writing. Read more about her here. Twitter: @SilviaWriting
Kristen Wong
Literary Editor
Kristen Wong is an advocate of history and literacy to promote the sharing of knowledge and understanding. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, she has served as treasurer for the Vancouver Historical Society and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, a literacy tutor for school-aged children, a LiterASIAN festival volunteer, and an editor for Ricepaper.
Sophie Munk
Literary Editor
Sophie Munk is a McGill University graduate majoring in international development and history. She was a Pacific Canada Heritage Centre Museum of Migration Society (PCHC-MoM) coordinator. She has a background in community-based initiatives, research, and service. She plans to pursue a career focusing on the relationship between culture and health governance in an international context.
Literary Editor
Lianne Cho grew up in Toronto and is an MD/PhD student at the University of British Columbia. In her spare time, she writes poetry and is an avid reader. She is interested in the intersection between Eastern and Western perspectives on mental health and well-being and in how literature can help connect these ideas and us.
Literary Editor
Jinwoo Park is a Korean Canadian writer based in Montreal. He completed his Master’s in creative writing at the University of Oxford in 2015 and has worked in the tech industry as a writer since. In 2021, he won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers’ Award for his first manuscript, Oxford Soju Club, published by Dundurn Press in 2025.
Tristan Choi
Literary Editor
Tristan Choi is a writer who grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from the University of Toronto with majors in English and Mental Health Studies. He is pursuing a career as a creative fiction editor, and his short fiction stories often explore mental health topics and life experiences.
Phoebe An Lee
Literary Editor
Phoebe An Lee has written and edited for various media outlets, such as newspapers, marketing collateral, project proposals, and other corporate communications materials. Her real love, however, is writing martial arts fantasy, where she can let her imagination roam free. As a third culture kid growing up Filipino-Chinese-Canadian and living in various countries in her young adult life, she is inspired by her cultural upbringing and committed to advancing diversity in literature. She is also an executive of the Canadian Authors Association in Toronto, holding the position of Treasurer and Programmer.
Keyan Zhang
Design Editor
Keyan Zhang is a graduate of the Master of Publishing program at Simon Fraser University and a staff member at the University of Calgary Press. As a freelancer, she has written and designed for multiple Chinese media companies. As a member of the Calligraphy Association, her calligraphy work has been included in several art publications.
Katya Roxas
Illustrator
Katya Roxas is a Communications and Design Strategist at the University of British Columbia. Katya has experience with branding, content creation and social media. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Multimedia Arts, specializing in graphic design and illustration, and a Diploma in Digital Marketing and Communications. Born and raised in the Philippines, Katya is well-versed in the sacrifices and opportunities that come with being an immigrant. Through her experiences, she strives to break the barriers of cultural misrepresentation by creating honest and inclusive visual expressions.
Lay Hoon
Illustrator
Lay Hoon, aka Arty Guava, is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer based in Vancouver. She grew up in Malaysia and spent most of her adult life in Singapore before moving to Canada. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering but chose to make a career switch after about 1 year of working there. Art and Design have always been her calling. She is passionate about culture, people and nature and how these themes interact. Her work is available at artyguava.com/illustration
Wendi Ma
Illustrator
Wendi Ma is an Illustrator and Designer based in Vancouver. Born in China and raised in Tokyo and Vancouver, she developed her interest in sharing her worldview and experiences as a person with a cross-cultural background through art. Fluently speaking three languages, she is passionate about communicating emotion through her pieces. She currently works as an illustrator and Designer at IBM. Her work is available @ wendy-ma.com
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Illustrator
Christina Tran is a graphic designer and illustrator focused on the art of storytelling through the combination of bold imagery and conceptual thinking. As a Graphic Design for Marketing graduate from the Wilson School of Design, she has received honourable mentions and a scholarship for her student project: Northeast: A Digital Guide to Chinese-Canadian History. Her portfolio is available at christinaktran.ca, where you can see more of her work.
Contributors
Brandon Wee lives in Toronto. He has written for Asia Pacific Arts (Los Angeles), Cineaste (New York), Cinema Scope (Toronto), Ricepaper (Vancouver), and Senses of Cinema (Melbourne).
Gavin Hee is the host of the Rice Talks podcast. He aims to connect people worldwide who are interested in relatable, meaningful content by Asians. He was born and raised in North Vancouver and spent his formative twenties in Seoul. He is particularly fond of pan-Asian-themed stories of intercultural exchange. He encourages marginalized voices to build their world so they are not stuck in someone else’s. Click on his name in the tags below to see all posts.
Jonathan Lin lives in Vancouver and is the magazine’s web architect.