Cover From left: Marga Ortigas, Morris Wong and Kim Bo-Young, who will be featured at Hong Kong Book Fair 2025 (Images: courtesy of Marga Ortigas, Norris Wong and Kaya Press)
From left: Marga Ortigas, Morris Wong and Kim Bo-Young, who will be featured at Hong Kong Book Fair 2025 (Images: courtesy of Marga Ortigas, Norris Wong and Kaya Press)
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The annual Hong Kong Book Fair returns today. Don’t miss the chance to stock up on books by these Asian authors making waves in the literary world.
The Hong Kong Book Fair, which opens today and runs until July 22 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, features about 760 exhibitors showcasing works by both local and international authors. With “Food Culture, Future Living” as its theme, the fair highlights literary works that explore the cultural significance of food and its relationship to the future, encouraging discussions on food literature and the impact of technology on eating habits.
That said, many books on offer this year go beyond the theme. Here are five standout Asian authors whose work tackles subjects ranging from AI and technology to women’s issues and ageing.
1. Marga Ortigas, Philippines
Above ‘WTF?! Woman Turning Fifty: Postcards from a Midlife ‘Crisis’… in Progress’ (Photo: Instagram/@blanchreads)
Above Marga Ortigas (Photo: courtesy of Marga Ortigas)
‘WTF?! Woman Turning Fifty: Postcards from a Midlife ‘Crisis’… in Progress’ (Photo: Instagram/@blanchreads)
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Filipina author Marga Ortigas has published in a wide variety of genres, including essays, short stories and novels. She is back this year with WTF?! Woman Turning Fifty: Postcards from a Midlife ‘Crisis’… in Progress, a collection of experimental, personal essays—which she calls “postcards”—that delve into adulthood, mortality, ageing and even taboo topics such as perimenopause.
Ortigas has worked as a journalist for three decades, reporting from the frontlines of armed conflict and climate change, first at CNN in London and later for Al Jazeera.
WTF?! Woman Turning Fifty: Postcards from a Midlife ‘Crisis’… in Progress is her fourth book.
2. Kim Bo-Young, South Korea
Above ‘On the Origin of Species and Other Stories’ (Photo: courtesy of Kaya Press)
Above Kim Bo-Young (Photo: courtesy of Kaya Press)
‘On the Origin of Species and Other Stories’ (Photo: courtesy of Kaya Press)
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Kim Bo-Young became the first Korean sci-fi author to be published in Clarkesworld, one of the most prominent sci-fi webzines in the US, in 2015. Prior to her international exposure, she was already a leading author in South Korea, having won a national literary award twice: her debut novella The Executioners (2013) won the novel category of the Grand Prize at the inaugural Korean Science and Technology Creative Writing Award in 2014, and her short story How Similar Are We? won the Grand Prize in the short story and novella category of the same award four years later.
She is bringing a three-part series titled Tales of the Origin of Species (2023)—which she spent 23 years completing—to Hong Kong.
3. Cheon Seonran, South Korea
Above ‘A Thousand Blues’ (Photo: Instagram/@tinycl0ud)
Above Cheon Seon-ran (Photo: Instagram/@seonrann)
‘A Thousand Blues’ (Photo: Instagram/@tinycl0ud)
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Another leading South Korean author today, Cheon Seon-ran was named the Young Writer Who Will Become the Future of Korean Literature, a national literary accolade, in 2024, and won the Korean Science and Technology Creative Writing Award in 2020 for her 2019 debut novel The Broken Bridge.
She will be coming to Hong Kong to promote her latest work, The Story of Three Per Cent, which challenges the relationship between humans and animals, a recurring theme in her work. With elements of sci-fi, thrillers and historical fiction, Cheon’s novels offer gripping narratives of environmental decay and species extinction.
4. Rie Qudan, Japan
Above ‘Sympathy Tower Tokyo’ (Photo: Instagram/@qudanrie)
Above Rie Qudan (Photo: Instagram/@qudanrie)
‘Sympathy Tower Tokyo’ (Photo: Instagram/@qudanrie)
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Rie Qudan is redefining authorship in the age of AI. Her 2024 novel Sympathy Tower Tokyo, co-written with AI, won the Akutagawa Prize, which is the highest award given to fiction writers in Japan. The recognition attracted international attention from outlets like CNN and BBC. Her recent AI-assisted work Shadow Rain, published in March this year, further explores the line between human and machine-generated language.
Sympathy Tower Tokyo, which has been published in Korean, traditional Chinese, French, Italian and German, will be translated into English for the first time in August this year.
5. Norris Wong, Hong Kong
Above ‘The Lyricist Wannabe’ (Photo: Instagram/@norris_wong_lyricist)
Above Norris Wong (Photo: Instagram/@norris_wong_lyricist)
‘The Lyricist Wannabe’ (Photo: Instagram/@norris_wong_lyricist)
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Filmmaker and author Norris Wong is best known for her award-winning debut My Prince Edward (2019), a romantic drama about autonomy and identity in modern Hong Kong. The film won her the Best New Director award at the 2020 Hong Kong Film Awards.
Wong also wrote and directed The Lyricist Wannabe (2023), the first major film about Canto-pop lyricism. As a screenwriter and novelist, she is known for her introspective, sharp storytelling—making her a leading creative voice to watch.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
