Bernice Chauly

Bernice Chauly (bernicechauly.wordpress.com) graduated with a B.Ed in English Literature and TESL from the University of Winnipeg, Canada. Of Punjabi and Chinese descent, she was born in Penang, Malaysia and grew up in small towns around the country before settling into the historical town of Ipoh.

She has published two collections of poetry, going there and coming back (1997) and The Book of Sins (2008) and a collection of short stories, Lost in KL (2008). She is currently writing a memoir of her family history, tentatively called Growing Up with Ghosts, part of her pioneering post-grad degree in Creative Writing and English Literature at Kuala Lumpur’s Universiti Malaya. Her short stories and poems have been published in various anthologies, – Silverfish 1, nineteen – a collection of stories by women and International Pen: Our Voice Anthology to name a few. She has taught courses in creative writing, film studies and literature for ten years and is a key organiser of literary readings in KL.

She has written plays and monologues and performed on stage, film and television. She is also known as a documentary photographer, now making a gradual transition to more conceptual work. Her award-winning work as a documentary filmmaker has dealt with dying folk traditions in Malaysian societies. Her work with marginalised communities over the years has compelled her to move beyond the word onto the image.

She has also worked as an editor, journalist, food/travel writer and has written two coffee table books on Malaysia’s first woman to reach the North and South poles (into the ice, into 90 degrees north) and the Insight Guide Smart Guide to KL 2009.

She participated at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (2008) and the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale (2009).