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This is the fifth issue of BALLOONS Lit. Journal featuring stunning works in poetry, prose, and art from contributors from different parts of the world.
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It is important to note that this magazine is the property of the specific contributors who have granted one-time publication rights to their accepted works to BALLOONS Lit. Journal. As general users you may store its electronic copy and/or print it out for family enjoyment, education purposes or other private use as long as it is NOT for profit-making. This magazine is NOT FOR SALE. The magazine is free to access for all readers in its entire form. Users must NOT edit the magazine and/or reproduce any part of it without prior consent from BALLOONS Lit. Journal and the associated contributor(s). We truly appreciate your respect of the copyright of the materials in this issue and thank you so much for supporting to our effort to bring modern art and literature to young readers of the world. We hope you enjoy this issue of BALLOONS Lit. Journal. And if you like it, please help spread the word so that more people, especially the young, could rediscover the simple joy of art, literature, and creative writing. |
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Audio Section
Poetry
Fiction
Voice Performers of BLJ Issue 5
Flora Chan Wai-san is a dedicated mum, award-winning professional actress active in television and films throughout Asia since the 90’s, and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education degree at the University of Hong Kong, where she also recently completed her Master of Education. She began her career in the U.S. as a television news production assistant, while teaching traditional Chinese dance at various Boston elementary schools, before making her way into Hong Kong’s TVB Pearl as television host/writer/producer, and later became a professional actress. Her current passions lie in diverse areas from film-making and acting, to parenting, gifted education, special education, and guidance and counselling. She grew up in Boston, MA and is residing in Hong Kong with her husband and daughter.
Kwok Chun-wang Tom is a Secondary 1 (Grade 7) student. He is a three-time English verse-speaking winner at the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival and three-time English verse-speaking winner in his school’s annual speech event, “Speech Gala”. He passed with distinction in the Grade 8 London College of Music examination in Speech & Drama. Besides performing texts, he writes poetry, swims, plays the clarinet, paints and reads a lot. He lives in Hong Kong with his parents and sister.
Dr. Gervase Vernon is a retired General Practitioner (family doctor). He was born in Paris and studied medicine in Cambridge and London. He is the author of “Belonging and Betrayal”, a fictionalized biography of his grandmother, who was a Russian Jew and spied for the French in the First World War. He lives in Felsted, Essex, UK. Some of his short stories can be found at www.jgvernon.co.uk. The prose piece he performs here, “From Chopin’s Memoirs”, is his own work.
Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry, which she has written since college. Over 400 of her poems appear in a wide variety of online venues and in anthologies, in the U.S. and abroad. She is a Best of the Net and twice a Pushcart nominee. The natural world of the American West is generally her framework; she also considers the narratives of people and places around her. She is a retired teacher living in Oregon. The poems she performs here, “Shared Morning” and “The Fog and I”, are her own work.
Ho Cheung LEE (Peter), Ed.D., resides in Hong Kong where he teaches and writes. He is the founding editor of BALLOONS Lit. Journal (BLJ). In addition to doing poetry and short story writings, he is fond of performing texts. He completed his Trinity Guildhall Grade 8 Performing Text, for which he was awarded an Exhibition Award, followed by his ATCL (Speech & Drama) and LLCM(TD) (Speech & Drama Teaching). He can be found at ho-cheung.com.
Summer Edward is the Foundress and Editor-in-Chief of Anansesem Caribbean Children’s Literature ezine, a Highlights Foundation alumna and a former judge of Africa’s Golden Baobab Prizes. She holds a Masters in Reading, Writing, Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania. Her children’s writing and illustration appears in Whaleheart: Journey into the Night with Maya Christina Gonzalez and 23 Courageous ArtistAuthors, on the Children’s Writer’s Guild website, Mirrors Windows Doors and Storybird.com. Her writings on multicultural children’s literature appear in Horn Book Magazine, WOW Stories: Connections from the Classroom, sx salon, Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature: A Brief Guide and more. The poem she performs here, “In a Blue Hotel”, is her own work. Her personal website is www.summeredward.com.
Tanya Kempston is a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong and has been a lover of drama and poetry since her youngest years. She firmly believes in the power of literature as a humanizing agent and loves reading stories to her little girl every night at bedtime. She has adjudicated the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival for years.
Flora Chan Wai-san is a dedicated mum, award-winning professional actress active in television and films throughout Asia since the 90’s, and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education degree at the University of Hong Kong, where she also recently completed her Master of Education. She began her career in the U.S. as a television news production assistant, while teaching traditional Chinese dance at various Boston elementary schools, before making her way into Hong Kong’s TVB Pearl as television host/writer/producer, and later became a professional actress. Her current passions lie in diverse areas from film-making and acting, to parenting, gifted education, special education, and guidance and counselling. She grew up in Boston, MA and is residing in Hong Kong with her husband and daughter.
Kwok Chun-wang Tom is a Secondary 1 (Grade 7) student. He is a three-time English verse-speaking winner at the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival and three-time English verse-speaking winner in his school’s annual speech event, “Speech Gala”. He passed with distinction in the Grade 8 London College of Music examination in Speech & Drama. Besides performing texts, he writes poetry, swims, plays the clarinet, paints and reads a lot. He lives in Hong Kong with his parents and sister.
Dr. Gervase Vernon is a retired General Practitioner (family doctor). He was born in Paris and studied medicine in Cambridge and London. He is the author of “Belonging and Betrayal”, a fictionalized biography of his grandmother, who was a Russian Jew and spied for the French in the First World War. He lives in Felsted, Essex, UK. Some of his short stories can be found at www.jgvernon.co.uk. The prose piece he performs here, “From Chopin’s Memoirs”, is his own work.
Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry, which she has written since college. Over 400 of her poems appear in a wide variety of online venues and in anthologies, in the U.S. and abroad. She is a Best of the Net and twice a Pushcart nominee. The natural world of the American West is generally her framework; she also considers the narratives of people and places around her. She is a retired teacher living in Oregon. The poems she performs here, “Shared Morning” and “The Fog and I”, are her own work.
Ho Cheung LEE (Peter), Ed.D., resides in Hong Kong where he teaches and writes. He is the founding editor of BALLOONS Lit. Journal (BLJ). In addition to doing poetry and short story writings, he is fond of performing texts. He completed his Trinity Guildhall Grade 8 Performing Text, for which he was awarded an Exhibition Award, followed by his ATCL (Speech & Drama) and LLCM(TD) (Speech & Drama Teaching). He can be found at ho-cheung.com.
Summer Edward is the Foundress and Editor-in-Chief of Anansesem Caribbean Children’s Literature ezine, a Highlights Foundation alumna and a former judge of Africa’s Golden Baobab Prizes. She holds a Masters in Reading, Writing, Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania. Her children’s writing and illustration appears in Whaleheart: Journey into the Night with Maya Christina Gonzalez and 23 Courageous ArtistAuthors, on the Children’s Writer’s Guild website, Mirrors Windows Doors and Storybird.com. Her writings on multicultural children’s literature appear in Horn Book Magazine, WOW Stories: Connections from the Classroom, sx salon, Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature: A Brief Guide and more. The poem she performs here, “In a Blue Hotel”, is her own work. Her personal website is www.summeredward.com.
Tanya Kempston is a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong and has been a lover of drama and poetry since her youngest years. She firmly believes in the power of literature as a humanizing agent and loves reading stories to her little girl every night at bedtime. She has adjudicated the Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival for years.
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ISSN 2520-0372 (Online)
ISSN 2520-3169 (Print)
ISSN 2520-0372 (Online)
ISSN 2520-3169 (Print)