She had a dream about an earthquake. That’s how Eng Hai knew she was pregnant. The son who came after that dream, Prumsodun Ok, sits in his Phnom Penh apartment some thirty-one years later. I first met the founder of Natyarasa, Cambodia’s first all-gay dance troupe, a year ago, after climbing the steep stairs to his studio apartment. His wrists wrapped in gold, he poured tumblers of red wine for the cluster of people who had come to see him perform, with a wide smile and the warmth of someone greeting old friends.
Read full story, published by Mekong Review, May 2018.
- The Whittling Boy, by Winslow Homer
The Whittler’s Way
With a name like John Oakes, it’s as if the rustic art of whittling was carved into his being at birth.
When we meet he is leaning against the fence of his Bridgewater home, whittling away. Tiny curls fall to the ground as his knife coaxes shavings from the wood. His backyard is swathed in sunlight and the twittering of birds is the only sound, apart from the snick of his pocket knife.
Read full story, published by the Bendigo Advertiser, 28 August 2015.
Image supplied by DC Cam
Idol contestant in spotlight for reviving long-lost song
At just 21, Nhem Sreyvin is an old soul. The Khmer literature college student from Preah Sihanouk recently took to the stage in the hit show Cambodian Idol. But rather than seeking musical fame, Sreyvin’s motivation was to shed light on a long-lost song, one that has not been heard by most in Cambodia for more than four decades.
Read full story, published by The Phnom Penh Post on 27 April 2018.
Erin Handley 