Chan Li Shan and Quinn White

This summer we are benefitting from the work of students Chan Li Shan, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and Quinn White, a sophomore at Bennington College in Vermont. We are grateful not only for their diligence and hard work but also for the light and warmth they bring to our corner of Kuykendall Hall.

Chan Li Shan is a Singaporean writer and researcher. She is the author of Searching for Lee Wen: A Life in 135 Parts (2022), Yellow Man (2021), and A Philosopher’s Madness (2012). She was awarded the 2021 Biography Prize by the Center for Biographical Research in Honolulu. In 2014, she was named Most Promising Advocate at the Singapore Advocacy Awards. Her educational background in Britain includes an MA in Creative Writing with Distinction from the University of East Anglia, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA (Hons) from the University of York. As an Abernethy Fellow with MĀNOA and the University of Hawaiʻi Press, she has been working on editorial, production, and marketing tasks. Her work includes proofreading, drafting contributors’ bios and press releases, and constructing an e-book of the journal for distribution on academic platforms.

Quinn “Bug” White is an undergraduate student studying Long-form Journalism, Research, and Photography at Bennington College in Vermont. A lover of literature, she joined MĀNOA in July as an editing and publishing intern as a way to gain work experience outside of nonfiction writing, expand her knowledge of the publishing world, and hone her editing skills in a creative environment. She takes special interest in analog documentary photography and portraiture and enjoys making meaningful connections with each of her subjects. Working at MĀNOA gives Bug a chance to understand and experience how international stories can be shared and thus connections made. She plans to combine her special interests in photography with Gonzo journalism—subjectively written and self-immersed—to create comprehensive stories about real people.