In an interview with YA author Katie Zhao, our volunteer Veronica dives into Zhao’s experiences as a Chinese American writer, how her background and upbringing influence her writing, as well as the creative choices behind her novels.

Meet the women of Khulke, “a podcast for all generations”! Khulke translates to “open” in Hindi. Harpo, Simran, and Nimrat strive to foster open dialogue about a variety of topics that are usually not addressed by the South Asian community. By discussing mental health to women’s health to the Black Lives Matter movement, Khulke strives to bridge the inter generational gap and encourage open conversations within the South Asian community.

Blogger Long Vo interviews author C Pam Zhang for her debut novel, How Much of These Hills is Gold. The story puts two recently orphaned siblings in the middle of the American Gold Rush, vying for a home in the unknown. The novel has been named one of the most anticipated books of 2020 by The Millions, The Week, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, receiving stellar reviews from The New York Times and USA Today.

In this profile, they discuss the importance of who gets control of written history, challenge the immigration story and deconstructing grief.

Our writer, Saumya Monga, interviewed the founder and CEO of Phulkari Co, Gurlynn Gill. We discussed what it means to be a South Asian woman running her own company in Silicon Valley, Gill’s desire for collaboration, and spotlighting other Desi creatives in the Bay. Phulkari Co. just celebrated their second anniversary since their first launch and continue to break the barriers of Desi American fashion.

Psychoanalytic, Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor, and Author, Maxine Mei-Fung Chung debuts her book The Eighth Girl to which is a “ A multi-layered and compelling exploration of Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Creative Blogger Long Vo gets a change to interview Maxine Mei-Fung Chung as they talk about the importance of diverse stories that are socially responsible to be accurate, using empathy in her creativity, and even had a small chance to celebrate her Netflix deal for the book.

Creative Blogger Long Vo covers Soleil Ho’s first year as the SF Chronicle Food Critic. In her journey fighting for diversity in food media, Long recounts the ups and downs of her career as a chef, writer, Racist Sandwich podcast host, and now being a position of representation.

Debut author Nicole Chung releases her book All You Can Ever Know, a very personal story of her quest finding her birth parents while navigating in a predominant white environment, including her family. This insightful and suspenseful book has already received immense attention and acclaim from prominent media publications, including: A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, An American Booksellers Association, Library Journal’s Fall Editors' Pick 2018, The Washington Post’s 1 of 20 Books to Read This Fall, and the list continues to grow.

In this interview with Kollaboration SF, we share her unique writing journey and discuss what an editor should do, #AsianAugust, and a writer's voice.

Kirstin Chen’s new novel, Bury What We Cannot Take, is set on a tiny island on the coast of Southern China in 1957 and a family gets in trouble with government authorities and has to flee very quickly to Hong Kong.  The book has been listed in Most Anticipated Upcoming Book by The Millions, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Harper’s, and Bazaar. Writing a book of this magnitude was not easy for Kristin as her literary journey leading up to this writing Bury What We Cannot Take was an amazing story in it’s self. KollabSF breaks down this journey and interviews Kirsten on the phone as we talk about her essay writing (to which I enjoy them tremendously), being Singaporean, and the feeling of the life or death of your first novel.

Kollaboration San Francisco gets the chance to interview Ellisa Sun over the phone for the first out of four interviews as we follow her on The Dreamboat Tour. We discuss topics about being a late bloomer in the music game, her personal journey as a teenager, and her thoughts as a Asian-American performer.