Spittoon is a Beijing-based arts collective that does events and programming throughout China and publishes a literary magazine and a comic book, all with the goal of bringing together Chinese and foreign writers, artists, and literary enthusiasts. We have recently started an events base in Gothenburg, Sweden with monthly events and projects that seek to strengthen Spittoon’s growing international community.
Our most popular event is a poetry-music collaboration called Spittunes, wherein a poet practices and performs original poems with a band or musician. We also organize four regular events in Beijing, one each Thursday of the month—Spittoon Poetry, Spittoon Fiction, Spittoon Slam and Spittoon Book Club—as well as a monthly reading event in Chengdu.
The Spittoon Literary Magazine is dedicated to bringing contemporary Chinese writing to an English-language audience. The magazine scouts a diverse range of emerging and established Chinese-language writers and translates their work into English to bring their talent to an international stage.
CUE (China Urban Expression) stands for Chinese Urban Expression. CUE finds promising young artists and commissions them to create comics. One of the major goals of the project is to explore the compelling nature of China as an increasingly international place, fostering Chinese and foreign arts by showcasing a diverse array of artistic styles, narrative themes, and story-telling strategies.
TEAM
Founder and Director
Matthew Byrne is a British poet who was awarded his Creative Writing MA from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2009. He moved to Beijing in 2013 and founded the Spittoon Collective and Literary Magazine in 2015 in which he operates as Director.
Editor in Chief and Co-Director—Spittoon Literary Magazine
Simon Shieh is a poet, Editor in Chief of the Spittoon Literary Magazine, and the Director of InkBeat Arts, a creative arts education social enterprise. Simon lived in Beijing from 2007-11 as a high school student, earned a BA in English Literature in the U.S., and returned to Beijing as a Princeton in Asia fellow in 2015 teaching classes in American politics and society at China Foreign Affairs University. Simon served as the International School of Beijing’s Writer in Residence from 2017-18. His poems have appeared in numerous publications including Grist, Public Poetry, Anomaly Literary Journal, Calamity, and Softblow.
Co-Director
Chen Bo is from Sichuan, China. A writer of both poetry and fiction, his work has been published in Youth Writer 青年作家, California Quarterly, and elsewhere in Chinese and English. He also translates literature from English and French into Chinese. He studied Translation and Human Rights in Peking University. He has served as the Managing Editor of Spittoon Literary Magazine.
Managing Web Editor
David Huntington designs and manages Spittoon’s online presence, co-translates for Spittoon Literary Magazine, and organizes events. His work is published or forthcoming in the likes of Literary Hub, Alluvium, and Post Road; his screenplay ‘New Violence’ was selected for the 2018 Middlebury Script Lab.
Events Coordinator and Poetry Workshop Organizer
Sara F. Costa is a Portuguese poet. She won several literary prizes in Portugal and has published five poetry books since 2005. She has an MA in Intercultural Studies: Portuguese/Chinese from Tianjin Foreign Studies University. She was an invited author of the International Istanbul Poetry Festival in 2017, and in 2018 she worked on The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival and China-European Union Literary Festival in Shanghai and Suzhou. She translates Chinese poetry into Portuguese. Her works have been featured in Literary Journals and Magazines all across the world from Brazil to China.
Managing Editor—Spittoon Literary Magazine
Xiao Yue (Shelly) Shan is a poet and essayist born in Dongying, China and living in Tokyo, Japan. Currently working with Spittoon, Tokyo Poetry Journal, and Asymptote Journal. Find her online at shellyshan.com
Spittoon Chengdu Leader
Annie Leonard, Michigander with a Chinese soul, has been telling stories since before she could read. She heads Spittoon’s Chengdu chapter, nurturing all writing talent that finds its way to her epicurean paradise in Southwest China. Since 2013, she has had a hand in literary events all over Chengdu, administering Chengdu’s most prominent English-language creative writing group, editing and translating for MaLa Literary Journal, organizing volunteers for Chengdu’s Bookworm Literary Festival, and (of course) managing all things Spittoon. She mainly writes fiction. Her work can be seen in Spittoon Issue 1 and the ‘Perception’ issue of A Shanghai Poetry Zine.
Translation Editor—Spittoon Literary Magazine
Stephen Nashef was born in Glasgow and lives in Beijing where he works as a data analyst. He translates from Chinese and writes in English, mostly poetry but also fiction and non-fiction. His role for Spittoon consists of helping source Chinese material for the literary magazine and editing the subsequent translations. His own translations have appeared in publications such as Spittoon, Pathlight, Enclave, and Tender Buds: 21st Century Chinese Poems, and he was recently awarded a Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship for Chinese poetry translation.
Chinese Poetry Editor—Spittoon Literary Magazine
Zuo Fei 昨非, a resident of Beijing and university English teacher, runs a WeChat platform (外国诗歌精选) that introduces foreign poetry to Chinese readers. She writes poems and essays. In 2004 she started making poetry in English, but it was not until 2016 that she was actively involved in translation. She got an MA degree from Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2000.
Spittoon Poetry Night Organizer and Online Poetry Editor
Poornima Weerasekara is an editor at finance magazine Caixin. She has also worked as a journalist in Sri Lanka and India and translates poetry from her native Sinhalese. She is the host of Spittoon’s poetry night.
Spittoon Slam Organizer and Media Coordinator
Jamaal Pemberton is a poet out of New York. He has been writing and performing for over 20 years. He has a background in theater and in math. He is driven to write from a strong sense of community and a want to be a voice for those that can’t speak. In Spittoon, he part of the slam organizing team and works with Spittoon’s media.
Spittoon Fiction Night Organizer
and Chinese Literature Column Editor
Ana Padilla Fornieles (林诗安) is a Spanish writer and translator currently based in Beijing. Her work in both fields has been featured in Womankind magazine, The Shanghai Literary Review, Spittoon, 聲韻詩刊 (Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine) and the Spanish website China traducida y por traducir, and her comics have been featured in the Shanghai zine Shaving in the Dark. She is a moderator for the feminist book club Our Shared Shelf and a regular contributor to Spanish cultural magazine Le Miau Noir. You can follow her on Instagram @holdenslake.
Spittoon Gothenburg’s Warlord
Matias Ruiz-Tagle. No longer adman, dishwasher, pottery maker, or kindergarten teacher. Filmmaking maverick, tutorial sucker, and human race believer spending his days writing uncommissioned poems for the world along with apocalyptic letters to his foes. Made in Chile, based in Sweden.
Spittoon Lisbon Co-Founder
Ben Zarov has published work with Spittoon, New York University Summer Publishing Institute, The Indiana Review, Thought Catalog, Publishers Weekly, and the Rap Industry Fan Fiction. A prolific poet, he has authored one published book of poetry and multiple digital projects. His poetry has been sold in four countries. Ben is excited to help grow and develop Spittoon Lisbon into something special. His hobbies include wandering, train travel, learning new things, reading, writing, painting, and guitar. Ben currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal and works as a research technician in the field of neuroscience. He is fascinated by the intersection of seemingly disparate fields and devoted to community development.
Spittoon Book Club Organizer
and Online Fiction Editor
Deva Eveland’s short fiction can be found in publications such as Shanghai Literary Review, New Dead Families, and of course Spittoon Literary Magazine. From 2016-2017, he interviewed writers and artists for Loreli China. Eveland also collaborated with the historian Hieronymous Atchley on Oft Neglected Wars, a compendium of strange and forgotten military conflicts. In 2018, he was a writer in residence at Yew Chung International School. As a member of the Spittoon Arts Collective, he coordinates the book club, which has hosted visiting authors such as Sheng Keyi and A Yi.
Chinese Social Media Coordinator
Liu Shao Tong supports Spittoon as an editor and writes poems occasionally.
刘少彤，Spittoon编辑，偶尔写诗。
Web Coordinator
黄陈匡 Kuang is from South China and currently works as an editor in
Beijing. She has an MFA in English-Chinese translation from Beijing
International Studies University.
Management Consultant
Hans Galliker is an ecopreneur. Having grown up in Switzerland working as a farmer, and then in the IT industry and studying business communication, since 2009 Hans’ mission has been to create seismic positive change towards sustainable agriculture. In 2011 he co-founded the urban organic fashion brand NEEMIC and the Beijing Fashion Collective. Hans approaches the sustainability mission through the textile industry, embedded in lifestyle-oriented contemporary culture. He is also currently building an IT service company that empowers independent brands and NPOs with open source-based business software solutions.
作为瑞士人的 Hans Galliker 以「环保创业家」自居，曾经从事农业发展，亦在资讯科技业工作过以学习商业沟通。自 2009 年起，Hans 开始致力改善农业产业。Hans 于 2011 担任城市有机时尚品牌 NEEMIC 和北京时尚集合的联合创办人。借此将可持续的使命延续到纺织产业，从而启发人民生活态度及当代文化发展。 Hans 目前正在建立资讯科技公司，让依赖开放源代码商业软件的独立品牌和非赢利组织提供解决方案。