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.

Author Thea Lim explores themes of love and grief through a science-fiction time travel story, An Ocean of Minutes. The Toronto Star raves, “Lim comes into her own here, with prose that’s elegant and haunting, somehow managing to be both unsentimental and deeply moving at the same time. A devastating debut.” For #KollabSFGetsLit, we get the opportunity to talk to Lim. In the interview, we cover what trauma means in terms of being “Stuck in time,” being a 3rd culture kid, and being apart of Mariah Carey’s lambily.

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.