Ken Lye

Age: 47
Ethnicity: Chinese
Occupation and/or Company: Arts administrator
Years of experience: I started by writing short plays, a few of which have been staged professionally since 1999, but I only started writing short stories in 2017 after embarking on an MA in Creative Writing because I wanted to stretch myself in another form.

Personal & professional philosophy:
Stories are all around us. We just need to be open to them. A short story I had published was based around a text message I once accidentally saw on a stranger’s phone.

Upcoming performances/ project:
Developing a short story idea that I just got from reading an article in The Guardian.

What is the highlight of your work?
Sending out short stories to editors for the first time in my forties, and getting picked up for online publication in China, Japan, Malaysia and (where I’m from) Singapore.

Future goals:
Finding time to write as I’ve just started a new job.

Project brief/ Teaser:
“Man of the House” is a short story written during the pandemic when so many of us were taking stock of life, re-evaluating not only personal aspirations but also societal expectations and roles, in this case, of men and women.