[Pre-AFCC Glitter] Meet Stephanie Wong

I am doing a series of interviews with invited guest speakers and other conference attendees: a Pre-AFCC 2013 Glitter, if you will. A shower of golden fairy dust and pixie glitter and virtual confetti to signal the coming of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content this year!

Today, I am excited to have Stephanie Wong in GatheringBooks. We did a feature of Stephanie for our Illustrator’s Sketchpad several years back. She is the talented illustrator of the Diary of Amos Lee series. Welcome Back, Stephanie!

What is the event/session that you are most looking forward to attending during this year’s AFCC?

The business of Digital Content for Kids, Children, Speak up!, The Future of Publishing in Digital Space and Media Mart. I deal mainly in print, so it’s interesting to see what the digital media can offer and how can we make that sustainable. Also, it’s always great to hear from the kids, they live in a different era from when we were kids, so it will be interesting to listen to what they think/say.

Share with us your involvement in this year’s festival and some of the sessions that you will have.

I’m involved with the artist duelling session on the panel of “Asian Illustrator’s panel: Injecting Asian Flavour into your work”.

One of the goals of AFCC is to get people from everywhere connected during the conference – who are you most looking forward to meeting during this year’s festival?

Emila Yusof who did the illustrations for the program booklet. And Jessie Wee, because I grew up reading Mooty. I had the entire series, not sure where it is now, after we shifted house a couple of years back.

Singapore is a lovely country with gorgeous new buildings and really great restaurants. If you were to give recommendations to our overseas friends who are coming to the festival about super-secret-out-of-the-way places frequented by locals, what would those places be?

Loysel’s Toy for really really good coffee and decent food. And the CSHH Coffee Bar, a brunch place, but Loysel’s Toy is next to Kallang River (you can rent bicycles there as well) so you can pretend you are in Paris or Italy, having a cuppa next to a river (well, it’s actually a giant canal) with your favourite book.

For something old school, it will be steamboat with chicken rice at Yet Con at 25 Purvis Street. Don’t expect much service, but the food is good, managed by a Hainanese family and it won’t break the bank. Win, win all round.

Just next to Yet Con is the thai restaurant (coffeeshop style), called first thai. I’m recommending it, not because my friend’s family owns it, but because I have yet to find fresher and silkier steam fish. Tom Yam is really good too, and the servings are huge, so it will be great for very hungry people. Same, don’t expect service, but the food is good and it won’t break the bank. 

If it is a watering-hole with live music by local bands in a laid back environment, I would highly recommend Timbre. A great place to relax one corner with a glass of wine and some yummy duck pizza.

What do you love most about AFCC?

Catching up with people, meeting new ones, blowing cash on books and taking note of what other people in the region are doing.

Thank you so much, Stephanie, see you at the AFCC!