Photo credit: Alan Leung
Tim Tim Cheng (she/they) is a poet, translator, editor, and teacher based between Hong Kong and Glasgow. Their full collection The Tattoo Collector (Nine Arches Press, 2024), longlisted for The Jhalak Poetry Prize, The Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize and The Saltires: Scotland’s National Book Awards, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Their pamphlet Tapping At Glass (VERVE, 2023), shortlisted for The Kavya Prize 2024, was named one of The Poetry Society’s Books of the Year.
Their poems featured in POETRY, Poetry London, Magma, among others. Their poems were placed in The Rialto Nature and Place Competition 2024, and shortlisted for The Alpine Fellowship 2023 and Forward Prizes 2025. They performed for the likes of BBC Scotland, London Literature Festival, Singapore Writers Festival, and National Poetry Library. They ran writing workshops with partners such as The University of Leeds, StAnza Festival, The University of Cambridge, American International School. They supervised MA writing projects (fiction and creative non-fiction) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, they direct Cha Writing Workshop Series and lead the PoC group with Open Book (Scotland).
Previously, they co-edited Magma (Issue 93) and Where Else: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (VERVE, 2023). They also translate, co-host 英詩乞衣, a Cantonese Podcast on Anglophone poetry, and write lyrics. They were commissioned by Edinburgh Futures Institute, Push the Boat Out Festival, and Royal Conservatoire The Hague to produce interdisciplinary performances with musicians and composers. A mentee on the 2025 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorships, they are currently translating Exposure by Ka Yee Lee.
They received support from Arts Council England, Scottish Book Trust, Southbank Centre, RMIT University, among others. They hold a Masters in Creative Writing from The University of Edinburgh, and a Double Degree in English and Teaching from the Hong Kong Baptist University. They taught English as a Second Language for more than five years. In autumn 2025, they teach poetry at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Tim Tim Cheng (she/they) 