Anna Tan is building Malaysia’s literary scene one book at a time

Anna Tan has published novels, edited anthologies, founded a publishing house and built Malaysia’s most active writers community. She did all of this while holding down a day job. The Malaysian author is what the literary world calls a multi-hyphenate. She calls it keeping busy.

Tan joined MyWriters in its early days. She is now president of MyWriters Malaysia, the national literary society with chapters including MyWriters Penang. She also founded NutMag, the annual literary zine publishing original Malaysian short fiction since 2016.

For Tan, none of this started with a grand plan. It started with stories she could not stop writing — and a community she could not stop building.

Anna Tan: A writing life that began before the career

Tan’s relationship with fiction stretches back further than most readers know. Her first novel, Amok, draws on Malaysian history and mythology. It required years of research alongside the writing. Her second, The Making of a Jurusihir, explores Malaysian identity through speculative fiction. The genre remains underrepresented in local publishing despite a growing readership.

A third novel, Jasmine and the Perfect Brew, is in progress. The title alone signals a shift in register — lighter, perhaps, but no less considered. Tan writes fiction that takes Malaysia seriously — as a setting and a subject, not just a backdrop.

She holds a Master’s in Creative Writing. It shapes both her craft and her editorial instincts. As editor of NutMag, she shapes the themes and selects stories for each volume — Hope, Inheritance, Harmony and others. It gives Malaysian writers a space to publish short fiction in English.

“Take time to work on your craft,” she told The Sun. “Overnight success is rarely ever overnight, especially in the book world.”

Building the infrastructure, not just the books

Founding Teaspoon Publishing was not a vanity project. It was a practical response to a gap in the Malaysian literary market. English-language Malaysian fiction sits in an awkward space. Too local for international publishers. Too literary for mass-market distributors. Teaspoon fills that gap on purpose.

As a publisher, Tan works on both sides of the page. She writes her own work and guides other writers’ manuscripts through the process. That dual role shapes how she thinks about the industry. She knows what writers need because she is one.

Her role as president of MyWriters Malaysia extends that outward further. MyWriters is not a passive networking group. It runs workshops, publishes NutMag, mentors writers and builds the community infrastructure individuals cannot create alone. Tan inherited a functioning organisation and has been expanding its reach since taking the helm.

Her path was not always clear, she told The Sun. She worked other jobs before the writing life became something she could build a career around. That honesty about the non-linearity of a creative career makes her credible when she talks about it.

What Anna Tan reads into the future of Malaysian writing

Tan is not pessimistic about the state of Malaysian English fiction. She is realistic. The readership exists. NutMag has proven that. But getting writers from manuscript to market still has real gaps.

Self-publishing has changed the calculus somewhat. Tools once reserved for writers with publishing deals are now open to anyone with a manuscript. And patience. But accessibility is not the same as discoverability. Getting a book written and printed is easier than ever. Getting it read is not.

Her answer to that problem is community. Writers who know each other share chances, give honest feedback and build an audience for each other’s work. MyWriters exists to make that happen by design, not by chance.

“Being part of a writing community helps you understand you are not alone in the creative arts,” she said. That is not a slogan. It is how writing actually works — in conversation, in response, in community.

Looking for Malaysian fiction that takes the country seriously? Start with Anna Tan. Then explore the community she has built around it. Teaspoon Publishing titles are available through select bookstores and online.