Shorter: Celeste Chan is a writer and filmmaker, schooled by Do-It-Yourself culture and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx. She launched her creative work in San Francisco in 2004. She founded and directed Queer Rebels (a queer and trans people of color arts project), created and curated experimental films, joined Foglifter Literary Journal as an editor and board member, and toured with legendary feminist road show, Sister Spit. Her writing can be found in The Rumpus, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Gertrude, Citron Review, and elsewhere. In 2016, she launched QTPOC Free School, a monthly writing workshop for LGBTQ people of color. As the recipient of a 2017-2020 WritersCorps grant, she launched writing workshops for LGBTQ youth at the Queer Ancestors Project. Her work has also been supported by CA Arts Council, SFAC's Individual Artist Commission, Bread Loaf/Rona Jaffe, Lambda Literary, Hedgebrook, Mesa Refuge, Soaring Gardens, and beyond. Celeste is now focused on writing her memoir, examining intergenerational trauma and how her family survived WWII.
Longer: Celeste Chan is a writer, filmmaker, and teaching artist, schooled by DIY and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx. She creates, collaborates, and curates to amplify voices within marginalized communities. From 2008-2018, she co-directed Queer Rebels, a queer and trans people of color arts project. She has screened films in Austin, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Tijuana, Paris, Berlin, and beyond. Her work has been supported with residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hypatia, Lambda Literary Retreat, Mesa Refuge, SAFEHouse, Soaring Gardens, and VONA. Most recently, Celeste was awarded a Rona Jaffe Foundation scholarship to attend Bread Loaf.
Celeste's writing can be found in several journals, including Ada, AWAY, Citron Review, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Feminist Wire, Gertrude, Hyphen, Mixed Race/Queer and Feminist, and The Rumpus. She also has work in the anthologies, Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBT Voices, and Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from Heels on Wheels. Celeste is a contributing editor for Foglifter Journal, serves as a Teaching Artist for the Queer Ancestors Project, and coordinates QTPOC FREE School. She is currently working to complete an experimental documentary titled: Artists of a Riot (formerly ART Heart: Children of Riot Grrrl and Queercore).