Watch ‘Meet the World: Writing the Family’

For UK-based novelist Iqbal Hussain and Singapore author Melanie Lee, family lies at the heart of their Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction.

Watch their warm and honest chat which explores how families are portrayed across different cultures, the ways family shapes identity, and the craft of creating nuanced, authentic characters for younger readers. The discussion is chaired by writer and editor Yin F Lim.

Supported by the Hawthornden Foundation and National Arts Council of Singapore

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I think the family as an institution plays such a key role in most people’s lives when it comes to forming one’s identity and building relationships.

Melanie Lee

Meet the panel

Iqbal Hussain’s writing often centres on families, home and relationships. His short stories have been published in anthologies and online journals, including The Hopper and The Willowherb Review. His debut adult novel, Northern Boy (Unbound Firsts, 2024), is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story inspired by his childhood in 1980s Lancashire. His forthcoming children’s novel, The Night I Borrowed Time (Puffin, 2026), follows the time-travelling misadventures of a seventh son determined to save his parents’ marriage. Iqbal lives in London.

Melanie Lee is the author of the award-winning graphic novel series Amazing Ash & Superhero Ah Ma and the picture book series The Adventures of Squirky the Alien. She is also a part-time lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, where she develops and teaches communication and children’s literature courses.

Yin F Lim is a writer and editor who lives in Norwich. A former journalist, she now writes creative non-fiction around the themes of family, food and migration. Yin’s work is published in anthologies including Who We Are We Now? A Collection of True Stories About Brexit and A Personal History of Home with The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, as well as literary journals Moxy, The Other Side of Hope, Porridge and Ruby. She is currently an associate editor of Hinterland, a Norwich-based magazine for creative non-fiction. Yin holds a Biography and Creative Non-Fiction MA from the University of East Anglia. She won the Mo Siewcharran Prize 2025 for her current work-in-progress – a family memoir about her maternal grandmother’s emigration from South China to Malaya in the early 20th century.

The Global Page

The Global Page is a unique series of online global conversations featuring internationally acclaimed and emerging writers and translators.

This online programme celebrates the art of writing in all its forms, connecting brilliant minds across styles, languages, and cultures. Together, we explore and challenge the ideas and approaches shaping contemporary literature.

Discover more conversations like this by clicking the button below.

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