Author Q&A: Thammika Songkaeo

Author/ Bookish Everybody
1 March 2026

Thammika Songkraeo would have been a professor had life not taken her in the direction it did. Unlike other writers, she never knows how a chapter or book will end beforehand. Songkraeo says writing every day, for at least 10 minutes is advice she swears by. Catch her at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival this year.

How did you become a writer?

I usually answer at festivals that I began to write “to survive” because Stamford Hospital was borne out of my own dark times as a mother and trailing spouse. But, when I dial my timeline back more, I realize that I became a writer when I started to feel proud of what I wrote.

When I was still a trailing spouse and not yet a professional writer, I was with a friend who shared with me that her father’s definition of work was “what makes you proud at the end of your life”.

While navigating the darkness of being a stay-at-home mother, which wasn’t what I had envisioned myself being, I wrote to process my own sensations, and when I saw the words that resulted from that process, my writing made me proud. I wrote things that I would myself want to read—words that I knew gave the world a different tilt. I knew that I could write not just for myself anymore, but for others who needed to see this kind of writing to say, “This is why I’m holding on.”

What would you be doing otherwise?

I was supposed to be a professor—a historian of education—before my ex-husband decided to permanently settle in Singapore, suddenly. I care a lot about what people’s time is used for, and how people are treated during learning opportunities (which is why my upcoming workshop at HKILF is something I’m looking forward to). I would be a professor of education, studying and changing what universities are for, if I hadn’t settled in Singapore. I love research, writing, and teaching—the aspects of a professor’s life.

Of the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?

The little girl in my book, Mia, might be my favourite. She says a lot without saying a lot. I think we all could learn the weight and wavelengths of innocence to be more effective at being honest, thoughtful, and moving, like her.

Tell us about your writing method. Is there a secret?

I focus on voice. Plot is secondary to me. Plot will have to happen, but plot is nothing without a strong voice, for me.

I have no clean process, but I write every day, using my body as an essential, somatic tool for understanding what I can say for that day. If it’s tired, I write about fatigue. If it’s stressed, I write about stress. I keep these documents of descriptions and use them in parts of my book where they are relevant.

I don’t start writing knowing what will happen in a chapter or how a book will start or end. I ultimately know when a manuscript is complete only when the voice feels substantive, and it’s gone through enough problems and come out of them. In other words: I write, and write, and write, and I look back often and ask, “Was that a book?”

Which author, alive or dead, would you most like to meet?

I don’t think there’s anyone I want to meet because they’re an author. I might like, or even love, their books, but that’s me liking the book.

I love to meet any author who’s a solid human, though. When that happens, I become happy not because they’re an author but because of their humanity.

Tell us about your favourite bookshop in the world.

I’ve greatly appreciated Littered With Books in Singapore. It gathers great literature from all over the world and highlights books relatively democratically. There’s no shelf with just one bestseller—and I love that approach. There are so many great books that haven’t won awards (because they’re not eligible in the first place), and Littered With Books has given me access to discover them by just placing one book after another, in the same quantities.

What advice would you give your younger, writer self?

Write every day for at least ten minutes a day. Don’t wait to get started. Don’t have a day go by without writing.

Stamford Hospital by Thammika Songkraeo is on sale at Bookazine.

About the Author

Bookish Everybody

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