Hello! I’m Kirsten Han.

I’m a writer, journalist and activist from Singapore.

I’m the managing editor of Mekong Review, a quarterly Asia-focused literary journal.

I also run two newsletters: We, The Citizens covers news and developments in Singapore from a rights-based perspective, and Altering States focuses on drugs and drug policy, viewed through the lens of a Singaporean unlearning the punishing “zero tolerance” narratives she’d been raised on.

My first book, The Singapore I Recognise: Essays on home, community and hope, was published by Ethos Books in 2023. My essay, The Silhouette of Oppression, was published by Epigram Books in 2019.

I’ve contributed to other books too:
– The Art of Advocacy in Singapore (Ethos Books, 2017)
– Ridiculous: Untold Stories of Singapore (Function 8, 2022)
– We Are Not the Enemy: The Practice of Advocacy in Singapore (Ethos Books, 2024)

I’m a member of the Transformative Justice Collective, where I work towards an end to capital punishment and Singapore’s war on drugs.

As a freelance journalist and commentator on human rights and Singaporean politics, my byline has appeared in publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter, The Guardian and more.

In 2016, I was named Advocate of the Year at the Singapore Advocacy Awards and also Champion for Gender Equality and Justice at the AWARE Awards. In 2018, I received an Honourable Mention for the World Justice Project’s Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism. In 2019, I won a Human Rights Press Award for my commentaries on “fake news” and freedom of expression in Singapore.

Apart from all this serious stuff, I am also a devoted cat slave and K-pop stan. (I even wrote a blog post about K-pop as a coping mechanism.) I’m particularly vulnerable to spending my hard-earned cash on premium-grade cat kibble, cat toys and beds, Stray Kids and SKZOO. My three cats and many SKZOO plushies all live much better lives than I do. As they should.

If you’d need to get in touch with me, fill in the contact form on this website and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can. If you want to subscribe to the blog posts on this website, enter your email address below. But if you’re more interested in Singapore matters, subscribe to We, The Citizens instead!