Cher Tan is an essayist, critic & editor living & working on unceded Wurundjeri land (so-called “Melbourne”). She previously lived in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide & Singapore, where she was born & raised.

Her essays, criticism & other written work has been published widely, including in Sydney Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Kill Your Darlings, Cordite, Gusher magazine, Catapult, The Guardian, Art Guide Australia & The Age, among many others.

She is the reviews editor at Meanjin Quarterly & an editor at LIMINAL magazine, as well as a freelance editor for one-off book & thesis projects. In 2023 she was a book columnist at the ABC.

Her critically-acclaimed debut essay collection, Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging, is out with NewSouth Publishing.
The book was Highly Commended in the Nonfiction category at the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards & longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize.

Cher’s work & practice thinks through technology, late capitalism, borders & boundaries, power & complicity, & the construction of identity, self, & culture in a hyperreal world. 

Read an interview with Cher in LIMINAL here, with The Wheeler Centre here & with Writers Victoria here. Other press & reviews can be found here.

She is also a vocalist in DIY bands/projects:
Grimalkin (2014–2018) | Spiteward (2017–2020)
ESP Mayhem (2019–) | Public Stimming (2022–) |
Temporary Autonomous Zone (2025–)

To contact Cher, click here.