Daryl Kho

Daryl Kho is the author of Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa, the award-winning and bestselling fantasy novel for kids and families published by Penguin Books SEAsia.

Inspired by his father's affliction with and eventual passing from dementia, the book aims to increase appreciation for the elderly, raise dementia awareness and highlight the importance of familial love in keeping one glued together. It also aspires to grow appreciation for the power of stories, especially the tales that can be found in the minds of our elders and from around our own backyards.

Due to its prosocial messaging, Mist-Bound has been supported by non-profit organizations such as Dementia Singapore (part of Alzheimer's International) and TOUCH Community Services (Singapore's preeminent social services charity).

Mist-Bound is the winner of the 2022 Hedwig Anuar Book Award (HABA), given biennially to the most outstanding children's book in Singapore, and the first-ever winner of its newly-introduced middle-grade category. Mist-Bound was on Times Bookstores' Singapore's Children's best-seller list for 26 weeks, and on MPH Malaysia's Young Readers' bestseller list for 10 weeks: amongst the few local/regional books on both lists. Daryl was also named Times Bookstores' Author of the Month in November 2021.

Mist-Bound has been featured in numerous media platforms across Singapore and Malaysia, including leading newspapers (The Straits Times' Singapore, The Star, Nanyang Siang Pau, The Sun Malaysia and Malaysiakini), radio and webcasts (ChannelNewsAsia987FM, BFM Malaysia, Vintageradio Singapore, Great People TV, Two Book Nerds Talking etc), writer's festivals (Singapore Writers Festival, Malaysia Writer's Festival) and online publications (makchic, Project we forgot, A-List Singapore etc).

Daryl's short story "The Wake Up Call" will be found in HarperCollins Childrens Books' upcoming anthology "Flipped: Mystery Stories/ Sci-Fi stories" (published June 2022). In terms of past works, one of Daryl's short stories that was written as a high school student in Ontario, Canada, was published in INCITE, an annual anthology featuring the best student works from the province. That same year, Daryl was also awarded the Reginald A. Finney Award for Proficiency in Senior English. At his alma mater, the University of Chicago, his plays and kung-fu performances (all co-written, co-directed and co-acted with his landlord, no less!) were the highlight and backbone of the annual Chinese New Year Shows that were performed to paying audiences of close to a thousand.

Malaysia-born and Singapore-based, Daryl Kho works in the regional TV industry, where he sells other people’s stories and ideas for a living. More on Daryl and Mist-Bound can be found here: http://darylkho.com .