Hsu-Ming Teo is Professor of Literature and Creative Writing in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

Her academic publications include the monograph Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (2012), and the following books: Travel and Colonialism in 21^st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Exotic Journeys, Reparative Histories? (Routledge, 2025) and Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Repairing the Past, Repurposing History (Routledge 2024), both co-edited with Paloma Fresno-Calleja; The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction (Routledge 2020), co-edited with Jayashree Kamble and Eric Murphy Selinger; The Popular Culture of Romantic Love in Australia (ASP 2017); and Cultural History in Australia (UNSW 2003), co-edited with Richard White. She has published a range of articles on the historical romance, romantic love, Orientalism, imperialism, fiction, travel writing, and popular culture. She is an editorial board member of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies.

Her first novel Love and Vertigo (2000) won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was shortlisted for several other awards. It has been translated into Chinese, Thai, German and Italian. Her second novel Behind the Moon (2005) was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. 

Judging activities: Hsu-Ming served on the advisory panel of the Man Asian Literary Prize from 2007 to 2012 and judged the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize. Her other judging activities include: the NSW Premier’s Literary Award in 2007; the NSW Premier’s History Prize in 2013, 2017, and 2023; The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award from 2020 to 2022; the Singapore Literature Prize in 2024, the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2024 and 2025.

Popular romance studies; fiction and history; popular fiction; Orientalism; cultural history; gender and popular culture; creative writing.

Hsu-Ming is currently part of a team of international researchers led by Dr Irene Pérez Fernández (Universidad de Oviedo) and Professor Paloma Fresno-Calleja (Universidad de Islas Baleares) engaged in the project, ‘The Power of Love: Contemporary Narratives of Care, Hope and Commitment’ / El poder del amor: narrativas contemporáneas de cuidado, esperanza y compromiso’. Reference: PID2024-156566NB-I00. Funding body: Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain. Funding: € 65087.50. 

Lecturing in:

ENGL1021 An Introduction to Creative Writing

ENGL2036 Writing Popular Genre Fiction

ENGL2040 Historical Fiction and a Passion for the Past

ENGL8015 Writing Creative Non-fiction

ENGL8020 Writing Literary Fiction

ENGL8026 Developing the Manuscript Project: Novel, Short Story Cycle, Memoir