Totally globalized Muhammad Cohen was born in New York City, served as a US diplomat in East Africa, masqueraded as a city planner in Queens, and wrote about baseball in the Bronx, Washington and Baltimore before moving to Hong Kong in 1995. He is currently Asia editor at large for Clarion’s iGaming Business.
A graduate of Yale and Stanford’s Creative Writing program, Cohen has covered the casino industry in Asia since 2005 as a contributor to Forbes, South China Morning Post’s This Week in Asia, and Inside Asian Gaming, Asia Times and as special correspondent for Macau Business magazine. His work on business, politics, media and culture in Asia has appeared also in The Guardian, Time, Columbia Journalism Review, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Slate and Salon. His fiction has been published in Asia Literary Review, and the Hong Kong Writers Circle’s Love and Lust collection. He blogs at Muhammad Cohen on media and more. His blog entry, Twenty reasons Barack Obama stinks finished first in reader voting and was selected as a finalist for 3QuarksDaily.com 2010 Prize in Politics.
Hong Kong On Air, a tale of the 1997 handover, television news, betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie from Blacksmith Books, is Cohen’s first published novel. One reviewer calls Hong Kong On Air “the great American Hong Kong handover novel.” Cohen has given readings in Hong Kong, New York, at the Kuala Lumpur International Literary Festival, and the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali, where he blogged about his experience for LonelyPlanet.com.
Cohen got his big break in TV news when he called CNN for a job the day bullets began flying in Gulf War I. After rising through the ranks to producer at CNN’s Washington bureau, Cohen moved to Hong Kong for six months to assist the startup of CNBC Asia in 1995; he stayed and became a Hong Kong permanent resident in 2004. In Hong Kong, Cohen has also worked as an editor at Bloomberg News, The Hong Kong Standard and South China Morning Post, and he served as Asia regional communications manager for a US multinational.
Cohen began covering the gambling industry in Asia for Macau Business in 2005. His work frequently challenges accepted industry wisdom and examines issues from unique perspectives. He writes extensively on the post-monopoly growth of Macau and has covered the development of integrated resorts in Singapore since the start of the bidding process. Cohen also follows Asia’s emerging gaming markets such as the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, and potential new markets, such as Thailand and Japan. He presented and moderated at the Gaming Industry Executive Summit 2009, Asia Gaming Congress 2011 in Singapore and the Asia Gaming and Hospitality Congress 2012 in Macau.
In addition, Cohen edited The Poker Face of Wall Street (John Wiley & Sons, 2006) and Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street (John Wiley & Sons, 2011) for author Aaron Brown, a leading financial risk analyst and poker player.
Cohen has contributed to several Lonely Planet guide books, including the inaugural Lonely Planet Guide to Borneo and the ninth Lonely Planet Guide to Indonesia. Since the late 1980s Cohen has taught writing academically and to working professionals. Combining his experience in the classroom and corporate communications with his multicultural perspective, he developed Writing Clinic, 
interactive seminars that help writers at every skill level communicate more effectively. Writing Clinic is where writing gets better. Cohen has guest lectured at several institutions, including Columbia University, Brooklyn College and UNLV Singapore.
Born Jewish and married to a Muslim princess, Cohen addresses religious and civic groups on “Muhammad Cohen’s Jewish Identity” and works building bridges between Muhammads and Cohens.