Recently I joined Book A Writer as one of their writers for hire. Book A Writer is an outreach programme by Sing Lit Station that aims to bring local literature (read: Non-Dead White Men writing) into Singapore schools through creative writing workshops and author talks.
What this means is, I am available to conduct workshops or give talks. Check out what I offer here. Book A Writer has a (growing) roster of local writers, so if you are looking to introduce your students to Singapore writers, give them a hit! Visit Sing Lit Station or Book A Writer to learn more.
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The truism of strength in numbers rings true in the realm of geopolitics: if a region is to thrive, its constituents must work as one. This is why in August 1967, five countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand—established the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Bound in the spirit of friendship and cooperation, ASEAN aims to further the Southeast Asia region's peace and prosperity. At present, ASEAN boasts 10 member states.
See the image on the top, the one that resembles a cross between a Ishihara colour plate and a Yayoi Kusama art piece? That’s the cover of a new anthology by Ethos Books titled Lines Spark Code. This poetry anthology occupies a curious point in Singapore’s education landscape.
I have been invisible on social media (and online in general) for quite some time this year, primarily due to personal commitments and partially because of vapid drivel that passes off as content on my screen. Still, I have been writing and reading; I'm just not writing as much as before.
Last month my publisher Ethos Books invited me to write a poem based on the theme "Why does the caged bird sing?". This was in conjunction with the launch of their new novel Payoh (happening 18 Feb!). I came up with the first line and ran off with it thereafter. Of the Same Feather The folks at Ethos Books also wanted me to write an essay about the avian-themed poem, which I reproduce in full below.
The Lunar New Year is upon us. Here's a new piece I wrote befitting the Year of the Rooster. Bon appétit! Chicken Bird
Chicken bird, chicken bird, why you lay egg? Is it for my breakfast or baluku[1]? You think I’m talking cock pulling your leg, right, when I say nothing’s better than you plated, in a bucket or between bread? If I bread you soaked in your unborn chick double confirm plus chop you’ll wish me dead as salad in a style photographic. Chicken bird, chicken bird, what will it be? I can take one thigh and my zha bor[2] two. KFC style or stir-fried in gravy, get your eggs benedict to join us too! Don’t fly off leh[3], there’s so much to ketchup. You are a gift from the heavens above served with French fries and a sunny side up. Chicken chop, chicken chop, what not to love. [1] Baluku: (Singlish) Swollen bruise. [2] Zha bor: (Hokkien) Girl. [3] Leh: Singlish particle that lends emphasis to a statement. Kitaab is a literary website based in Singapore that seeks to be a space for news related to Asian writing in English. Some months ago I was interviewed by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé for their Lounge Chair Interview series. I didn't exactly sit on a lounge chair for this interview, but it was fun answering the questions. Read about the interview here. I am no stranger when it comes to speaking into a microphone, but when your voice goes live on primetime radio and gets heard by listeners all over Singapore (and possibly beyond), utterance becomes a whole new creature altogether.
I present to you the first book review for Bitter Punch. Mackerel, a lifestyle magazine founded by poet Marc Nair and Carolyn Oei, wrote a review of Bitter Punch. Do have a read! The review closes with this arresting paragraph: "Bitter Punch communicates through its play of language and form a sense of the incisive distance we have with each other in a city space. Footnotes explaining local terms at once reveal its foreign-ness while hinting at how it connects those who have a common understanding of them. [. . .] While I hesitate to point out notes of sweetness in Bitter Punch, the hardness of the poetry is tempered by the pliancy of its words, words that almost seem to revel in themselves as they look at the city." Last night, the curtain fell on a spectacular show titled Poets Among the Stars. Poets Among the Stars is a Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) satellite event, and is the 11th one at that. There were no curtains around though, for we performed under the massive Omni Theatre dome. It is not a stretch to say the event was a performance, not a reading. The National Arts Council (NAC) commissioned 8 local writers to pen poems set to the Omni Theatre’s planetarium display. We were to be disembodied voices floating in the dark, lending our poetry to a medley of light and music. For the NAC, this is the first time they are collaborating with the Singapore Science Centre for an event of this kind. Collaboration is a recent buzzword in creative circles, implying synergy, hybridity and shared burdens. Some collaborations implode while others explode in hitherto uncharted directions. What the 8 of us participated in last night represented an earnest, if tentative, melding of science and art. Singapore society tends to box reality into discrete categories, and I for one am pleased that this SWF event brought us out of the box.
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