2016 The Year In Review

2016 has been a productive year for me. Despite Brexit, Trump, the loss of David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Carrie Fisher, and, possibly, the beginning of the end of life as we know it, 2016 was full of joyful, creative progress with lots of fun with our baby growing up. In this mixed up, sad, insane, dystopian world I was privileged to have lots to enjoy. 

Some of the creative things I got up to included:

1. Being a featured author at the Singapore Writers Festival.

Sneaking into the green room, scrawling graffiti on the white board … and not being able to operate the capsule coffee machine were highlights … together with being on panels with Robin Hemley, Cathy Torres, Eric Tinsay Valles, Jeffrey Lim, Audrey Chin & Ng Yi-Sheng.

2. Finding a home for a new story, The Looker, within the anthology In Transit

I am very happy with the way The Looker shaped up. I beta tested a romantic white saviour ending versus an open ended, lyrical ending … you'll have to read the story to see which ending I chose for The Looker

3. A Long Bicycle Ride into the Sea finds itself in Singapore Love Stories

ALBRITS is not autobiographical, although it very well could be. This anti-love story ends with our arrogant protagonist bewildered and alone in a bed-sit in Bermondsey.

4. My photo story, The worker from Jiangxi, is published in This is Not a Safety Barrier

I want to do a whole book with photo stories like this one. The good news is that the worker's compensation claim was upheld in December 2016.

TINASB is edited by Marc Nair and Yen Phan. TINASB also includes a ruthless poem about the photographic gaze by Verena Tay inspired by one of my images ‘Old Man at Tekka Centre’.

5. My images in Left-Right

More of my images inspiring Verena Tay’s poetry were published in Left-Right. This is a wonderful Singapore Photography book edited by Geraldine Kang and Kenneth Tan and I would recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with the quality and vision of Singaporean photographers and writers.

6. The Finger published on line at Singapore Poetry

Thanks to Jee Leong Koh for publishing The Finger, available free on line at Singapore Poetry. Singapore Poetry is an important outlet for Singapore writers and provides fresh and intelligent views on Singapore literature.

7. The Model published in Esquire Singapore

Thanks to Amanda Lee Koe for publishing a story, The Model, in the April 2016 edition of Esquire magazine.

8. Reciting a Bowie inspired poem for the Singapore Writers Festival Pop Up event, Poets Among the Stars, at the Science Centre's Omni Theatre

I really enjoyed taking part in this multi-media show. The Science Centre & SWF teams were extremely professional and easy to work with. I do hope they repeat the presentation in 2017.

9. Teaching creative writing for a few weeks as Writer in Residence at School of the Arts

Mr Chips eat your heart out. It’s hard work and a fascinating process trying to influence and persuade and communicate to people. Exhausting and very rewarding.

10. Running Writing the City

Writing the City is a monthly creative writing workshop community held at Toa Payoh library and supported by NLB and the British Council and run by Sing Lit Station.

We are looking for a sponsor if you are interested in helping us pay the facilitators and guest presenters.

11. Mucking about with Sing Lit Station

Sing Lit Station has achieved a lot thanks to the hard work and talents of a large number of volunteers and interns and the leadership of Daryl Qilin Yam and Joshua Ip - and it's not even a year old. Watch out 2017 for more poetry, prose, bootcamps, workshops and zombies.

Sing Lit Station Prose Bootcamp 2016

Images from the inaugural Sing Lit Station Prose Bootcamp with various writers, academics, publishers, and agents. Thanks to our four prose writers: Teoh Ren Jie, Clarissa Goenawan, Toh Hsien Min and Ng Yi-Sheng, and to the wonderful support from many of Singapore Literature's leaders and supporters including:

• Balli Kaur Jaswal
• Boey Kim Cheng
• JY Yang
• Ann Ang
• Alfian Sa’at
• Suning Kay
• Kenny Leck
• Ng Kah Gay
• Fong Hoe Fang
• Richard Angus Whitehead
• Darryl Whetter
• Neil Murphy
• Suzanne Choo
• Helen Mangham
• Cyril Wong
• Tania Leong
• Andrea Low

... and a big thanks to Daryl Qilin Yam - for doing most of the heavy lifting, Tse Hao Guang - for impersonating Ng Yi-Sheng, Joshua Ip - for whisky and venue, and Krishna Udayasankar - especially for her input on the texts.

I'm looking forward to regrouping in the middle of next year to see how these four texts turn out. 

Loud Poems for a Very Obliging Audience Launch @BooksActually

On Thursday 24 November 2016, Ng Yi-Sheng launched his new book of poems, Loud Poems For a Very Obliging Audience (Math Paper Press, 2016) at BooksActually.

Yi-Sheng, the award winning poet, is one of Singapore’s most engaging literary personalities full of energy, eccentricity and erudition. I've had the pleasure of appearing on a panel at SWF with Yi-Sheng in costume presenting twenty plus slides on Singapore Horror.

He’s not just a poet he’s a writer wearing multiple hats as an editor (see Eastern Heathens), blogger (see also the fascinating East is Everywhere), gay activist, critic, journalist, playwright, fashion icon and cultural commentator (see A History of Performance Poetry in Singapore).

LPFAVOA gathers Yi-Sheng’s best spoken word poems presented over a 16 year period. My goodness, that’s a long time.

I’ve also had the pleasure of reading the early draft of Yi-Sheng’s collection of shorts stories for Sing Lit Station’s 2016 Prose Bootcamp. This collection will be something to watch out for in the future.

Sing Lit Station Prose Bootcamp

Hao Guang's ear, Hsien Min listening to Kenny Leck with Clarissa Goenawan and Hoe Fang's hand in the background

Singapore Writers Festival 2016 - No 3

These are the third batch of images from my attendance at Singapore Writers Festival 2016.

More images from the Singapore Writers Festival 2016 are here and also here.

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All images are copyright Jon Gresham. Permission should be sought for any use and should be attributed to: 

‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'

Again, please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.

Singapore Writers Festival 2016 - No 2

These are the second batch of images from my attendance at Singapore Writers Festival 2016.

The final images will be posted by the weekend. 

Images from the first half of Singapore Writers Festival 2016 are here.

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All images are copyright Jon Gresham. Permission should be sought for any use and should be attributed to: 

‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'

Again, please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.

In Transit Launch @BooksActually

On 2 November 2016 In Transit: An Anthology from Singapore on Airports and Air Travel was launched at BooksActually.

The book is edited by Zhang Ruihe and Yu-Mei Balasingamchow and published by Math Paper Press.

The book features a diverse and interesting collection of poems, short stories and essays, including one of my short stories, The Looker.

You can buy the book on line here or at BooksActually.

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All images are copyright Jon Gresham. Permission should be sought for any use and should be attributed to: 

‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'

Again, please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.

Kappa Quartet by Daryl Qilin Yam

I am 50 pages in to Kappa Quartet, Daryl Qilin Yam’s debut novel, and enjoying the read immensely. The book was long listed for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize in 2015.

The prose is crisp and elegant with a sense of mystery and intrigue. The same may be said of Daryl himself.

In his spare time Daryl does all the work at Sing Lit Station where I managed to take a few images of him and he kindly signed his book for me.

The Rail Corridor, Singapore

“But the fact is that writing is the only way in which I am able to cope with the memories which overwhelm me so frequently and so unexpectedly. If they remained locked away, they would become heavier and heavier as time went on, so that in the end I would succumb under their mounting weight. Memories lie slumbering within us for months and years, quietly proliferating, until they are woken by some trifle and in some strange way blind us to life. How often this has caused me to feel that my memories, and the labours expended in writing them down are all part of the same humiliating and, at bottom, contemptible business! And yet, what would we be without memory? We would not be capable of ordering even the simplest thoughts, the most sensitive heart would lose the ability to show affection, our existence would be a mere neverending chain of meaningless moments, and there would not be the faintest trace of a past. How wretched this life of ours is!--so full of false conceits, so futile, that it is little more than the shadow of the chimeras loosed by memory. My sense of estrangement is becoming more and more dreadful.”

W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

O Thiam Chin & Yeo Wei Wei @BooksActually

Two recent #SGLit events at Books Actually:

• On 5 August 2016, Wei Wei spoke to Cyril Wong about her book of short stories, These Foolish Things. She talked about haunted umbrellas, characters yearning for something more and people as bundles of sensitivity and feelings. I like the lightness and subtlety of much of Wei Wei's prose. 
   
• On 22 July 2016, a master of the Singaporean story, O Thiam Chin spoke to Jason Eric Lundberg about his writing process and new novel, the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize winning, Now That It’s Over. The 2004 tsunami is the inciting event of his novel. Similarly, the 2004 tsunami is a key event in Wei Wei's title story in These Foolish Things. He talked about the editing process with Jason, his editor, mentioned that he was influenced by Banana Yoshimoto, and is currently writing horror stories such as this one in QLRS.

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

O Thiam Chin & Jason Eric Lundberg

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong

Yeo Wei Wei & Cyril Wong

Poets Among Stars, Rehearsals

I’m delighted to be amongst the writers featured in the SWF Pop Up Event Poets Among the Stars which will take place at 5pm on 4 June 2016 in the Omni Theatre at the Science Centre.

It’s free & you can get your tickets on Peatix here. 

Eight Singapore poets will each read a poem against the backdrop of the Universe spread out across the huge, domed screen. The star studded* line up includes:

• Desmond Kon

Award winning, Singapore Literature Poetry Prize nominated, multi-talented, ex -journalist and all round inspiration to both young and old.

• Christine Chia

Award winning, poet and teacher, writer of A Separation and The Law of Second Marriages, and co-editor of A Luxury We Cannot Afford.

• Deborah Emmanuel

Writer, performer, four-time TEDx speaker and force of nature. Deborah’s recently launched creative non fiction book, Rebel Rites, is an account of her year in the Singapore prison system.

• Ann Ang

Writer, educator and bird watcher, Ann Ang’s collection of short stories, Bang My Car, a Singaporean classic starring the Uncle has recently been reprinted in a beautiful second edition from Math Paper Press.

• Loh Guan Liang

Award winning poet, translator and educator, Loh Guan Liang has recently launched his 'knock out', second book of poetry, Bitter Punch, published by Ethos Books.

• Chairul Fahmy Hussaini

Award winning writer and journalist, Deputy Editor of Berita Harian. A creative force in Singapore since the 90s. 

• Teng Qian Xi

Award winning poet, translator, publicist and educator, her poetry collection, They Hear Salt Crystallising (Firstfruits Publications, 2010) was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2012. 

Come along it’s free!!

*Excluding your humble scribe.

Nicholson Baker, The Arts House, Singapore

On 12 May 2016 at The Arts House in Singapore, Nicholson Baker spoke about the 20 tons of bound newspaper volumes he bought from the British Library in 1999 using part of his retirement savings. He told us the story of Joseph Pulitzer’s ‘The New York World’ which was first published in colour over a hundred years ago.

The presentation showed:

• In bright detail, the humour, wit, design and prejudice of those newspapers
• A thermal underwear delivery truck beside a cotton mill in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. The newspaper bound volumes were held on the first floor of this mill for several years under the auspices of a dedicated non profit, The American Newspaper Repository, before being moved to the climate controlled, rare books collection of Duke University
• The proper way to mould a nose
• Emile Zola listening to a joke
• How to manually load pallets of over 5,000 bound volumes into 5 large, articulated trucks
• Microfilmed and physical pages - the contrast between these two modes of preservation illustrate the necessity of keeping original physical versions
• There is nothing new under the sun

I now regret tossing out my old copies of The Face and Beano.

I first read Nicholson Baker over 20 years ago so it’s been a privilege to meet him in person, and a treat to appear on a panel on Creative writing at NTU with him and Agnes Chew and Diana Rahim. He’s very tall, lacks pretension and self importance, and has shown a considerable warmth and generosity of spirit while attending literary events around Singapore this year. I don't think many in Singapore realise what a giant, and decent chap, of American letters Nicholson Baker is.

In the early 90s I first read his books Vox and The Fermata - these books were an integral part of my education. Initially I was disappointed when I read his subsequent books - spending ages looking for the naughty bits with very little success. Then I let the words and experience wash over me and I began to enjoy the meticulous, precise, flowing prose of Mezzanine, Room Temperature and A Box of Matches. 

I really like his book, Human Smoke. Provocative and important, and very different in style to his other writing.

I’ve never read House of Holes, The Anthologist or Travelling Sprinkler. I must go to BooksActually and see if they have any of them.