SWF
Images from Singapore Writers Festival 2018 including NTU English Literature and creative writing students and teachers, Outgoing SWF Director Kai Chai with Desmond Kon and Yong Shu Hoong, Ivan Coyote, Amanda Lee Koe and Cyril Wong, and In The Twine by Charlene Shepherdson and Cheyenne Phillips.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
These are the images from my attendance at the first half of Singapore Writers Festival 2016.
It was a pleasure and a privilege to participate as a panellist, reader, hot dog consumer and audience member. The SWF team, led by Kai Chai, did a wonderful job.
I particularly enjoyed catching up and chatting with new and old friends, as well as:
1) Appearing on the Writing from the Diaspora panel with Cathy Torres, Robin Hemley and Eric Tinsay Valles, and the Singapore Horror panel with Jeffrey Lim, Ng Yi-Sheng and Audrey Chin.
Butch Dalisay has a terrific article in The PhilStar on SWF which profiles our panel.
2) Sitting in the Chamber listening to Gwee and Kim Cheng ('home is where you knock on the door and they let you in') talk about Unwritten Country.
Here’s Gwee’s talk published at Singapore Poetry, and an important quote on the third way (not a given) for the future of Singapore literature.
“In this Singapore, the newsmaking meteors may come and go, but what people will talk more about is writers, books, and their ideas. The press will talk more about these. It will discuss the interests of works and the aesthetics of writers and make connections within literary traditions. The common goal of social beings will be to manifest and sustain the magic of writing, the power of writing.
Our readers will read Singaporean literature not to support Singaporean writing – can we stop saying that already? – but to encounter truly gripping works. Our readers will grow out of a blind awe for literary celebrities and into a committed dialogue with creators as thinkers.
We may have more book clubs – but, above and beyond that, we will have general knowledgeable citizens who understand the social disservice of wanting to pulp books they disagree with. We will understand that writing is precisely that place to experience newness and otherness, what constitutes basic knowledge!
You see, the true future of writing doesn’t lie in an environment with writing, award-winning or bestselling writing, but in an environment conducive for writing. And, for that to take shape, there has to be an understanding and respect for imaginative freedom.”
3) Reading with my fellow writers at the launch of Singapore Love Stories, published by Monsoon Books.
Images from the launch will be posted soon!
4) Taking Sophia to the book launch of Capital Misfits and BooksActually's Gold Standard, published by Math Paper Press. Unfortunately there are no photos of the launch as we had to leave the building for noise reasons and it’s hard to take pictures while wearing a baby harness.
5) Meeting Eka Kurniawan and listening to the panels on Speculative Fiction with Yi-Sheng, JY Yang and Jason Erik Lundberg. Images coming soon.
The Festival was a welcome refuge from the tidal wave of Trump that hit during the week.
More images from the last half of the festival will be appear on my blog soon.
You can also see images from Singapore literature events and readings here.
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.
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:
Award winning, Singapore Literature Poetry Prize nominated, multi-talented, ex -journalist and all round inspiration to both young and old.
Award winning, poet and teacher, writer of A Separation and The Law of Second Marriages, and co-editor of A Luxury We Cannot Afford.
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.
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.
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.
Award winning writer and journalist, Deputy Editor of Berita Harian. A creative force in Singapore since the 90s.
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.
These are my images from the sessions I attended at Singapore Writers Festival on 4 to 8 Nov 2015.
Images from my first few days at Singapore Writers Festival on 31 Oct to 1 Nov 2015 are here.
Images from the sessions I attended at Singapore Writers Festival on 31 Oct to 1 Nov 2015.
I enjoyed hanging out with Verena and Desmond (thanks for the Shiraz), and catching up with other friends (old and new).
Thanks Stephanie very much for mentioning We Rose Up Slowly (available in SWF shop under 'J') on the Short Doesn't Mean Easy panel.
Apart was created & performed by poets, Tania de Rozaria, Jollin Tan, Pooja Nansi, Cyril Wong & Joshua Ip, with playwright Joel Tan.
The five poets spoke and sang with intimate honesty about the self in conflict with, & separation from, family, friends & society as a result of expectations regarding sexuality, body image, relationships etc.
The performance was wonderful.
Earlier that Sunday in the same modern theatre at the National Museum I watched Saint Jack (1979). The movie's final frame captured a shot of Clarke Quay and the Singapore River with it's dilapidated, grotty, decaying shophouses. "Wow." We exclaimed, "Compare that to Clarke Quay now with it's outdoor mushroom/triffid air conditioning, multi coloured, renovated shophouses and reverse bungy. My how Singapore has changed!"
Rather than compare buildings from 35 years ago to the present, you could compare the representation of Singaporeans in Saint Jack to those in Apart.
During Singapore Writers Festival, Paul Theroux commented that "... Singapore is what you see in a city. A city is all surfaces. It's tall, it's beautiful, it's new, it's rising."
Apart goes beneath the surface.
Where you focus your gaze is important because if you look beneath the shiny surface of Singapore's shopping malls, skyscrapers & majestic public buildings you can see an energy and creativity (as well as some dirt haha) amongst Singapore's poets, playwrights and writers that reflects an individuality and dynamism bubbling away apart from all the commerce & consumerism produced above.
I hope Apart is performed again. So I can experience & think about it more.
