Sing Lit Station 2017

Sing Lit Station is a literary community and registered charity based in Singapore. We're really proud of what we achieved in 2017.

In 2017 we helped bring readers and writers together running over 40 free creative writing poetry and prose workshops with migrant workers, dedicated poets and writers, with members of the public at Toa Payoh Library and The Arts House, and with writers when we ran prose & poetry manuscript bootcamps at our office in Jalan Kubor.

We also ran poetry and prose workshops with some of Singapore's finest writers & educators in over 15 secondary schools in Singapore, reaching over 1,600 students and selling over 100 books of Singapore literature. 

We ran a translation retreat with Literature Across Frontiers in Malaysia, CampLit - a creative writing holiday program for students, and Sing Lit Body Slam with GrappleMax Dojo combining poetry & professional wrestling. We launched a new prize to promote South East Asian poetry, The Hawker Prize. And we continue to run the things we usually do like SingPoWriMo and poetry.sg.

But we need your help so we can continue to support your Singapore literary community: PLEASE DONATE HERE. We can't continue to do the things we do unless we have your generous support.

And do let us know your thoughts on how we can improve and what you'd like to see in the future at Sing Lit Station.

Sing Lit Station Prose Bootcamp June 2017

At the end of 2016, Sing Lit Station held its first Prose Bootcamp with Clarissa Goenawan, Ng Yi-Sheng, Toh Hsien Men and Teoh Ren Jie, and a cast of writers, publishers, agents, academics and editors.

In June 2017 Krishna, Daryl and I regrouped with the Clarissa, Yi-Sheng and Hsien Minh and spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon going through their manuscripts.

Here are some of the images.

We Rose Up Slowly - Second Edition

We Rose Up Slowly, The Second Edition,
is available at
Books Actually, all good bookstores and online here (free shipping in Singapore).

I must concede I did not take to the cover at first, and argued with the publisher - whose winning argument was that I was too old to know what would sell to the average young Singaporean. 

Now I think the cover is really good and I don't know what I was complaining about.
I think I was too attached to the First Edition cover. Sigh.
Let me know what you think. 

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

Sing Lit Station is live!

We held a meeting last night gathered around a 24-inch computer screen working our way through the Sing Lit Station draft accounting and financial framework, Petty Cash process, SingPoWriMo T shirt inventory and myriad tasks, activities and projects all organised in colour-coded glory, all one click away within the cloud based workflow software.

B&W photos are above, and colour photos here, starring Ruth Tang, Daryl Qilin Yam, Tse Hao Guang and Joshua Ip.

Meanwhile submit to the Manuscript Boot Camp 2016: Prose from now until 15 September 2016.

Congratulations #SGLitprize #SLP2016 Poetry winners

Congratulations Cyril & Desmond. Terrific achievement for The Lover's Inventory & I Didn't Know Mani Was a Conceptualist

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.

SingPoWriMo 2016

On 30 April, SingPoWriMo 2016 held its Closing Party at BooksActually.

Apparently there were free ice cream sandwiches. I didn't manage to get any (maybe that was by design) but I did manage to find a kind person who gave me a cigarette (thanks Jocelyn).

Joshua Ip has a list of things to do next - including contributing to journals and supporting the 2016 Anthology with a donation.

The index of prolific, posting poets, partcipating is here. This year's 'surprise find' was Poetry on the MRT - coming to a carriage near you very soon.

There is even an ST podcast on SingPoWriMo and poetry with Joshua Ip, Alvin Pang & Deborah Emmanuel.

Images from prior years SingPoWriMos can be found here.

So what's next for SingPoWriMo? 

Perhaps next year's SingPoWriMo could go regional and become AseanPoWriMo??
 

Singapore Writers Festival 2015 - The first few days

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.

The Finger

'“Now put your finger in the hole. Which one are you willing to lose?”

Julia paused and thought about all the poking and scratching she did, all the finger licking, wagging and waving of small goodbyes. The picking of the nose, the dragging of her fingers through her hair, giving Peter the bird, holding him tight in her hands and squeezing and pumping it up and down. She remembered drawing a house on Teddy’s back and asking him to guess what it was. These things would never be the same again. She imagined life without an index, trigger or ring finger. Julia checked herself, laughed and thought: it’s only a trick, there is no risk.

Julia took the guillotine from him. Her fingers felt like sausages and she didn’t seem to be able to work the pegs.

He saw her hesitate and she let his hands guide her.

“It’s just a trick, isn’t it? Nobody has ever lost a finger... have they?”'

Excerpt from The Finger, a story in We Rose Up Slowly

Available online with free shipping in Singapore

The Finger is a story from my book, We Rose Up Slowly. The story was written in 2014 and explores themes of privilege. expatriate family life and the treatment of domestic workers amidst a marital crisis.

In The Finger:

• The protagonist, Julia, is grieving for her lost relationships and is very lonely.
• There is a need for Julia to cut things off, to separate, to see things as they are if she is to achieve real change
   
• (*** Spoiler alert ***) 

My intention was to build sympathy for Julia in her conflict with her husband while keeping her domestic worker, Maria, in the background always as a tool, a slave, an object, easily manipulated because of class & money differences. Then at the end after Julia has bested her husband, to jolt the reader and have Maria reject Julia to show she is just as shallow as her husband in the way she regards Maria. 

• That is, despite making a significant decision to achieve freedom and end her relationship with her husband, she remains alone at the end of the story because she needs to move beyond self pity and privileged, self centredness. 
• She needs to cut off from her materialism and privilege not just the male in her life.
• There are passing references to one of my favourite meals: chicken and broccoli lasagna, Michael Jackson, a magic shop in Peninsular Shopping Centre, Paddington party small talk from the late 1980s, the VIX-CBOE Volatility Index, Diane Arbus’s photograph child with toy hand grenade, Billie Holliday etc.

Singapore Literature Prize & Memory

Ian Chung (moderator) with several shortlisted Singapore Literature Prize writers: Audrey Chin (As the Heart Bones Break), Hidayah Amin (The Mango Tree), Josephine Chia (Kampong Spirit Gotong Royong: Life In Potong Pasir 1955 to 1965), Yong Shu Hoong (The Viewing Party) and Joshua Ip (Sonnets from the Singlish).

During the Q&A the importance of memory & the sense of loss & displacement caused by change were discussed. Points were made that memory is integral to identity, often we feel the loss of something without knowing what was there to begin with, Singaporeans adapt well to change and the younger generation have a different perspective on nostalgia than the 'pioneer generation' (McDonalds & Local TV shows from the 90s vs Trees & Mansions). While everybody longed to recapture that 'kampong spirit' of yesterday, nobody missed the poverty, lack of sewerage and electricity etc etc. As in all Singaporean conversations on memory, Kim Boey Cheng was mentioned ('… never bring up the Fullarton Bay Hotel or you may see tears.'). There was a comment on cyber sex vs real sex but I can't/don't wish to remember the details.

When I think about memory, I also think about: 

• Memory & consumerism: "We're ruined because we get what we want and wish for what we had." Don Draper, Mad Men
• Memory & photography: "Not only is the Photograph never, in essence, a memory (whose grammatical expression would be the perfect tense, whereas the tense of the Photograph is the aorist), but it actually blocks memory, quickly becomes a counter-memory." Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida
• Memory & the "spiral unwinding of things": “Mnemosyne, one must admit, has shown herself to be a very careless girl.” Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory
• Memory & the inside of our heads: “Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
• Memory & politics: “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell, 1984
• Memory & Libraries: If books are full of memories & libraries full of books, then what of the removal of certain books from shelves & then their transfer from Childrens' to Adults' Section? Are there memories we are not mature enough to handle? Will the NLB's initial decision to remove And Tango Makes Three, The White Swan Express and Who’s in My Family from its shelves be forgotten? How will this episode be remembered/repackaged/revised/reclaimed/resurrected/removed to a tiny, dusty store room with no windows & forgotten?

Bloke Playing Checkers & Singapore Literature Prize

The biennial Singapore Literature Prize 2014 shortlist is out.

On the list are some of my favourite Singaporean writers, including Amanda Lee Koe with Minstry of Moral Panic (edited by Jason Eric Lundberg) nominated for English fiction & Joshua Ip with Sonnets from The Singlish shortlisted for English poetry. It's a wonderful achievement to make the shortlist & thoroughly well deserved.

Both write with energy, invention, adventure and humor. People should be reading more SIngaporean literature.

Amanda has a wonderful story, Why Do Chinese People Have Slanted Eyes? in Asymptote. 'Dazzling' is a good description of Amanda's work. 

Some of Joshua's poetry can be found in the August 2014 Singapore Poetry special edition of Blue Lyra Review. Joshua is a prodigious and talented writer. I don't know how he fits everything in. Unfortunately, he supports Arsenal FC.

It is an exciting time for Singaporean literature in English, however I am amazed that none of Cyril Wong's poetry or fiction made it to the shortlist.