Speakeasy 30 The Valentine's Edition 2017

The Valentine’s Edition of Speakeasy was held at Artistry on 10 February 2017 to a packed and sweaty audience overflowing to the tables outside.

I was privileged to read some of my favourite love poems, and thankful that I was placed first so by the end of the evening everybody had forgotten me. On stage I took my glasses off so I couldn’t see anyone, but forgot to raise the microphone stand to suit my height. This means that the only photo of me reading shows me as a hunchback with toothache. Thanks to Shu Hoong for that photo. 

I should also thank Shu Hoong for giving me me my very first reading in Singapore at the Book Cafe near Mohd Sultan Road in 2003 where I read my story We Rose Up Slowly. Prof. Kirpal Singh spoke on that evening a long time ago too about creativity. 

Back at Speakeasy, you can see by these images that Shu Hoong has done well to retain his youthful, calm thoughtfulness - to be contrasted with Ashley50 whose up front good looks and virulent utilitarian pragmatism remain as erotic and enticing as ever.

The set list, courtesy of Pooja, was as follows:

1. Jon Gresham 

• Moonage Daydream - David Bowie
• Topography - Sharon Olds
• You're Beautiful - Simon Armitage

2.Marylyn Tan 

• Lick My Butt - Justin Chin 
• Pluto. 3 - C.A. Conrad 
• Energy Eulogy - Aaron Freeman

3. Balli Kaur Jaswal 

• Our Union - Hafiz 
• You fit into me - Margaret Atwood 
• What the Living Do - Marie Howe 
• Good Bones - Maggi Smith

4. Darryl Whetter. 

• Keeping things whole - Mark Strand 
• Somewhere I have never travelled - e e cummings
• Ghazal IV - John Thompson

5. Paul Tan 

• Rings - Carol Ann Duffy 
• Soup -Boey Kim Cheng 
• Extract from Atlantis - Marc Doty

6. Yong Shu Hoong 

• A blade of grass - Brian Patten, 
• The innocence of any flesh sleeping - Brian Patten 
• Someone's coming back - Brian Patten

7. Ruth Tang 

• Meditations at Lagunitas - Robert Hass 
• The Glass Essay - Anne Carson 
• Your Goodness - Arthur Yap

8. Daryl Yam 

• For Love - Robert Creeley 
• Poems by Saif

9. Will Beale 

• Short & Tall by Sam Ferrante (book: Pick Me Up)
• Train to Rosanna by Arielle Cottingham (book: The Tarantist's Soapbox)
• Forgiveness & Forgetfulness by John Englezos (book: If The World Were Upside Down)

10. Ian Chung 

• Thoughts on Unpacking by Thom Gunn 
• They tell us the first time we make love it should be with someone special - Cheryl Julia Lee

11. Barrie Sherwood 

• Sonnet to Guido Cavalcanti - Dante Alighieri

12. Samuel Lee 

• A day in the life of your suitcase - Selima Hill 
• The visitations of prejudiced angels - Selima Hill 
• Married people going to work - Jenny Joseph

13. Renee Ting 

• Stay Still - Pooja Nansi 
• Without You - Tania De Rozario 
• Boats- Cyril Wong

14. Ashley 50 

• He Who Buildeth - Edwin Thumboo 
• Like Making Love, it is always easier the second time - Ng Yi Sheng

15. Cyril Wong 

• Dancing on my own - Robyn

A larger version of the images is here. Please in all cases ask me for permission if you wish to use any image. 

I note I am available to take promotional, marketing portraits or event shots for a fee. Please contact me if you are interested.

Young Woman in a Beauty Pageant, Bangkok

“Precisely because the problem is one of temperament and character, it will not get better. It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him. It will probably end in calamity—substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better.”

“This is one of those clarifying moments in American history, and like most such, it came upon us unawares, although historians in later years will be able to trace the deep and the contingent causes that brought us to this day. There is nothing to fear in this fact; rather, patriots should embrace it. The story of the United States is, as Lincoln put it, a perpetual story of “a rebirth of freedom” and not just its inheritance from the founding generation.”

Eliot A Cohen, A Clarifying Moment in American History, The Atlantic, January 2017

Nun, Kolkata

We were wandering around aimlessly looking for photo opportunities when we walked through a decaying, stone gate into a peaceful courtyard. We were greeted with warmth and kindness by the nuns.

They thought we were young priests from Australia visiting their convent.

Even when we told them we were in fact corporate restructuring advisors they laughed and made us feel welcome.

Hari Raya 2016 - Warning Disturbing Images

Images from Jakarta Selatan, September 2016

WARNING: These images show the slaughter of animals in detail. Not for the squeamish or the sensitive.

My life as a goat

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. 

Sophia, Jakarta Selatan

My favourite books I read in 2016:

1. The Emigrants, W G Sebald

2. Beauty is a Wound, Eka Kurniawan

3. Why be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Jeanette Winterson

4. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro

5. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel