{"title":"Poetry","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"no-cinderella-by-rolinda-onates-espanola","title":"No CindeRella? \/ by Rolinda Onates Espanola","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePublished by Migrant Writers of Singapore\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“No Cinderella ?” Is the first volume of published poetry composed by a female domestic worker working in Singapore. Rolinda Espanola, in this unprecedentedly generous collection of poems, explores a variety of subjects, experiences and issues, including the ups, downs and unfairnesses undergone by a female migrant worker in the first world city-state. Rolinda’s accomplished, stirring, haunting and moving poems give us for the first time a sustained glimpse into the outer and inner hitherto hidden often very solidarity worlds of female domestic workers in Singapore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“At a time when the plight of our migrant and guest workers has been brought to the fore, Espanola’s writing insists on making visible and claiming the unvarnished dignity of her enmeshed selves: as worker, lover, woman, soul.” ~Alvin Pang (Poet, Editor \u0026amp; Director of The Literary Centre, Singapore)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“Lyrically direct and unembarrassed, Rolinda Onates Espanola’s first collection refuses to be just migrant writing. These 93 poems are in the voice of a modern, working woman who loves fiercely and who protests daily injustices. Her verse reads like songs you might overhear from a neighbour’s stereo, faraway but ever so familiar and near.” ~Ann Ang ( Author of “Bang My Car”)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr data-cke-eol=\"1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42598290686170,"sku":"9789811478130","price":15.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/products\/37.jpg?v=1649311604"},{"product_id":"one-fierce-hour-by-alfian-saat","title":"One Fierce Hour \/ by Alfian Sa'at","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePublished by Landmark Books \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOne Fierce Hour\u003c\/em\u003e is Alfian Sa’at’s first and breakout work. It was hailed as ‘truly a landmark’ for Singaporean poetry when it was published in 1998 when the poet was just 21 years old. Since, then it has been kept in print and has entered the list of canonical anthologies of Singapore literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe collection contains the anti-anthem \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSingapore You Are Not My Country\u003c\/em\u003e written well before social media gave voice to dissent and different views of Singapore. Alfian remains an intelligent writer with an unabashedly social and political voice. He has written 37 plays, 3 works of prose and 2 poetry anthologies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr data-cke-eol=\"1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42599900119258,"sku":"9789814189552","price":15.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/products\/69.jpg?v=1649337163"},{"product_id":"songs-from-a-distance","title":"Songs From A Distance","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEdited by Vanessa Lim\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSongs From A Distance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is an anthology of 31 poems composed by migrant workers based in Singapore. It collects the shortlisted and winning entries from the 2015 and 2016 Migrant Worker Poetry Competition organised by Shivaji Das and his team. The poems come in updated translations and are accompanied by an Introduction by Shivaji Das, an Editor's Note by Vanessa Lim, and a message from the designer Randy Yeo. Presented in a midnight blue cover with the poets' names printed on an exposed spine, Songs From A Distance gives unheard voices a new form, and stands at the forefront of an exciting and emerging literary genre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr data-cke-eol=\"1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42602244571354,"sku":"9789811154904","price":29.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/products\/103.jpg?v=1649386031"},{"product_id":"poems-from-prison-by-said-zahari","title":"Poems From Prison  \/ by Said Zahari","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePublished by Function 8\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis collection of poems written by Said Zahari during his 17 years of imprisonment without trial under the ISA.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSaid Zahari was the editor-in-chief of Utusan Melayu. He was fluent in both Malay and English. During his time in prison, he learnt Chinese from his Nantah comrades and is also proficient in Chinese.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv dir=\"auto\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe book is in Malay and English.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42947215163610,"sku":"9789672638407","price":25.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/products\/saidzahari.jpg?v=1657087006"},{"product_id":"besiege-me-by-nicholas-wong","title":"Besiege Me \/ by Nicholas Wong","description":"\u003cp\u003ePublished by \u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNoemi Press\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePoetry. Asian \u0026amp; Asian American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. A new collection six years after Nicholas Wong won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, BESIEGE ME opens with a timely mocking tone that confronts the tension between China and Hong Kong. Poems in the book speak queerly of urban existences crushed by political and economic powers --\"What cities \u0026amp; bodies deny a sometime-crisis, \/ not knowing they're a series of which?\" Behind the portrayals of the speaker, his parents, his home city, and domestic migrant workers there, the collection boldly outlines the vulnerability of entrapment and its masochistic pleasures. BESIEGE ME seeks for a redefinition of transcultural poetics with its linguistic playfulness.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAbout Nicholas Wong \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003eNicholas Wong is the author of BESIEGE ME (Noemi Press, 2021), and CREVASSE (Kaya Press, 2015), the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. He is also the recipient of the Australian Book Review's Peter Porter Poetry Prize. His poem has been longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice Chancellor's International Poetry Prize in 2019. Wong has contributed writing to the radio composition project \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eOne of the Two Stories, Or Both\u003c\/span\u003e at the Manchester International Festival 2017, and the catalogue of the exhibition \u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eOne Hand Clapping\u003c\/span\u003e at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He teaches at the Education University of Hong Kong.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43778726625498,"sku":"978193481944","price":34.7,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/products\/AE353637-6057-4C2D-A07C-16AAF578381A.webp?v=1678336132"},{"product_id":"new-singapore-poetries","title":"New Singapore Poetries","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdited by Marylyn Tan and Jee Leong Koh\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eWrapping itself, tasting, luxuriating in the recurrent themes of the body, family, sexuality, spirituality, neo-colonialism, geographies, positionalities, identity, and nationalism, \u003cem\u003eNew Singapore Poetries \u003c\/em\u003ebrims with the ambition and talent of 18 of Singapore’s newest poetic voices, many hitherto unpublished. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eShowcasing an expansive body of work by each poet, \u003cem\u003eNew Singapore Poetries\u003c\/em\u003e is a breathtaking testament to the imagination and nerve of what poetry in Singapore can be—an interrogation of the  very nature of what constitutes a poem; a straddling of national identity and personal grief; a processing and yet remembrance of erased history and rewritten trajectories—a way to tell the truth anew. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eMired against the backdrop of Singapore the country, Singapore the city-state republic, and ‘Singapore’ the concept, bearing witness to the past and crystallizing the present, \u003cem\u003eNew Singapore Poetries\u003c\/em\u003e architects futures yet unseen, but yearned for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEditors:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarylyn Tan \u003c\/strong\u003eis a sensuous and queer writer-artist-reprobate. Her work aims to subvert, revert and pervert, to disrespect respectability, to take pleasure seriously, and to reclaim power. Her first child, \u003cem\u003eGAZE BACK\u003c\/em\u003e (Ethos Books, 2018; Singapore Literature Prize, 2020), is the lesbo trans-genre grimoire you never knew you needed. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJee Leong Koh\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of \u003cem\u003eSteep Tea\u003c\/em\u003e (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK's \u003cem\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/em\u003e and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His collection of zuihitsu \u003cem\u003eThe Pillow Book\u003c\/em\u003e was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. His second Carcanet book \u003cem\u003eInspector Inspector\u003c\/em\u003e was published in August 2022. Originally from Singapore, he lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContributors:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlly Chua I \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAndrew Kirkrose Devadason I \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAnurak Saelaow I \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChristian Yeo I \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHamid Roslan\u003cspan\u003e I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eila I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIzyanti Asa’ari  I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJack Xi I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKenneth Constance Loe I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLaetitia Keok I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLisabelle Tay I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLune Loh I \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eMok Zining I \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eNathaniel Chew I \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eShawn Hoo I \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eShou Jie Eng I \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eworms virk I \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Book Room","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44133445009626,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/files\/11.webp?v=1696928513"},{"product_id":"death-row-literature-a-collection-of-poems-by-pannir-selvam-pranthaman","title":"Death Row Literature: A Collection of Poems \/ by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman","description":"\u003cp\u003eEach poem in Death Row Literature was written by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, a Malaysian on death row in Changi Prison for more than a decade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePannir wrote while sitting on the cold floor, with no table or chair, — using a pile of old court documents as his desk and only a few sheets of paper and he had no pen to hold, only the bare ink refill, gripped in hand, to shape his words. These poems are born from unimaginable pain — the kind that comes from living each day with the shadow of death just steps away. They are raw, honest, and deeply human.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection is not just poetry — it is a voice from behind bars, a cry from a condemned cell, and a testament to the strength of the human spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Thank you so much to everyone who purchased this book. The money you’ve spent will be donated to support vulnerable communities through charity. I’m truly grateful for your kindness and support — it means more than I can ever express from where I am.\" --- \u003cspan\u003ePannir Selvam Pranthaman \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Transformative Justice Collective","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46727506034906,"sku":"9789670076638","price":30.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/files\/deathrowliterature.jpg?v=1753520234"},{"product_id":"small-droll-things-zhang-ruihe","title":"Small Droll Things \/ Zhang Ruihe","description":"\u003cp\u003eEating your vegetables. Listening to ghost stories. Navigating schoolyard politics. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSmall Droll Things\u003c\/i\u003e draws inspiration from Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen to trace how a child comes to apprehend the beauty and brutality of everyday existence. Moving through crystalline poems towards a haunting prose coda, this suite of thirteen lyric pieces offers a rare and quietly unsettling meditation on growing up in Singapore.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\" A bijou gem.\" —— \u003cstrong\u003eYeow Kai Chai\u003c\/strong\u003e (Co-editor, \u003cem\u003eQuarterly Literary Review Singapore\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Droll as hell. What tough poems, like steel traps so finely made one, one takes them for jewellery until one trips them.\" —— \u003cstrong\u003ePeter Trachtenberg\u003c\/strong\u003e (Author of \u003cem\u003eThe Twilight of Bohemia\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eAntoher Insane Devotion\u003c\/em\u003e) \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eZhang Ruihe has published across creative non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She received the Golden Point Award for English Poetry in 2013 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2023. The seed of this chapbook was planted while she was completing an MFA in Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Book Room ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48135856849114,"sku":"9789811781643","price":22.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/9344\/0730\/files\/SmallDrollThingsCover.jpg?v=1782982272"}],"url":"https:\/\/citybookroom.com\/en\/collections\/poetry.oembed","provider":"City Book Room ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}