Edited by Marylyn Tan and Jee Leong Koh
Wrapping itself, tasting, luxuriating in the recurrent themes of the body, family, sexuality, spirituality, neo-colonialism, geographies, positionalities, identity, and nationalism, New Singapore Poetries brims with the ambition and talent of 18 of Singapore’s newest poetic voices, many hitherto unpublished.
Showcasing an expansive body of work by each poet, New Singapore Poetries 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.
Mired 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, New Singapore Poetries architects futures yet unseen, but yearned for.
Editors:
Marylyn Tan is 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, GAZE BACK (Ethos Books, 2018; Singapore Literature Prize, 2020), is the lesbo trans-genre grimoire you never knew you needed.
Jee Leong Koh is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK's Financial Times and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His collection of zuihitsu The Pillow Book was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. His second Carcanet book Inspector Inspector was published in August 2022. Originally from Singapore, he lives in New York City.
Contributors:
Ally Chua I Andrew Kirkrose Devadason I Anurak Saelaow I Christian Yeo I Hamid Roslan I ila I Izyanti Asa’ari I Jack Xi I Kenneth Constance Loe I Laetitia Keok I Lisabelle Tay I Lune Loh I Mok Zining I Nathaniel Chew I Shawn Hoo I Shou Jie Eng I worms virk I