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Singapore Poetry & Prose introduction: singapore poetry and prose This issue features writings by people born or working in Singapore, otherwise known as “Sing Lit”, short for “Singapore Literature”. Many people’s first encounter with local writing is as prescribed reads in school. That’s one way to take the fun out of anything.

1 Modern art (in the Western world) was kicked off by Impressionists rejected from the Paris Salon, acceptance being hitherto a requirement for artworks to be taken seriously. With time, the idea of ‘literature’ may extend to internet blogs, cookbooks, lyric-based music, and other non-standard forms — and we do not need an establishment to achieve that. For Singapore to be considered a nation of readers, let us reimagine what literature is. After all, social media posts are considered publishing. A while ago, the National Arts Council’s National Literary Reading and Writing Survey 2015 highlighted that the larger majority of Singaporeans

Participants at the magnetic poetry wall during an event at Central Public Library. and Permanent Residents polled predict for People were free to assemble their own poems by putting various words together. digital content to replace traditional books in the In publicising her anthology of East and next two decades. Interestingly, the same survey Southeast Asian short stories, the BooksActually's indicated that only 1 in 4 survey respondents had Gold Standard 2016, editor Julie Koh mentioned ever read a literary book by a Singaporean writer, the concept of a ‘bamboo ceiling’ that downplays even though almost half of them have read at the perceived value of Asian writing, when read in least one literary book in the 12 months prior. the context of Western cultural dominance. It’s a This issue captures the delightful and wide- brand perception that Sing Lit is implicated in. ranging nature of local writing through personal Text is not just words recorded on a reading surface. notebooks, drafts, and thoughts of writers. Read on! It also includes the spoken word and illustrations.

2 © Mohd Zharfan 3 WHAT YOU WRITE IS NOBODY'S BUSINESS. ISN'T THAT POETRY?

- wong may

4 5 6 A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK TSE HAO GUANG TSE Tse Hao Guang's thoughts on on thoughts Guang's Hao Tse Carson, fromCarson, her book "The Glass Essay” by Anne Anne by Essay” Glass "The Irony and God and Irony Glass Glass . by Ethos Books. Ethos by – name same the of collection poetry Mukul’s in featured eventually was Bengali, in written originally poem, This Migrant". "Me of draft Early MD MUKUL HOSSINE Me Migrant (2016), published 7 GENEVIEVE WONG Writer and editor Genevieve Wong’s journal where she jots her observations, lists and everything that catches her attention. On this page, she imagines the Singapore Stone exploring the island.

88 9 FELIX CHEONG Drafts of a poem by writer Felix Cheong. Originally titled “Locusta”, it eventually became “Instructions from a Serial Killer”, irst published in Broken by the Rain (2003) by Firstfruits Publications and republished in Sudden in Youth: New and Selected Poems (2009) by Ethos Books.

10 11 Anatomy of a Poem THE STRUCTURE OF A PANTOUM

AN EXAMPLE OF A VILANELLE It is said that the pantoum form of poetry Line 1 Do not go gentle into that good night started in Malaysia during Line 2 by Dylan Thomas the fifteenth-century. Originally recited or Line 3 sung as a folk poem, it Line 4 Do not go gentle into that good night, was a brief and concise 1 form that consisted of two Old age should burn and rave at close of day; 5 tercets rhyming couplets. Line 2 quatrains Rage, rage against the dying of the light. a set or The pantoum went on to Line 5 (new) group of catch the attention of Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Line 4 The modern 2 three lines French, British, and also pantoum is Because their words had forked no lightning they of verse American poets who used Line 6 (new) composed in Do not go gentle into that good night. rhyming the form to create their quatrains together or works. These poets include (four-line Line 5 connected Charles Baudelaire, stanzas). Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright by rhyme Victor Hugo, and John It adheres 3 Line 7 (new) Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, with an Ashberry. to a pattern adjacent Line 6 of repeating Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Today, the pantoum is a triplet. Line 8 (new) lines (or poem of any length, with repetons). 19 lines 6 stanzas Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, four-line stanzas where 4 the second and fourth Line 7 And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, lines of each stanza serve Do not go gentle into that good night. as the first and third Line 3 lines of the next. The Line 8 last line is often the Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight same as the first. Line 1 5 Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. There is no And you, my father, there on the sad height, limit to 6 The last stanza repeats the two lines from Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. how many the poem that have not yet been repeated stanzas a Do not go gentle into that good night. (lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza). However, pantoum the order is typically reversed from the Rage, rage against the dying of the light. can have. established pattern, so that line 3 becomes line 2 of the last stanza, line 1 becomes line 4 of the last stanza (or the last line a stanza of four lines, of the poem, causing it to come full circle). 1 quatrain especially one having alternate rhymes.

12 13 spotlight Tse Hao Guang is the author of two books, hyperlinkage (2013) and Deeds of Light (2015), both published by Math Paper Press. In this interview, he shares his literary habits, some of his favourite literature of Singapore and also his approach to creative writing.

Before becoming writers, they all started off as readers. Can you share more about the books you read and your literary habits? I lean towards experimental poetry and prose, but I also love science fiction (sci-fi), fantasy, and comics. I tend to enjoy work that plays with time — non-linear narratives, time travel, stream of consciousness — as well as metafictional work that delves into the nature of stories and storytelling. Authors and books in those vein — the Nocilla trilogy by Augustin Fernandez Mallo, A Void by Georges Perec, the comic book series Fables, the crazy

14 15 Who are some of your favourite writers in Singapore and why? I'm not sure “in Singapore” works for my purposes, so I'll try “of Singapore” instead. I'll talk about older writers and books — I think I need more distance from recent work. Tan Hwee Hwee's Mammon Inc. was perhaps the first novel written by a Singaporean I ever read, and it still remains my favourite. It's both sci-fi and social (megacorporation hiring cultural translators to facilitate neoliberalism — will the protagonist sell her soul?), but also, more importantly, really funny, well-written, and not at all caught up with Singapore as a Nation or Idea. Boey Kim Cheng's Between Stations is a lyrical and deeply near-future books by Michel Houellebecq (Atomised, moving series of essays on not being at home. Wong May, Submission), most of Virginia Woolf but especially The although she has left Singapore, has four books of poetry that Waves and Between the Acts, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, do wondrous things with language and silence. Arthur Yap's Empire of Memory by Eric Galimanda, etc. Other books poetry and prose I think most successfully captures a kind of and writers that may not fit the above criteria: Primo Levi's localness in his use of malapropisms and poetic logic. Kuo Pao accounts of surviving the Nazi camps in If This Is a Man Kun (but he is so much more than a writer!) has several plays and The Truce (he also wrote sci-fi short stories!), Elena which, although I haven't seen them staged, are in reading the Ferrante's Neapolitan series, Between Stations by Boey Kim strongest social texts I've ever encountered here. Cheng, House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Silence by Shusaku Endo. For poetry, Anne Carson, Derek Walcott, Describe your approach to creative writing. Memorial by Alice Oswald, Marianne Moore, Yearling by “Playfulness”. I won't say more to pin me down, except that Lo Kwa Mei-En, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle by Hugh playfulness can be a serious thing! MacDiarmid, Charles Olson, Wong May, and Arthur Yap. 16 17 Can you recommend some books on writing craft? I don't actually read craft books; I think the best learning occurs through reading good things and talking to the right people. I have enjoyed books about the increasing professionalisation of creative writing in America and elsewhere such as MFA vs NYC edited by Chad Harbach, and Workshops of Empire by Eric Bennett.

How do you know when a poem is complete? I don't — I generally give up on them.

As a young writer, what are your hopes for the future for Singapore literature? I hope to see more writing with vision — and I don't think I'll be let down.

poetry with Tse Hao Guang will be at Central Public Library on 22 June 2017 (7.30pm) to share his tse hao guang journey of stumbling into poetry, completing a manuscript, to publication. He will also read and speak more about the poems in Deeds of Light, and give the audience a glimpse of the International Writers Program, where he was privileged to interact with 36 writers from 30 different countries all over the world. Find out more at www.nlb.gov.sg/golibrary.

18 © Jon Gresham 19 hao guang’s book recommendation “Read this (at the library, because it is out of print) to understand that sometimes it is the wanderer and traveller who has the most urgent sense of what home means.” Between Stations Boey Kim Cheng Tse Hao Guang Giramondo Publishing, New South Wales, Australia, 2009 — English S821 BOE, Singapore Collection

20 21 recommendation reads

2 1

Relecting on BooksActually’s Gold Standard 2016 the Merlion: An Anthology Edited by Julie Koh Math Paper Press, of Poems Singapore, 2016 — Edited by Edwin Thumboo English BGS, and Yeow Kai Chai Singapore Collection National Arts Council, Singapore, 2009 — English 808.81 REF, 3 Singapore Collection Forty-Four Winning Plays from the TheatreWorks 24- It is a joke among local poets that each of them must Hour Playwriting have a poem about the Merlion in their portfolio. This Competition: Volume 3: 1964 creation by Alec Frederick Fraser-Brunner for the 2014–2015 Singapore Tourism Board is a well-known marketing icon, Edited by Ng Yi-Sheng ready-made for artistic dissection. Poetry pioneer Edwin & Dan Koh Thumboo got the water running with his 1979 ‘Ulysses by TheatreWorks (Singapore) the Merlion’. Here, he and fellow editors compile works & Husken-Ulbrich Books LLP, by those who followed his example. In keeping with Singapore, 2016 the national spirit, the works featured cover all four of — Singapore’s official languages. English S822 FOR, Singapore Collection

22 23 editor the numbers & niches series credits Natalina Pereira 710: Landscape Architecture 1. © Credit https://www.lickr.com/photos/thomashawk/14802818959/ Green Places 2. © Credit https://www.lickr.com/photos/jamesonink/12312916275/ writers 720: Architecture 3. © Credit https://www.lickr.com/photos/artbystevejohnson/4654256961/ Chen Jieyun Everyday Architecture 4. https://www.lickr.com/photos/redbettyblack/382152883/ Joey Chin 730: Sculpture 5. https://www.lickr.com/photos/115026014@N05/14166457491/ 6. https://www.lickr.com/photos/marcwathieu/4359191491/in/photolist — Toy Sculpture 7. Thomas, Dylan. Collected Poems. New York: New Directions, 2010. Print This publication is printed 740: Drawing and Design 8. Image of Tse Hao Guang reading by Jon Gresham on Cyclus Print. Its text Make It Work is set in Mercury and 750: Painting Johnston ITC Std. Colours in Culture 760: Printing and Engraving Silkscreen Printing 770: Photography Old School Photography 780: Music Music Journalism 790: Performing Arts Setting the Stage 800: Literary Arts Singapore Poetry and Prose

24 © National Library Board, Singapore 2017 in this issue

01 introduction Singapore Poetry and Prose 06 A Writer's Notebook 12 Anatomy of a Poem 14 spotlight Tse Hao Guang 20 Recommended Reads

numbers & niches is a 10-part, monthly series of talks and curated content based on the library’s Arts Collection. Sequenced according to the Dewey Decimal Classification, each issue shines a spotlight on local practitioners and their specific art forms. numbers & niches is now available online at nlb.gov.sg/Browse/ArtsPublications.aspx!

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