Writers from Singapore

DAN YING is a lecturer at the Chinese Language Proficiency Centre of the National University of Singapore. One of the best known women poets in the international Chinese community, Dan Ying was the 1995 recipient of the Southeast Asian Writers' Award (SEAWrite) and Singapore's National Book Development Council Book Award for Chinese Poetry in 1979 (for Poems of Taiji) and 1994 (for Ages on My Hairs). From the time she published her first two poetry collection in the late 1960s, Dan Ying's work has been widely anthologized, most notably in Kenneth Rexroth's The Orchid Boat: Women Poets of China (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972). She and her husband, poet and critic Wong Yoon Wah, are at the IWP on a sabbatical grant from the National University of Singapore.

Kirpal SINGH (fiction writer, poet, critic, Singapore; born in Singapore, 1949) is a leading figure in the literature of the ASEAN region. Dr. Singh is head of the Division of Literature and Drama at the Singapore National Institute of Education. His books include Singapore Potpourri (1970), Articulations (1972), Twenty Poems (1976), Palm Readings (1986), Critical Engagements (1986), Jaspal + 2 (1997). He has participated in several international literary festivals all over the world. He has also been Writer-in-Residence in many different universities. Forthcoming titles include Catwalking (1997) and Why Make Love Twice (1998). His works have been the subject of serious studies by critics internationally and he is today regarded as a major voice in the Indian Diaspora as well as in Southeast Asia. His participation is supported by the Lee Foundation of Singapore.

HENG Siok Tian (born 1963, Singapore) is a media services specialist with the educational technology division of Singapore's Ministry of Education, and teaches English and literature at a leading junior college. She is the author of the poetry collections My City, My Canvas (1999) and Crossing the Chopsticks and Other Poems (1993). Her work has appeared in major anthologies of the region, including New Voices in Southeast Asia and Cambridge University's The Calling of the Kindred. She is the recipient of awards for poetry and short story competitions at the National University of Singapore, and a scholarship for advanced studies from the Ministry of Education. She holds the MA in English literature from the National University, and a diploma from the Alliance Francaise. Her play "The Lift" was performed in Singapore in 1991 and chosen for a brief reading at the 3rd International Women Playwrights' Conference in Adelaide, Australia. Ms. Heng has also translated plays from Mandarin. With Anuar Othman, she is a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship awarded by the Singapore National Arts Council.

Verena TAY has spent the last two decades working in Singapore’s English-language theatre. Since 1997, she has concentrated on solo performances. Some of her recent projects include Cotton & Jade (2000), Medea: One on One (2002), 3 Women (2005) and Between Woman and Man: The Erasure of Verena Tay (2007). Another of her plays, The Car, won Action Theatre’s Theatre Idols in 2005; The Car was fully staged at The Esplanade Theatre Studio in 2006). Tay teaches voice, speech, and presentation skills in Singapore. She participates courtesy of the National Arts Council (Singapore), the Singapore International Foundation, The Substation arts center, and other sources.

Jeremy TIANG (fiction writer, playwright, translator; Singapore) has acted in nearly 30 stage, television and film productions. His plays Polyglottalstop (2008), A Dream of Red Pavilions (2008), and godshaped hole (2010) were staged in London, and Operation Opera (2003) in Singapore. His story "Trondheim" won the NAC Golden Point Award. He has led theatre and creative writing workshops, translated plays from the Chinese, and contributed film, theatre, and book reviews to The Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Straits Times, The Arts Magazine, and The Flying Inkpot. Tiang's participation is made possible by a grant from the Singapore National Arts Council.

Amanda Lee KOE (fiction writer; Singapore) edits fiction at Esquire (Singapore) and the literary journal Ceriph, creative nonfiction for the magazine POSKOD, and is a co-editor of Eastern Heathens, an anthology revisiting Asian folktales. Her first book, Ministry of Moral Panic, will appear later this year.  A communications director at studioKALEIDO, she also teaches creative writing workshops and curates arts exhibitions. Her co-directed documentary, Post-Love, about older people’s sexuality, was screened at festivals in Singapore, Canada, and China; Koe’s work has appeared in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong, the U.K., and the U.S.  She participates courtesy of the Singapore National Arts Council.

Yu-Mei BALASINGAMCHOW (fiction and nonfiction writer; Singapore) has had stories appear in the anthologies From the Belly of the Cat (2009) and Let’s Tell This Story Properly: Commonwealth Short Story Prize Anthology (2015), as well as in the journal Mänoa. Her nonfiction work includes Singapore:A Biography (2009; co-authored with Mark Ravinder Frost), commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore. In 2014 she was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She participates courtesy of the Singapore National Arts Council.

Amanah MUSTAFI (screenwriter; Singapore) is a broadcast journalist and TV screenwriter. Her stories and scripts have received multiple awards; the drama Kalimah Terakhir was anthologized in Anugerah Persuratan 2011, a collection of Malay literary award winners selected by the Malay Language Council. Her work has been seen in Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. She participates courtesy of the Singapore National Arts Council.

Audrey CHIN (fiction writer, non-fiction writer; Singapore) has a PhD in Public Policy and worked in investment banking. Her story collection Nine Cuts was shortlisted for the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize; that same year her novel As the Heart Bones Break was a finalist for the Singapore Book Awards. She is the organizer for the Singapore Ladies Asian Literary Book Group, promoting Asian literature in the community. She participates courtesy of the Singapore National Arts Council.