A transnational literary organization based in New York City, Singapore Unbound envisions and works for a creative and fulfilling life for everyone through the arts and activism.
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Op-Ed
Acclaimed Singaporean playwright Haresh Sharma was due to teach a play-writing course at the National University of Singapore (NUS), but five days before the start of the new school semester he was informed that NUS did not approve his appointment but he was not given any reason. We call on NUS to provide a clear and satisfactory explanation for this abrupt and late cancellation.
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SUSPECT
Taylor Taeyeon Song reviews Hwang Jungeun's dd's Umbrella.
Good food-based advice for Poetry Month: find it in yourself to love flies, but don’t leave them any lychee pieces… and don’t talk to bears about mahua. Three poems from Kunjana Parashar.
When trees join root systems or a grandmother gifts a child knowledge, “who adopts whom?” Three poems by Kinjal Sethia.
This March, Ng Yi-Sheng treads into subversive histories that traverse from 19th Century Malaya, the Peloponnesian Wars, and a Bangkok that slips out of the reaches of time.
What do sea birds, Malayalam, and an Indian Jesus have in common? Three poems on home by Feby Joseph.
The elections are over. The architects of happiness won again. A new story by Jason Low.
Amanda Juico Dela Cruz discusses the weight of beauty in an essay that braids rage, relief, and power.
In this winning essay of the 2024 Singapore Unbound Awards for the Best Undergraduate Critical Essay on Singapore and Other Literatures, Sami Goh explores the floral futures of Singapore, as posited by Mok Zining’s the orchid folios.
From sci-fi to chick lit to sacred texts, Ng Yi-Sheng gives us five picks for Black History Month that speak across time and space to the present day.
What is it that the snake actually says to Eve? A new story by Levi Abadilla.
Three poems from Jerusalem speak to the power of vulnerability – shedding “camouflage” for skin. By Atar Hadari.
How far would you go to avoid bad luck? Read the new story by Melissa Ren to find out.
Who are those next-door neighbors on the left? Why won’t they have anything to do with us? A campus story by Mosa-ab Z. Mangurun.
Gaudy Boy
by Jeddie Sophronius
ISBN: 978-1-958652-07-7
$16.00 / Paperback / 5.5” x 8.5" / 120 pages
Gaudy Boy, April 2024
N. America: Amazon / Bookshop
Singapore: Word Image
Distributed by Ingram
by Rahad Abir
9781958652022
$19.00 / Paperback / 5.5” x 8.5" / 228 pages
Gaudy Boy, October 1, 2023
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Singapore: Word Image
Distributed by Ingram
edited by Marylyn Tan and Jee Leong Koh
978-0-9994514-9-6
$22.00 / Paperback / 6" x 9" / 320 pages
Gaudy Boy, December 1, 2022
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Singapore: Word Image
Distributed by Ingram
by Jhani Randhawa
978-0-9994514-7-2
$16.00 / Paperback / 6" x 9" / 144 pages
Gaudy Boy, April 1, 2022
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
S.E. Asia: In the best bookstores
UK: Good Press (Glasgow)
Distributed by Ingram
Contests
Submission period: 15 April - 15 June
Payment: USD100
Submit to Sharmini Aphrodite at suspect@singaporeunbound.org
Deadline: July 31, 2025
Award: $1,500 advance + publication in US and SG
Gaudy Boy, a New York City -based independent press that publishes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by extraordinary Asian voices, is open to submissions of unpublished adult novels by authors of Asian heritage residing anywhere in the world.
Deadline: May 19, 2025
Award: USD1,500+Publication in US and SG
Entry Fee: USD10
The Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize is awarded annually to an unpublished manuscript of original Anglophone poetry by an author of Asian heritage residing anywhere in the world.
Deadline: May 15th, 2025
Awards: USD300, 200, and 100
No entry fee
In conjunction with Gaudy Boy’s April 2025 publication of Mandy Moe Pwint Tu’s FABLEMAKER (winner of the Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize), SUSPECT calls for poems that use the word “fable” or its variants in an imaginative fashion. We want fables and anti-fables, we want fable-adjacent poems, we want fabulous conceptions and language.
"It is difficult to overstate the importance of literary organizations like Singapore Unbound. The healthy mind is curious about the imagined worlds in which SU traffics. SU brings us literature of profound interest, lively debate, and beautiful sound."
—Harold Augenbraum, honorary advisor and Former Executive Director, National Book Foundation
“This is not a disease/ you isolate yourself to fix.” Three poems by Ryan Yeo on how to keep going.