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.

What’s On

 
View fullsize Join us on Saturday, May 10th, at 3.00-4.15 PM for our 2025 Rainbow Book Fair Panel; Asian Love Stories: Romance, Resistance, and Revolution at the LGBT Community Center (208 W 13th Street, New York, NY 10011). What are the resources in traditional
View fullsize Join us on Saturday, May 17 at 7 pm for our May Second Saturdays Reading Series! Venue: Private home in the Village, NY, NY Features: Benjamin Swett and Shou Jie Eng RSVP Jee at jkoh@singaporeunbound.org for directions Benjamin Swett is a writer an
View fullsize Join us on April 12th for “One World,” a celebration of National Poetry Month with the Evergreen Review and Singapore Unbound. Saturday, April 12, 3-5 pm Features: Lydia Liu, Matt Reeck, Jennifer Shyue, Jacqueline Johnson Venue: Private
View fullsize We're so pleased to announce that Leon Perera has joined Singapore Unbound as an honorary advisor. Our honorary advisors share their expertise and contacts with us in order to expand and deepen our work in the arts and activism.

Op-Ed

Featured
Opinion: Disrespectful Treatment of Cultural Medallion Recipient

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.

Newsletter

Our weekly newsletter brings you opinions and news about human rights, books, and community events.

SUSPECT

Suspect Blog
“Cup of Water” and Other Poems
“Cup of Water” and Other Poems

A Chinese phone, a cup of water, and the future’s “incisor”: Abdulbasit Oluwanishola presents us with the ways grief is felt, then held.

#YISHREADS April 2025
#YISHREADS April 2025

Amidst a season of renewal this April, Ng Yi-Sheng takes us on a journey through the literature of mainland Southeast Asia.

“Accidents” and Other Poems
“Accidents” and Other Poems

“This is not a disease/ you isolate yourself to fix.” Three poems by Ryan Yeo on how to keep going.

The View of Mukja: The Invisible Voices of Hwang Jungeun’s dd’s Umbrella
The View of Mukja: The Invisible Voices of Hwang Jungeun’s dd’s Umbrella

Taylor Taeyeon Song reviews Hwang Jungeun's dd's Umbrella.

“Ode to Watching My Sister Eat Lychees” and Other Poems
“Ode to Watching My Sister Eat Lychees” and Other Poems

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.

“Bloodline” and Other Poems
“Bloodline” and Other Poems

When trees join root systems or a grandmother gifts a child knowledge, “who adopts whom?” Three poems by Kinjal Sethia.

#YISHREADS March 2025
#YISHREADS March 2025

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.

“Lent Birds” and Other Poems
“Lent Birds” and Other Poems

What do sea birds, Malayalam, and an Indian Jesus have in common? Three poems on home by Feby Joseph.

The One in the Mirror
The One in the Mirror

The elections are over. The architects of happiness won again. A new story by Jason Low.

No door to slam this time
No door to slam this time

Amanda Juico Dela Cruz discusses the weight of beauty in an essay that braids rage, relief, and power.

Falling, Wilting, Blooming: Floral Futures in Mok Zining’s the orchid folios
Falling, Wilting, Blooming: Floral Futures in Mok Zining’s the orchid folios

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.

#YISHREADS February 2025
#YISHREADS February 2025

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.

Adam and Eve as the First Horror Story
Adam and Eve as the First Horror Story

What is it that the snake actually says to Eve? A new story by Levi Abadilla.

“An Alley in Baka” and other poems
“An Alley in Baka” and other poems

Three poems from Jerusalem speak to the power of vulnerability – shedding “camouflage” for skin. By Atar Hadari.

Gaudy Boy

Gaudy Boy
Memorial Club
Memorial Club

by Mozid Mahmud
ISBN: 978-1-958652-16-9
eISBN: 978-1-958652-15-2
$19.00 / Paperback / 5.5” x 8.5” / 138 pages
Gaudy Boy, January 2025
N. America: Asterism / Bookshop / Amazon
Distributed by Asterism & Ingram

The Way You Want to Be Loved
The Way You Want to Be Loved

by Aruni Kashyap
ISBN: 978-1-958652-08-4
eISBN: 978-1-958652-09-1
$19.00 / Paperback / 5.5” x 8.5" / 256 pages
Gaudy Boy, October 2024
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Singapore: Forthcoming
Distributed by Asterism & Ingram

Interrogation Records
Interrogation Records

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

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Lovelier, Lonelier

by Daryl Qilin Yam
ISBN: 978-1-958652-04-6
eISBN: 978-1-958652-05-3
$24.00 / Paperback / 6” x 9" / 424 pages
Gaudy Boy, February 2024
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Distributed by Ingram

Bengal Hound
Bengal Hound

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

Waking Up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight
Waking Up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight

by Jim Pascual Agustin
978-1-958652-00-8
$16.00 / Paperback / 5.5” x 8.5" / 94 pages
Gaudy Boy, April 1, 2023
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Distributed by Ingram

SUSPECT: VOLUME 1, YEAR 1
SUSPECT: VOLUME 1, YEAR 1

978-1-958652-01-5
$16.00 / Paperback / 8.5" x 11" / 164 pages
February 22, 2022
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
Distributed by Ingram

New Singapore Poetries
New Singapore Poetries

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

Amanat: Women's Writing from Kazakhstan
Amanat: Women's Writing from Kazakhstan

edited by Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega
978-0-9994514-8-9
$22.00 / Paperback / 5.5" x 8.5" / 296 pages
Gaudy Boy, July 1, 2022
N. America: Bookshop / Amazon
S.E. Asia: In the best bookstores
Distributed by Ingram

Time Regime: Poems
Time Regime: Poems

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

Submissions

Opportunities
Call for “OF THE SEA” Portfolio
Call for “OF THE SEA” Portfolio

Submission period: 15 April - 15 June
Payment: USD100
Submit to Sharmini Aphrodite at suspect@singaporeunbound.org

2025 Gaudy Boy Open Call for Novel Manuscripts
2025 Gaudy Boy Open Call for Novel Manuscripts

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.

2025 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize
2025 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize

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.

The 11th SUSPECT Poetry Contest
The 11th SUSPECT Poetry Contest

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