SG Launch of Sample and Loop: A Simple History of Singaporeans in America by Jee Leong Koh, with Andrew Kirkrose Devadason, Anurak Saelaow, and Izyanti Asa’ari,
Saturday, July 13, 5.00-6.30 pm, @Book Bar (57 Duxton Road)
A new Canterbury Tales for our time, Sample and Loop, by Jee Leong Koh, tells the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America, rendering the surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse. According to the Straits Times: “Sample And Loop sees Koh create a form that feels unique and accommodates the world of diasporic feeling in its roaming, roving expansiveness.” Andrew Kirkrose Devadason, Anurak Saelaow, and Izyanti Asa’ari join Koh in reading from the new collection and from their own work.
Jee Leong Koh is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by the Financial Times in the UK and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His hybrid work of fiction Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an insignificant Japanese poet won the Singapore Literature Prize in English fiction. Originally from Singapore, Koh lives in New York City, where he heads the literary organization Singapore Unbound, the indie press Gaudy Boy, and the journal of Asian writing and art SUSPECT.
Andrew Kirkrose Devadason is a Singaporean student of linguistics. His work has appeared in journals including Cordite Poetry Review and PERVERSE, and anthologies including EXHALE: An Anthology of Queer Singapore Voices and New Singapore Poetries.
Anurak Saelaow is a Singaporean poet and writer. His work has been published in New Singapore Poetries, Hayden's Ferry Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Cultural Weekly, The Kindling, Ceriph, and elsewhere. He is the author of one chapbook, Schema (The Operating System, 2015), and holds a BA in creative writing and English from Columbia University.
Izyanti Asa'ari has been published in anthologies, Ceriph #3, This is Not a Safety Barrier (Ethos Books, 2016), to let the light in (SingLit Station, 2021) and New Singapore Poetries (Gaudy Boy, 2022). Her writing picks at the stories a city inherits, what makes the machine tick. She is also co-founder of communications studio, Fellow Design.
