In this essay, one of three winners of the 2023 Singapore Unbound Awards for the Best Undergraduate Critical Essays on Singapore and Other Literatures, Gan Chong Jing argues that Singaporean playwright Kuo Pao Kun creates a uniquely fluid form of allegorical theatre by infusing experimental, non-realist English language theatre with Chinese Xiangsheng performance techniques.
Read MoreNg Yi-Sheng reads the literature of indigenous peoples and discovers that his bookshelf is entangled with the non-indigenous voices of allies, anthropologists, authors or informants.
Read MoreIn “Mind the Gap”: Exploring Hwee Hwee Tan’s Portrayal of Cultural Tensions in a Modern, Globalising World,” one of the three winners of the 3rd Singapore Unbound Awards for the Best Undergraduate Critical Essays on Singapore and Other Literatures, Kelly Sng argues that Tan’s novels raise provocative questions about the limits of transnational capitalism and cultural fluidity in a modern, globalizing world.
Read MoreOne of three winners of the 3rd Singapore Unbound Awards for the Best Undergraduate Essays on Singapore and Other Literatures, “Chosen One’s Chosen Pronouns: Queer Identity as Messianic Belief in Neon Yan,” by Tan Yan Rong, examines the intersection of gender and religion, truth and belief, in Neon Yang’s Genesis of Misery and A Stick of Clay.
Read MoreThe exciting recovery of a previously unknown book-length poem by a Singaporean who migrated to Australia. Gwee Li Sui, the editor of A Walk with My Pig, describes the recovery not only of the work but also of the poet Mervin Mirapuri.
Read MoreWhen the world, both human and natural, is all askew, what can you do? Three new poems by Ishita Basu Malik responds to such estrangement.
Read MoreTwo poems by Paul Catafago, a Palestinian living and writing in the diaspora.
Read MoreTraveling over the holidays? Ng Yi-Sheng has a few meta, or not-so-meta, suggestions for you.
Read MoreAccording to his translator Atar Hadari, the late Israeli poet Avraham Chalfi was “a character actor, a clown, a dandy, and a man about town in Tel Aviv.” He was also a poet beloved by the people for his romantic and mystical verses.
Read MoreIn this new story by A.J. Payler, Jamie Okuda finds himself at an unusual job interview.
Read MoreNew translations by Rahad Abir of two poems by the young revolutionary and Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharya.
Read MoreHow does one square the circle? Yap Hao Yang finds that impossible possibility in his review of Tse Hao Guang’s The International Left-Hand Calligraphy Association.
Read MoreTo celebrate the Festival of Lights, Ng Yi-Sheng lights up our minds with his takes on five works of speculative fiction from South Asia and the diaspora.
Read More“No good comes from dealing with motherfuckers.” The protagonist of Migrantik, by Norman Wilwayco, runs counter to conventional images of the Flipino migrant worker, as reviewer Lara Norgaard finds out.
Read More26 Singaporean writers, artists, and thinkers recommend their favorite reads this year. The Singapore Unbound team has some recommendations for you too.
Read MoreWhat does it feel like when a people free themselves from the chains of colonialism and proclaim their independence? We find out in this new translation by Chang Shi Yen of Usman Awang’s moving story “A Flag Is Lowered.”
Read MoreA sharp social message masquerading as a courtly love story, Keris Mas’s first story, translated by Chang Shih Yen here, already showed his political leanings and literary gifts.
Read MoreIn this story “Celebrating Eid at Grandmother’s Grave,” by Malaysia’s first National Laureate Keris Mas, translated by Chang Shih Yen, a woman tries to get a red shirt for her child so that he can celebrate Eid like the other children.
Read MoreSUSPECT’s Fiction Editor Sharmini Aphrodite introduces the four stories in this first installment of an exciting new project, our Malay Translation Portfolio.
Read MoreWhat creature did Sang Nila Utama actually see on the island? The story “Schizosinga,” by Hassan Hasaa’ree Ali, translated by Ng Yi-Sheng, provides a different answer.
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