#YISHREADS June 2024

To celebrate Pride month, let’s speculate about queer Asian futures with Ng Yi-Sheng as our guide.

ReviewJee KohJune 28, 2024Ng Yi-ShengComment

What do dating apps, border control, and HRT documentation have in common? Find out in Winter Chen’s explosive movement between the forms and functions that draw a life’s rawest borders.

PoetryJee KohJune 28, 2024Winter A. ChenComment

The Weight of Their Truths

Anna Tan reviews Bone Weight and Other Stories, by Shih-Li Kow, and finds the stories in the collection weighted down by losses familiar to Malaysians.

ReviewJee KohJune 21, 2024Anna TanComment

“Fabric from Kashmir” and Other Poems

Have you ever been late to an appointment, or haunted by someone’s late arrival? Sayan Aich Bhowmik’s poems present us with seasons and people who have taken their time.

PoetryJee KohJune 14, 2024Sayan Aich BhowmikComment

Gai-gai

In this story by Casper Ho, a young boy is excited to fill in his new journal, but with what?

FictionJee KohJune 7, 2024Casper Ho Comment

#YISHREADS May 2024

Read some creative non-fiction by Southeast Asian authors or about Southeast Asia lately? Ng Yi-Sheng recommends five titles to peruse.

ReviewJee KohMay 31, 2024Ng Yi-ShengComment

“Somewhere” and “Communion”

In the wake of a departure, what has – and is – left? Two poems by Oindri Sengupta.

PoetryJee KohMay 31, 2024Oindri SenguptaComment

Ghosts Don’t Burn

In his review of A Tinderbox in Three Acts, by Cynthia Dewi Oka, Ho Kin Yunn finds a poetics that confronts mass horrors and implicates all of us.

ReviewJee KohMay 24, 2024Ho Kin YunnComment

Pigeons and Doves

In London, a broken Lim Chin Siong, with the help of his therapist Eileen Tay, tries to step away from the precipice. Philip Holden’s story probes deeply and gently into what it means to “accompany others, and not to oversee them.”

FictionJee KohMay 24, 2024Philip Holden, A Malayan VisionComment

Setia Dan Bakti, or Loyalty and Service

The representative of law and order comes to life in Salil Tripathi’s story. “Was Chin Siong trying to create solidarity between the people and the police to rise up against the government?” Senior Inspector Tan Kim Wah has to decide what to write in his report to his superiors.

FictionJee KohMay 17, 2024Salil Tripathi, A Malayan VisionComment

Truth Be Told

A. K. Kulshreshth homes in on the wheeling and dealing to stay on the right side of history in his sharp depiction of an unlikeable protagonist. The man is fictional, but how can one tell amidst the “lies, half-lies, truths, and half-truths”?

FictionJee KohMay 10, 2024A. K. Kulshreshth, A Malayan VisionComment

Hope of a Better Age

In this moving story, Faith Ho imagines the tumultuous events of the 50s from the perspective of Wong Chui Wan. Much more than Lim Chin Siong’s wife, Wong was an activist and a trade unionist at a time when “they [were] writing themselves into being.”

FictionJee KohMay 3, 2024Faith Ho, A Malayan VisionComment

Preface to “A Malayan Vision,” a Portfolio of Stories Involving Lim Chin Siong

Jee KohMay 3, 2024Thum Ping Tjin, A Malayan VisionComment

#YISHREADS April 2024

A month of graphic novels? Glorious. Ng Yi-Sheng is our guide to the tragic, the fantastic, and the pandemic.

ReviewJee KohApril 26, 2024Ng Yi-ShengComment

Bunga

What are these ghost orchids in Ismim Putera’s new story “Bunga”? Are they even orchids or not?

FictionJee KohApril 26, 2024Ismim PuteraComment

“Caregiver burnout” and Other Poems

From salt to frozen yogurt, Valerie Eng takes us through a jumbled journey of flavors—equal parts liquid and sharp, joyful and grieving.

PoetryJee KohApril 19, 2024Valerie EngComment

Glass Animals

In this new story by Devanshi Khetarpal, an unsettling neighbor gets under the skin.

FictionJee KohApril 12, 2024Devanshi Khetarpal Comments

The Intransigent Aura of Cities

Do objects give off an aura? What about texts about objects? This playful new story by Glenn Diaz, featuring a weary encyclopedist, questions the credentials of literature.

FictionJee KohApril 5, 2024Glenn DiazComment