Singapore Writers Fest: ‘Bolder, weirder, more niche’

BY THE looks of it, Singapore Writers Festival director Pooja Nansi is going out with a bang.

For her fifth and final year at the helm, she says: “Every previous edition has led us to this point where we feel bold enough to programme cooler, weirder and more niche things. It stems from my philosophical belief that the literary arts encompasses everything... from fashion and food writing, to punk rock poetry and dikir barat (musical art form) jamming.”

The eclectic highlights of the 2023 edition include Singapore combat sports exponents talking about their journeys as fighters chronicled in the book Choke, Clinch, Crank, Combat – with a live capoeira demonstration to boot.

There is also Singapore paranormal investigator Noel Boyd discussing his book on ghost hunting, American music historian Jeff Chang exploring the past 50 years of hip-hop music, and Singapore fossil finder Andy Chua’s show-and-tell of his fossil collection.

For serious literary readers, the festival has lined up a handful of esteemed figures, including Viet Thanh Nguyen, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Sympathizer; literary theorist and feminist critic Gayatri Spivak, who changed the face of postcolonial discourse with her essay, Can The Subaltern Speak?; and celebrated British poet, playwright and author Lemn Sissay.

But some of those same readers might be less inclined towards graphic novelist John Patrick Green of InvestiGators fame, or Marvel Universe writers Fatimah Asghar and Eve L Ewing.

Nansi says: “We’ve always worked very hard to challenge existing perceptions of what a literary festival can be.

“My introduction to the literary community came about when I joined the poetry slam scene, so my perception of literature is that it’s very much alive and immediate, that it embraces everybody and doesn’t turn anybody away. That’s what I’ve tried to bring to the festival.”

Here are some highlights of the upcoming event, running from Nov 17 to 26:

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Blood, Sweat & Tears: Writing The Combat Sports Narrative

Join Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant Royston Wee, WBC Asia featherweight champion Amanda Chan and others as they talk about their journeys in combat sports as well as their book Choke, Clinch, Crank, Combat, which profiles 25 Singapore-based fighters. There’s also a capoeira demonstration by Tucum and Baiana Santos.

In A Tiny Room With: Jeff Chang

American journalist Chang is one of the authoritative voices on hip-hop. His book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop chronicles the early years of the genre and earned wide acclaim as well as the American Book Award. Here’s your chance to ask him just about anything you want to know about hip-hop.

Keynote Talk: Lat

Popular Malaysian cartoonist Lat has had a six-decade career, and is still mobbed by fans now and then. To mark the 60th anniversary of the merger of Singapore and Malaysia in September 1963, Lat will give a talk on how life for him and those around him has changed over the years, and how his comic books track these developments with hope and humour.

Making Space In The (Marvel) Universe

With most Marvel superheroes being white heterosexual men, the Marvel Universe has long had an inclusivity problem. Fatimah Asghar and Eve L Ewing are two Marvel writers working to change that, with superheroes who are female and/or brown.

They’ll discuss their work on Ms Marvel and Black Panther, as well as the challenges of being advocates for diversity and representation.

In A Tiny Room With: Viet Thanh Nguyen

Nguyen’s widely-praised novel The Sympathizer (2015) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and several other awards. The Vietnamese-American author is hosting an intimate “In A Tiny Room” session with fans who can engage him on any topic.

He is also conducting a keynote talk in which he discusses the global refugee crisis and the role of literature in preserving these precious narratives.