Singapore Writers Festival 2022: 20 for 25

ACKNOWLEDGING that the world has just gone through a peculiarly dark period, the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) returns this November with a theme encapsulated in just 1 word: “if”. 

Festival director Pooja Nansi explains that the time we live now is filled with harrowing uncertainties and hopeful possibilities: “There are many questions about where we are now as a global society and where we are headed towards as we cautiously make our way out of the pandemic.

“The word ‘if’ conveys a feeling of hope and a second chance, as it allows for retrospection and ideation.”

Though it sounds a little glum, the festival really isn’t. After 2 years of mostly digital offerings, this year’s edition boasts over 200 programmes presented as in-person physical events. There are appearances by literary heavyweights and crowd-pleasers across several genres, including Ted Chiang (science fiction), Claudia Rankine (poetry), Lois Lowry (young adult fiction), Tung Chiao (essay) and Shane Koyczan (spoken word poetry). The festival also spans 3 weekends, its longest stretch yet.

Started in 1986 as a biennial event before going annual, the festival marks its 25^th anniversary this year with some 280 writers from Singapore and around the world. To commemorate, we pick 20 of our favourite things from the over 200 programmes.

1. Shakespeare in Shanghai

Chloe Gong scored a New York Times bestseller with her inventive adaptation of the Bard’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Set in 1920s Shanghai, These Violent Delights depicts a long-standing feud between 2 powerful gangs, the Chinese Scarlet Gang and the Russian White Flowers, to which ex-lovers Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov are respective heirs. At the SWF, Gong will talk about her book and the nature of passionate love.

2. Sci-fi maestro Ted Chiang 

Chiang is one of the most lauded writers of science fiction, with several Nebulas, Hugos and Locus awards to his name. His most famous short story is Story Of Your Life; it was turned into the 2016 film Arrival, starring Amy Adams, which garnered 8 Oscar nominations. At SWF, Chiang will conduct a talk on the concept of free will in time travel, as well as an intimate group discussion at the Mandala Club.

3. Pop culture provocateur Jia Tolentino

The New Yorker magazine writer Jia Tolentino writes some of the most intelligent and provocative pieces on pop culture today. Just visit a university in an English-speaking country and you’ll probably find more than a few of her fans in the literature department. Unfortunately, the Filipino-American is unable to fly to Singapore for the festival. But she will give an online lecture about the digital generation’s narcissistic and hyper-consumptive ways.  

4. Spotlight on Malay women writers

Malay literature is filled with prominent male figures such as Isa Kamari and Suratman Markasan – but where are the women? SWF’s Fezhah Maznan looked high and low and found talented women writers who have mostly been overlooked. She is redressing the imbalance by showcasing the writings of Raja Aisyah Sulaiman, Adibah Amin, Dr Hadijah Rahmat, Dr Sa’eda Buang and Rasiah Halil, as well as the collective Kumpulan Bebas Melata.

SEE ALSO

SIPF 2022: Enigmatic and entrancing

Singapore Biennale returns with broader focus – and a scandalous name

5. A poem with your pu’er?

What better way to enjoy poetry than by sharing your thoughts and a cup of tea with accomplished poets? Some of the featured poets in SWF will come together at the popular tea house Tea Chapter to read aloud their favourite Chinese poems before a small audience. For S$15 per ticket, you can enjoy a free flow of caffeine and creativity.

6. Closing ranks with Rankine

Claudia Rankine’s poetry frequently exposes the violence and aggression on the micro and macro level against Black people in the US. Her groundbreaking poetry collection Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) earned her about a dozen literary awards, including the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award. At SWF, she will discuss how poetry can help and heal an increasingly fractious society. 

7.  Gunning for the misfits

Canadian spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan is beloved around the world for championing the underdog. His anti-bullying spoken-word poem on YouTube titled To This Day has been viewed over 25 million times, while his TED Talk about being “different” has racked up over 3.8 million clicks. Come see him perform a series of poems on how to stand up for yourself and, just as importantly, how to heal from trauma.

8. Looking at death squarely in the face

Writer Eric Arvin was hospitalised in 2013 for a benign tumour on his brainstem and eventually became dependent on a ventilator, before dying of pneumonia in 2016. His partner, fellow writer TJ Klune, has channelled his enormous grief into bestselling books such as Under The Whispering Door and The House In The Cerulean Sea. Klune is set to appear at SWF to talk about death, mortality, grieving and acceptance. Bring tissues.

9. Food, glorious food

Singapore’s food culture and its symbols, from curries to kopitiams, frequently appear in the fiction and poetry of Tamil writers. Authors, poets and personalities come together to pick out their favourite literary pieces and passages that discreetly or overtly reference our national obsession. The programme is co-presented with Tamil Murasu. 

10. When poetry becomes pop

It’s hard to tell the difference between poetry and pop lyric when the latter is written by poet-musicians the likes of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. It’s fitting, then, that the poetry of veteran Malay writers such as Masuri SN and Mohd Latiff Mohd has been put to music by established musicians such as Jatt Ali, Hanafie Warren, Moliano, Ryzall Noh and Olynn Saleh. The concert titled Gita Raga will showcase poetry in an entirely different light.

11. Dialect storytelling returns

Former SWF director Paul Tan makes a cameo for the festival’s 25th anniversary by reprising a popular programme from the 2013 and 2014 editions: dialect storytelling. Hear rhymes and classic stories recited in Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese and Hakka by members of the Glowers Drama Group. When the programme debuted less than a decade ago, it drew crowds and raves. 

12. #BookTok don’t stop

For all the reports that books are dying, social media is proving otherwise. The TikTok phenomenon of recommending books using the hashtag #BookTok has turned legions of non-readers into potential bookworms. In this panel discussion, writers reflect on how to counter literary apathy with the power of new media.

13. Cyberpunk, South-east Asian style

Cyberpunk may have originated as a sci-fi subgenre in the West, but South-east Asian writers have long embraced it in their own writing, melding the sociopolitical and economic realities of their countries with its dystopian tropes. In a special series of programmes co-presented by the Singapore Book Council, South-east Asian cyberpunk books will be discussed, dissected and, above all, celebrated.

14. A secret rendezvous with a writer

Yes, it is every bit as mysterious and potentially romantic as you think it could be. Former SWF director Yeow Kai Chai will be reprising one of his popular programmes called Secret Sayang from SWF 2015, which involves participants going on one-on-one “blind dates” with a writer, during which the writer will talk about love, hope and regret, and how they appear in their writing.  

15. KPK 4ever

Where would Singapore theatre be without the late great dramatist Kuo Pao Kun? How have his plays such as Descendants Of The Admiral Eunuch and The Silly Little Girl & The Funny Old Tree influenced generations of theatre-makers? Those who had studied under or worked with the famous playwright-director before his death in 2002 come together to celebrate his legacy. 

16. The past is not the past

We often think we can forget the past and start again with a clean slate – but Canadian journalist Kamal Al-Solaylee doesn’t think it’s so easy. Born in Yemen, his family had to uproot themselves and go into exile in Beirut and Cairo; subsequently, he moved to London before finally settling in Canada. Al-Solaylee believes Yemen continues to exert an influence on him, and will discuss the pull of the past at SWF. 

17. What if WWII never happened?

World War II has often provided a colourful backdrop for contemporary Tamil novels and poetry. But what if the war hadn’t taken place at all? How might the Tamil community in Singapore have progressed from the 1940s to the present? Local Tamil writers dig deep into speculative fiction to present plausible answers.  

18. Exploding the literary canon

Does Singapore have a literary canon? If so, what does that canon say about us? How might it change over time as authors, ideas and writing styles fall out of favour? Academic Angelia Poon, poet-critic Gwee Li Sui and poet-photographer Marc Nair come together to discuss this complex topic, moderated by former SWF director Paul Tan.

19. Ghost in the machine

One of the major festival commissions is If We Pause In Mid Thought, a wildly inventive audio-visual installation that invites you to participate in the creation of new art. All you have to do is fill in the blanks in the sentence, “If you are ___, you must speak ___”, and feed it to the installation erected at The Arts House. Your replies will add a data point to the work that will evolve with each response and intervention. To mark the festival’s 25th anniversary, 25 authors have also been invited to enrich the work in different ways. 

20. The poem that inspired the fest

This year’s festival takes its theme from Cyril Wong’s If… Else, a beautiful multi-textured poem that considers the possibility of imagination, creation, connection, love and forgiveness. It can be read in full on Wong’s blog ifelsebycyrilwong.wordpress.com. To quote a line from it: “If language is our breath, then poetry must be the sound of our cracked voices singing.”

The Singapore Writers Festival runs from Nov 4-20at various locations. Visit singaporewritersfestival.com for more information.