Into the Gap: Literary Adventures in Transit
Sat, 13 May 2023 | 2:30pm - 3:30pm
Venue: Seminar Room, National Museum of Singapore
Fee: Free with registration
How does urban travel move and inspire? The rhythms, colour, and untold stories of the mass movement of people have inspired and informed the work of dozens of writers. From engagement with everyday modes of transport to magical, otherwordly terminals, our literature has been shaped by developments in public transportation.
Join Ann Ang, Ng Yi-Sheng and Yong Shu Hoong, moderated by Charlene Sheperdson, as they discuss the role that transit and liminal spaces occupy in literary imagination. This programme is co-organised by Ethos Books.
About Ann Ang
Ann Ang is a literature educator and published writer best known as the author of Bang My Car (Math Paper Press, 2012). She is the co-editor of the literary anthologies Poetry Moves (2020) and Food Republic (2020), and also the coordinating editor of PR&TA (Practice, Research & Tangential Activities) a new peer-reviewed journal of creative theory and practice in Southeast Asia. A keen birder, Ann also researches contemporary Anglophone writing from Southeast Asia and South Asia.
About Yong Shu Hoong
Yong Shu Hoong has previously authored five poetry collections, including Frottage (2005) and The Viewing Party (2013), which both won the Singapore Literature Prize. His poems and short stories have been published in literary journals like Quarterly Literary Review Singapore and Asia Literary Review (Hong Kong), and anthologies like Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (W.W. Norton, 2008). He edited the anthology Here Now, There After (Marshall Cavendish, 2017), featuring stories, poems and comics inspired by notions of movement, trips and city transit.
About Ng Yi-Sheng
Ng Yi-Sheng is a Singapore-based poet, fictionist, playwright, researcher and activist. He has studied creative writing at Columbia College and the University of East Anglia. He won the 2008 Singapore Literature Prize (English Category) for his debut poetry collection last boy (Firstfruits, 2006). He is also the author of the best-selling non-fiction work SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (Oogachaga, 2006), the movie novelisation Eating Air (Firstfruits, 2008) and the poetry collections Loud Poems for a Very Obliging Audience and A Book of Hims (Math Paper Press, 2016 and 2017). His latest publication is a collection of short fantasy and science fiction tales titled Lion City (Epigram, 2018).
