A Luxury We Cannot Afford: An Anthology of Singapore Poetry
Christine Chia & Joshua Ip (eds.)
Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789810926533

Singapore is a country of many invented, transplanted, or self-made myths and fables, but one looms above them all. 1969 marks the famous declaration of the myth: "Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford."

As our island nation approaches its 50th anniversary wielding extraordinary wealth and prosperity, it is timely to review the narrative that has shepherded us through the past half-century. Indeed, it seems only poetic justice to examine this polarising mythos through the ballyhooed medium of poetry. To praise and appraise this most poetic of figures, 56 of Singapore's finest poets offer up 65 poems that promise to excite, exhilarate, and electrify, to a man.

HABIT©AT
Atelier HOKO
Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789810921170

HABIT©AT is an inquiry into how street cats in Singapore inhabit the man-made spaces of the suburban landscapes. This publication explores the intrinsic relationship between cats and their surrounding, encouraging the viewing of our urban landscape not simply as public space but one charged with possibilities through the cats' adaptive appropriation. Their ability to discern subtle qualities and identify 'gifts' from the surrounding is a wisdom that human beings can humbly learn from and apply to our own approach towards dwelling.

SingPoWriMo: The Anthology
Ann Ang, Joshua Ip, & Pooja Nansi (eds.)
Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789810926526

Singapore Poetry Writing Month, or as we affectionately call it, SingPoWriMo.

Write one poem a day for thirty days in the cruel month of April: that was the challenge thrown open to the wilderness of the interwebz. This anthology brings together the best of the hundreds of poems that were submitted, from verses written in response to fiendish "include-all-these-six-words-in-your-poem" challenges, to impromptu poems written on whim. In the spirit of the democratic process of poetry, we feature first-time poets beside established ones, and blackout poems besides long-forgotten forms such as the liwuli.

Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me and Other Stories
Cyril Wong
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789814615082

A woman learns of a friend's illness and wonders if she ever truly knew him. A boy who sees ghosts heeds the advice of a fortune-teller, with surprising consequences. A girl wakes up and realises everybody in her Bedok neighbourhood has vanished. This collection brings together, for the first time, both new and previously published stories by Cyril Wong, the award-winning author of The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza. Ranging from the commonplace to the surreal, these short narratives feature characters in crisis, with two stories crossing intriguingly into creative autobiography.

My Pictorial Book of Dialect Idioms & Slangs
Kuan Eng
Singapore: Sibey Nostalgic, 2014
ISBN: 9789810927080

After launching Singapore's first series of dialect pictorial books last year, Kuan Eng explored further the topic of dialects in Singapore. As he commonly uses dialects at home and in his social work, he ventures into dialect idioms and slangs in his new book.

Designed in a colourful and engaging manner, 100 idioms and slangs are accompanied by illustrations. This book strives to stir the interest of young Singaporeans in learning more about dialects and using them to build rapport with the elderly. Presented in Hokkien, it also covers adaptations of the idioms/slangs in Teochew and Cantonese, whenever applicable. The meaning and example of usage of these idioms/slangs are also included.

This book is also published to honour the pioneer generation who brought their dialects to Singapore decades ago. Through this book, readers will be able to get in touch with their linguistic heritage and also discover how dialects play an integral part in our lives as well as the evolution of Singlish.

Coastlands
Aaron Lee Soon Yong
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810924782

Coastlands is Aaron Lee's third collection of poetry. Whether in a small town or frenetic city, the poet has never lived far from the sea. This book documents his life experience as a pilgrim still finding his place in the wider world. In these fifty poems he recollects, explores, embraces and anticipates what is lost and found in each of the places he calls home: Malaysia, Singapore and Hawaii. Everywhere, natural and urban landscapes anchor and influence his identity and connect him to humanity.

In ancient writings "coastlands" means the far reaches of the earth -- places accessible only by crossing oceans of unknown magnitude. Truly, life is a voyage from which the traveller never returns.

Play Things: The Complete Works: 1984-2014
Michael Chiang
Singapore: Really Good Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810920357

The publication of this anthology of Michael Chiang's complete works is a timely clarification that invites the public to 'read' his works as an oeuvre -- in totality and as units to a larger artistic score. For the first time, all his plays, shorts and full-lengths, are collected in one volume that includes updates and additional scenes previously unpublished.

Changes and Chances
Leonard Ng
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810925123

Uncompromising yet accessible, the six sequences in Changes and Chances explore love, sorrow, time, nature, and humanity. By turns passionate, hermetic, and heartbreaking, they simultaneously endure and celebrate all the imperfections of the world. Leonard Ng blends free verse with adaptations of both Western and Asian forms to create a musical poetry grounded in the traditions of both East and West.

Saga Seeds
Patricia Maria de Souza
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810794828

Saga Seeds is Patricia Maria Tan's latest poetry collection. The title of her book refers most aptly to her poems, taut red beads of memory and observation. Nostalgic references such as masak masak transport readers to a time when children played five stones and games involving pure imagination. The personal recollections serve as a tribute to Singapore and our collective memories. We also find poems alive with the beauty of simple folk and nature, and poems awake to darker moods and events. Throughout the lyrical excursion, readers are borne by the poet's steady and reassuring voice, into the intricacies of introspection, and towards a fuller appreciation of the exquisiteness of everyday moments.

Sound of Mind: A Teacher-Writers Anthology of Poems and Prompts
Philip McConnell and Genevieve Wong (eds.)
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810922719

This is an exciting offering of poems from a constellation of teacher-writers, including published and familiar authors such as Ann Ang, Ken Mizusawa, Eric Tinsay Valles, Christine Chia, Heng Siok Tian, David Leo and Oliver Seet.

What makes this anthology worth the reader's precious time is more than the poets' acuity of perception, and their particularities of style; being educators, they have contributed with a view to inspiring the reader's imagination. The poems have been arranged in a manner to stimulate the creative writer in each and every reader.

Singapore Siu Dai 2: The SG Conversation Upsize!
Felix Cheong
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810925499

Bolder and edgier! Felix Cheong's follow-up to Singapore Siu Dai finds him poking his pen once again in topical issues. And he doesn’t shy away from spoofing highly-paid ministers and asking tough questions. Like: Are we really a nation of top problem solvers? What if Sentosa Cove becomes a rich man's republic?

Singapore Siu Dai 2 will delight you with its off beat humour and its short, sweet and sharp storytelling.

Tales From the ECP: A Collection of Short Stories
Russ Soh
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810922702

Acronyms are peculiarly Singaporean -- short forms created to deliver information with optimal efficiency. An acronym very familiar to Singaporeans is ECP. Extending about 20 kilometres or so, the East Coast Parkway is a vital transport channel, running parallel to another ECP for a large part of its length. It is this other ECP that Tales From The ECP celebrates. Featuring incidents set in or around the East Coast Park, the stories take us into the heart of Singaporean-ness.

East Coast Park is the unsung hero in the ten short stories in this collection. As a meeting point, it brings together people of different age, race, class and nationality. Chance encounters lead to consequences that are frequently comic, sometimes unexpected, variously touching and heartwarming. As a point of conversation, the ECP and its surrounds allow characters to reflect deeply on their sense of self, their identity, and their relationships with others who share the same space.

The Space Between the Raindrops
Justin Ker
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789814615068

Pablo Neruda tries to compose a poem on Isla Negra, as a man considers cheating on his parking coupon at a Maxwell Road car park. A bed thief breaks into a HDB flat every day, only to steal a few hours' rest. Singapore is interviewed as a psychiatric patient on National Day.

Newcomer Justin Ker's imaginative and compelling forays into the field of flash fiction carry on that tradition made so popular in the US over the past three decades, by such luminaries as Joyce Carol Oates, Stuart Dybek and Margaret Atwood. The possibilities in such a short, sharp form are limitless and potentially profound, and Ker reveals his deftness by providing full narratives within only a few pages. Each evanescent story inhabits the fleeting, unrepeatable place between the falling droplets on our island of rain. Perfect for a brief subway ride or the interval spent waiting for the bus, as well as that languid afternoon spent contemplating a thunderstorm, The Space Between the Raindrops is a remarkable collection of short stories told by a startling new voice.

Trivialities About Me and Myself
Yeng Pway Ngon
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789814615105

The Chinese protagonist of Trivialities about Me and Myself, a journalist turned entrepreneur, possesses a split personality. "Me" is a figure consumed by greed and sexual desire, two impulses that undermine his careers, his two marriages, and his relationship with his son. Throughout the novel he engages in a dialogue with his other identity, the moralistic "Myself", whose principled stances try but usually fail to win over his other half.

The protagonist's lifetime, from childhood to his dying days in a rest home, parallels the modern history of Singapore itself and its evolution from a colonised city to a consumer-oriented nation, one in which an English-language educational system and commercial interests suppress indigenous languages and traditions. While the meticulously described action takes place in the city, the real setting is within the psyche of the narrator, whose two halves are engaged in an epic struggle for dominance.

Red Pulse II: Poetry to a Local Beat
Kevin Lam and Tan Xiang Yeow (eds.)
Singapore: Ethos Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810923464

Red Pulse II is a rich chronicle illuminating the growth of twenty‐two young Singapore poets, who, as a community, write to shape and order private and collective, national worlds, to reconcile tensions within fragile and fraught relationships, and to split open unspoken pasts toward a future forward in poems that crystallise philosophy, pain and play.