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Elaine Castillo's HOW TO READ NOW

 Elaine Castillo's book of essays How to Read Now features a lit bomb on its cover. By its devastating critique of Nobel prize-winner Peter Handke's fascist sympathies and beloved Californian writer Joan Didion's settler-colonialist views, the book is necessarily blowing up Castillo's relations with certain influential parts of the literary establishment. If you have enough of coddling book reviews that read more like publishing blurbs than literary criticism, you will keenly appreciate Castillo's take-no-prisoners, and razor-sharp, approach to reading these and other white authors. The courage and honesty is undeniable.  More than attacks on individual authors, however, How to Read Now wants to destroy the harmful ways in which readers are expected by authors and publishers to center white experience: to treat it uncritically as "universal," "existential," and free of political taint, whereas the work of BIPOC writers is treated as mere ethnog...
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The Progressive Hope

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here .  THE PROGRESSIVE HOPE On Tuesday, 33-year-old Zohran Kwame Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for the New York City mayoralty,  and he is now the firm favorite to win the election in November. Against billionaire donors and the Democratic establishment who supported the corrupt and scandal-ridden ex-NY governor Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani ran an inspiring, grassroots campaign, firmly focused on making NYC affordable for all, which won the votes not only of the young college-educated, but also of working-class neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Sunset Park, and Brighton Beach – all areas that swung rightward in the 2024 presidential election,  according to the Guardian .  The size of his victory in November will determine how far he can overcome the city's powerful vested interests and enact his election promises of free childcare, free buses, rent stabilizatio...
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Mohsin Hamid's THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST

  The novel stakes everything on our interest in the narrator (his lover Erica is a thin, almost cardboard, character). Changez's story—from love to hate for America—is credible, but herein lies the problem. It does not offer any surprising or complex insight into the predicament or psychology of such a character. The same premise treated by Dostoevsky of "Notes from Underground" or even Murakami of "Norwegian Wood" would have resulted in an indelible portrait of mature dissent or youthful wistfulness.
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To the Tune of “Shout” by Tears for Fears

  To the Tune of “Shout” by Tears for Fears   “In the days leading up to the May 3 elections—and Singapore offers one of the shortest windows for campaigning, only nine days—political rallies organized by opposition parties were packed, and enthusiasm for their candidates seemed real.”—Salil Tripathi, in  “Why Singapore’s Ruling Party Won Yet Again,”  Foreign Policy , May 5 th , 2025 What plane will you fly in and out of Singapore? I’ll write a poem, not about,  of  Singapore.   Respect the voters’ choice, say the politicians. When the choice weighs the crimes and clout of Singapore.   Pissed off, that’s how I feel, go and tell your masters. God! I’m sick and tired, no doubt, of Singapore.   Outdoing one another on the screen, the pundits wow but so does the sexist lout of Singapore.   I wanna scream and shout. And let it all out. I wanna scream the scream, shout the shout, of Singapore.   The public square is out-of-bounds for PDA....
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The Bird Is Out of the Cage

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . When two young women, while trying to talk to Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam about the misuse of POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act) , were provoked to flip the bird to the cameras of his minders, the fast-and-furious criticisms of the sisters from politicians of the governing party, civil-society actors, and community leaders were telling about the rigid restrictions of political discourse in the country. As  Jom  puts it, "When we are quick to judge, to believe authority over activists, to pine for some imagined decorum in a dialogue biased by the disparity in power, we leave out much from our collective consciousness, our understanding of who we are." The sisters have given  their own version of the event , and I choose to believe them instead. If the full video were to be released, and not just the seven minutes that whistled to the ...
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To the Tune of “The Invisible Man” by Queen

 I have been thinking about what it means to write "political" poems, not just "news that stays news," but also about my own positionality in relation to Singapore politics. Sometimes New York and Singapore connect, unknown to anyone else. For example, I wrote the poem below thinking of both the criticism of Singapore writers of the National Library Board's use of generative AI and my own thoughts after the AI training at my Manhattan independent school. To the Tune of “The Invisible Man” by Queen  “68 Singapore writers sign statement criticising National Library Board’s ‘uncritical endorsement’ of generative AI”— The Straits Times , January 08, 2025  We heard the miller bragging   To both the young and old, I have a wonder for a daughter  Who spins straw into gold. The King, desirous of talents,  As Lazybones of bed, Ordered the girl to spin till morning  Or off with her head! In a prison dark and musty,  The girl, limp as a leaf, For a chil...
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To the Tune of “This Is Home, Truly”

To the Tune of “This Is Home, Truly” I am a Good Class Bungalow, You are a No Class Flat.    I live and work among the shmos, a natural aristocrat. I am a Good Class Bungalow And not a No Class Flat. I’m rich in show and hung with dough, And yet no caveat. I am a Good Class Bungalow. Don’t say, I No Class Flat. Just one slip of the tongue, you know POFMA’ed you will get. I am a Good Class Bungalow Supporting No Class Flats. That fairy tale from long ago Better believe or—SPLAT! I am your Good Class Bungalows, I am your No Class Flats. I am your River sung and flow Through zilch and ziggurats.
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