Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Singapore Unbound  is launching a  new literary journal   next year, featuring the future voices of Asia, and you can help in two important ways.   We want to expand SP Blog into a full-fledged journal. We will publish a  new story, essay, or poems every week  for your reading pleasure. There will be  exciting themed months : “Archipelago Dreaming” for works exploring the virtues of flow and circulation; and “New Religions” for works examining new spiritual relationships between us and our environments. And we will continue to hold our popular  poetry and flash-fiction contests  and draw your attention to the most interesting books published through our  book reviews .  We are confident of doing so because: We are already publishing some of the finest emerging Asian voices. Read for yourself the penetrating story  “The Return” by Faraaz Mahomed , a clinical psychologist and human rights lawyer originally from South Africa and now based in Brooklyn. And the comical story  “Romeo and Jul

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . For the second year running, Singapore Unbound, a NYC-based literary non-profit, will be giving out  three awards of USD250.00   each  for the best three undergraduate critical essays on topics in Singapore and other literatures. The purpose of these awards is to encourage the teaching and study of Singapore literature at college level and the cultivation of general appreciation for the character and achievements of Singapore literature. Generously funded again by Professor Koh Tai Ann (NTU, Singapore), three awards will be given to written works of literary criticism that illuminate their chosen topics for the general reader. The award-winning essays will be published on Singapore Unbound’s SP Blog and, possibly, in a professional journal. For the purpose of these awards, Singapore literature is defined as literature written in English from 1965 onwards by a Singaporean citizen, permanent resident, or anyone w

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here .   I have no words for you today but to ask you to save Nagaenthran.  Whether you're Singaporean or not, would you consider  signing the petition  to President Halimah Yacob to pardon an intellectually disabled man, who has been sentenced to death for a non-violent crime? In the words of the petition organized by local activist group Transformative Justice Collective: "Nagaenthran a/l K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with borderline intellectual functioning, was arrested for drug trafficking at the age of 21. The following year, he was convicted and sentenced to death. During his forensic psychiatric evaluation, Nagaenthran was assessed to have an IQ of 69 - a level internationally recognised as an intellectual disability; impaired executive functioning; and ADHD. Having been on death row for over a decade, he faces imminent execution on 10 November 2021. "While on trial, Nagaenthran testified that h