Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Weekly column for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . In September, in Singapore, migrant worker and domestic helper Parti Liyani was acquitted of 4 charges of theft against her. She had earlier been convicted by the State Courts of stealing more than $30,000 worth of items from the family of Mr Liew Mun Leong, the (former) Chairman of Changi Airport Group. This was overturned by the High Court. In his judgment, Justice Chan Seng Onn said the convictions against Ms Parti were “unsafe” due to the presence of an “improper motive” and that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.  How could the lower court and the prosecution have erred so badly, resulting in nearly 4 years of hardship to Parti Liyani as she underwent police investigations, stood trial, was wrongly found gulity, and then appealed against her convictions? She had to remain in Singapore throughout this time, but she could not hold a job, and so she had to depend on...

I really enjoyed this conversation last Thursday with fellow queer writers Kiran Bhat, Tom Cho, Farzana Doctor, Angela Meyer, and Sarah Sala, moderated by William Johnson. We all hail from different places—Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, US—but find a common basis to discuss our different identities and writings. What is queer about our writing? How has it changed through the years? How has the pandemic changed us? What excites us about queerness now? So inspiring to hear different writers' takes on these topics. Hosted by the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, the event can be viewed on YouTube .

 So pleased to launch these new awards with the help of a major donor. Singapore Unbound, a NYC-based literary non-profit, is pleased to announce three awards of USD250.00 each for the best three undergraduate critical essays on topics in Singapore literature. 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. Link for more information and submission guidelines.

Michael J. Sandel's The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good ? is a very persuasive and lucid argument for the darker side of meritocracy. Pursued as the ultimate goal, meritocracy gives its winners the illusory sense of having won the economic race through individual talent and effort and bequeaths on its losers a deep resentment against the winners and a despair at oneself. Especially valuable is Sandel's emphasis on the psychological harm in addition to the economic damage. It is not enough to redistribute economic gains. We need to elevate again the dignity of work, for its intrinsic value and its contributions to the common good.

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . For SP Blog’s 7th Annual Books Round-up , 41 Singaporean writers, artists, and thinkers, living in Singapore and abroad, give their favorite read of the year. What is striking in this year’s recommendations is the variety of presses publishing Singaporean works. One of these presses is the new indie comics publisher Difference Engine , which released the recommended SOUND: A Comics Anthology . We may well be seeing a publishing renaissance in Singapore that overcomes the challenges of pandemic publishing. Big thanks to all our contributors who wrote so passionately about their recommendations. We hope you enjoy reading all the contributions as much as we’ve enjoyed compiling them. Please support independent publishers and booksellers by ordering from them directly. Join us for holiday festivities at Second Saturdays on Saturday, December 12, 7.30 pm ET. Our featured author, multiple award-winning c...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Thanks to you, last summer we raised USD500 from the sale of Gaudy Boy books for the Black Lives Matter movement and donated it to VOCAL-NY , a statewide grassroots membership organization that builds power among low-income people directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness. VOCAL-NY Action Fund has just announced the first round of its 2021 NYC Council endorsements. If you live in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, check out these progressive candidates: Lincoln Restler (District 33), Sandy Nurse (District 37), and Tiffany Cabán (District 22). The Singapore government has again made itself a laughing stock around the world for charging labor and democracy activist Jolovan Wham for illegal assembly. What danger did Wham pose to public order? Why, your Honor, he held up a picture of a smiley face . To show solidarity with Wham, online citizens are posting...

2020 has been quite the eventful year, with COVID outbreaks in many countries. Despite the disruptions and restrictions, the arts remain as crucial as ever, with literature, TV, and movies a source of comfort for many people while they are sheltering in place. Writers have been particularly affected by the pandemic. What you may not know is that, unlike many independent literary platforms, Singapore Unbound pays writers for reading at our events and contributing to our publications and contests. We have also created an emergency relief fund for writers who have lost their jobs. We would like to ask for your support as we support writers through this challenging time. Since the beginning of this year, Singapore Unbound has organized the following: SURF - Singapore Unbound Relief Fund SURF offers a USD200/SGD280 grant for freelance writers in need of aid, with no strings attached. To date, a total of 17 grants have been given out, providing a total relief of $3,400. 4th Bienn...

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Of the five essays selected for a revamped unit on personal writing, my ninth-graders liked the essay by Native American author Elissa Washuta best. "Wednesday Addams Is Just Another Settler" is amusing and moving, just digressive enough to hold the attention and not frustrate it. It is a very contemporary voice, that takes the measure of its distance from tradition, and so the measure of American itself. My students enjoyed the writing exercise inspired by the essay: to compare themselves to a fictional character that they love or used to love. I had essays on characters from childhood reads and from computer games. I recommend Washuta's essay to you for Thanksgiving reading. Two Essay Readers have joined the SP Blog team, in addition to our new Poetry Reader and Fiction Reader (announced in the last newsletter). Jerrine Tan and Prasanthi Ram will be reading your personal essays as ...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Gaudy Boy, Singapore Unbound's publishing arm, is launching a new translation imprint, to be called Gaudy Boy Translates . We applaud the work of translators and translation imprints in bringing us news from the world republic of letters, but we are also aware of gaps in the publication of translations. All too often such publications focus on the bigger countries and the more well-known authors. Gaudy Boy Translates aims to fill some of this gap by publishing translations from minoritized countries, languages, and social, economic, and political communities. We are especially eager to promote translations that interrogate national identities and boundaries. The inaugural title of our new imprint, Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines , fits the bill admirably. This groundbreaking anthology challenges mainstream conception of Filipino literature, shaped mostly by ...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Here's an article that explains why it's more accurate to call the American presidential election Election Week, instead of Election Day. In brief, different states have different rules, and some states, such as swing states Georgia and Pennsylvania, do not allow the counting of in-person early voting ballots or absentee ballots until Election Day, and other states, such as North Carolina and Ohio, accept absentee ballots postmarked Election Day or the day before. Trump's announcement of an attempt to stop the counting after Election Day is a blatant effort to deprive Americans of their vote. Any fair-minded person will want every vote counted, as long as the ballot followed the rules of the state in which it was cast. This delay in proclaiming a winner may prolong the tension, both psychological and social, but this wait, not a real delay, is necessary to ensure that every valid vote ...

I'm feeling very grateful for Thow Xin Wei's incisive review of CONNOR & SEAL. He does not like everything about the book, but he expresses his reservations and insights with such understanding and empathy for the project of the book that I feel very much read. This is what true reading looks like. It takes time and thought, and to be given such time and thought is a great privilege. "This stylistic cleavage is, perhaps, a consequence of the two-part structure Koh has borrowed from Thomas and Beulah, which emphasises the separation between the two sides. Taken pessimistically, one could point out how the form reflects a "disconnection" and isolation that is inherent in the human condition at every level: between individuals, genders, ethnicities, states and citizens, and nations. But one should also see how the formal division allows for a sustained and dedicated exploration of each side, allowing us to gain a sense of the richness within. Sale...

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . A milestone: my private school on the Upper East Side of NYC has gone for 6 teaching weeks without having to close because of the virus. Sure, some groups of students had had to stay home because a classmate or two had a household member who tested or could be positive, but the rest of the school had continued to function, and after the requisite weeks of quarantine, those students had rejoined in-person learning. As a teacher, I can't begin to tell you the immense difference between real and virtual learning. An informal poll will have to suffice. All my juniors, 16-17 years old, said that they would rather study in school than at home. It is only possible for my school to reach such a milestone because we have such superior resources. We are rich not only in funding but also in personnel. Our teacher-to-student ratio is small. More importantly, our staff-to-student ratio is also small, much bet...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Last spring, at my all-girls independent school, I taught a senior-year poetry workshop called "A Portfolio of Selves: Four Asian American Women Poets," focusing on the work of Monica Youn, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Celina Su, and Jenifer Sang Eun Park. The students responded enthusiastically and imaginatively to the variety of subject matter and style in these very different poets. I was immensely impressed by the students' eagerness to learn from these eloquent experiments in contemporary poetry. The poems written by one student, Charlotte Baker, stood out for their self-assured adoption of the means on offer to convey her very own ends. I had very little to offer her in terms of feedback. The poems were whole, or almost so. The poems were incredibly vulnerable too. They transcended the writing exercises to become genuine investments in discovery and feeling. They have now been publis...

Serendipity, to have two of my "Palinodes in the Voice of My Dead Father" appear in Flypaper Lit , which calls Ohio home, when I'm here in Ohio for Elnora's memorial service. GH and I have lost three parents between us in the last three years. The palinodes give voice to the tension between mourners, as in every family, and then the possibility of reconciliation. Five of the palinodes also appeared in PN Review 255 . 

 Weekly column for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . A warm welcome to Singapore Unbound's weekly newsletter to everyone who is joining us fresh from the 2020 Singapore Literature Festival in NYC. Here you will find more news and discussions of the topics of democracy, freedom of expression, and equal rights, and of your favorite authors from the festival. The videos of all the festival events, including the festival previews, are now available for viewing on a special festival playlist on YouTube . You can enjoy listening to the speakers now at your own leisure. If you have found an event particularly interesting, you could organize your own viewing party with friends and discuss the the ideas about literature and politics raised by festival speakers, such as Tanie De Rozario, Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha, Nuraliah Norasid, Ricco Villanuea Siasoco, Amanda Lee Koe, Paula Mendoza, Aimee Liu, and Meira Chand. The Opening Address by PJ Thum "Is There Hope ...

Singapore Unbound Public Statement  September 21, 2020  Singapore Unbound Urges Prime Minister's Office to Withdraw Police Complaint Singapore Unbound denounces the People's Action Party government's harassment of PJ Thum, the Managing Director of New Naratif, an independent news website reporting on Singapore and Southeast Asia. The Elections Department, Prime Minister's Office, has filed a police complaint against New Naratif, alleging that New Naratif published “paid advertisements that amounted to the illegal conduct of election activity under s83(2) of the Parliamentary Elections Act (PEA) during the recent 2020 General Election.” As New Naratif points out , the PEA is framed so broadly that almost any kind of paid public comment could be construed to run foul of it, including New Naratif's coverage of the General Elections, boosted as paid posts on Facebook. Judge for yourself: The PEA states that “…such material shall be election advertising even t...

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Thank you for buying books from our imprint Gaudy Boy in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Gaudy Boy donated our sales proceeds from June through August to Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY). Together we raised $500, including two outright donations. Led by Black and brown people, VOCAL-NY is a statewide grassroots membership organization that builds power among low-income people directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness. The organization has active chapters in New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, and Westchester County. We're pleased to support its community organizing, leadership development, advocacy, direct services, and direct action. Do check out VOCAL-NY's tremendous work for disadvantaged communities. I don't do this often but I will toot my own horn. My first hybrid work of fiction Snow at 5 PM:...

 Weekly column for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Introduction to the 2020 Singapore Literature Festival in NYC (Oct 1-3) I am haunted by the ghost of Sakthivel Kumarvelu. As an economic migrant, he found his way from India to Singapore in the hope of a better life. His dream was crushed in 2013 when he was killed by the private bus that whisked him and his fellow workers away from downtown to distant dormitories, out of the sight of Singaporeans. He died of a traffic accident, some say. It is more accurate to say that he died of a world of social and economic inequities. Or as Bangladeshi poet Muhammad Sharif Uddin, also a migrant worker in Singapore, puts it in his powerful elegy for the dead man, “Velu was trapped in a labyrinth of laws.” Velu’s death sparked off—what should we call it? The official version of events calls it a riot. We might call it something else—an uprising. Certainly the violence was caused by deep and justified grievances. A...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Singapore Unbound is holding our 4th Singapore Literature Festival from October 1-3, 2020. To be held online for the first time, this independent, biennial festival brings together Singaporean and American authors and audiences for lively conversations about literature and society. All events are free and open to everyone. The theme of this year's festival is "The Politics of Hope." Singapore Unbound wishes to respond to this fraught moment not only in Singapore and the USA but also around the world. Everywhere, democracy, human rights, and social justice are facing existential threats, and we want to provide writers and thinkers a platform to speak to the current global turmoil.   Check out the full festival program . RSVP early for the Zoom link and extras (excerpts, interviews, updates).   Festival highlights   Timely, Pertinent Topics The festival is bo...

What I missed in my education as a poet: Édouard Glissant. About the entry of a dominant culture into a fragile and composite one, such as French culture into Martinique or Anglo-American into Singapore: "Consequently, wouldn't it be best just to go along with it? Wouldn't it be a viable solution to embellish the alienation, to endure while comfortably receiving state assistance, with all the obvious guarantees implied in such a decision? This is what the technocratic elite, created for the management of decoy positions, have to talk themselves into before they convince the people of Martinique. Their task is all the less difficult since they use it to give themselves airs of conciliation, of cooperative humanism, of a realism anxious to make concrete improvements in circumstances. Not counting the pleasures of permissive consumption. Not counting the actual advantages of a special position, in which public funds (from France or Europe) serve to satisfy a rather large numb...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . "The prison sits at the nexus of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism," begins Judy Luo in her essay, a summary of her study of carcerality and freedom at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. If, like me, you need a précis of current thinking about prison abolition and its antecedents, you can do worse than read Judy's thoughtful argument about the convergences of criminality, immigration, care work, and property rights. The American immigration system is broken, and here to cast a new and personal light on the problem is poet Jan-Henry Gray, the very first feature of the new season of our Second Saturdays Reading Series. His award-winning book Documents is rooted in the experience of living in America as a queer undocumented Filipino, and maps the byzantine journey toward citizenship through legal records and fragmented recollections. You can read ...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . At my NYC private school, my department is engaged in an exercise to re-envision our mission in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement. I've undergone such exercises in the past, in both Singapore and New York, and have found them mostly useless. This time is different. The work with a thoughtful facilitator and willing colleagues has opened up a space for self-reflection. As part of the exercise, we were asked to write down our assumptions in teaching literature, and I'd like to share with you my contribution in the hope of dialogue. After writing down, and reviewing, my ideas, I discovered that most of my assumptions have remained steady through the years, but not all. My Assumptions Underlying My Teaching of Secondary-School English 1. Content   Great works of literature are worth studying both for themselves and for their potential impact on the individual and society. They a...

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . I'm writing to you from a log cabin we rented in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Usually, at this time of the year, to celebrate GH's birthday, we would be traveling abroad, in Asia or Europe on alternate years. This year the pandemic forced us to cancel plans to visit, first, India, then, Montreal-Toronto, then, Nova Scotia, then, even Maine. We settled for a short vacation in our own state. It would be a respite from the city's August temperatures and a change in our pandemic routine. Thanks to GH's assiduous research, we've found a charming temporary home, artistically designed and decorated. We've read in the wide hammock, played croquet in the weedy lawn, grilled hamburgers outdoor, and stared into the reverse meteors flying up from the fire pit. We've also paid a visit to "India," or rather the nearby town of Delhi, pronounced DEL-hy alas, an...

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Every year, in the run-up to Singapore's National Day on August 9, we announce the results of our annual Singapore Poetry Contest. Open to everyone who is NOT a Singaporean citizen, the annual contest seeks poems that use the word “Singapore” or its variants in a creative and significant way. It is our way of building imaginative connections of all kinds—integral, tangential, plural—between Singapore and the rest of the world. This year, the connections were greatly multiplied. We received a total of 432 poems, 337 more poems than last year, so you can imagine that this year’s contest was much more competitive, with many strong entries. The poems came from 32 countries around the world, 11 more than last year. Nigeria leads with 159 entries, followed by the USA 74, India 29, the Philippines 28, the UK 23, Singapore 13, Zimbabwe 11, South Africa 9, Canada 8, Malaysia 7, Australia 5, Ireland 5, P...

A deeply depressing novel in many ways, as its characters, black and white, try to love, or just simply care, across racial and gender lines, and fail. And yet its despair is somehow bracing, because it tells the truth about the difficulties, and embodies it in characters drawn from so deep within that one has to marvel at Baldwin's ability to get under the skin of not just the black characters but the white ones as well.

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . What to do with the beloved authors of our youth when we discover later in life that they have feet of clay? J.K. Rowling has been in the news for her attacks on the transgender community, and her arguments have been firmly rebutted by many people. For the fans of her Harry Potter books, however, there is still the question of how to think about the cherished adventures of the boy wizard with the lightning scar on his forehead. Nathan J. Robinson, in Current Affairs , provides a way to reconsider one's attachment to Harry Potter and friends. Although I do not think as highly of Rowling's literary style as Robinson does, he gives an excellent description of Rowling's many strengths as a writer. Then he proceeds to demarcate the limits of Rowling's imagination with regard to transgender people. After which, he makes the really interesting move of reading Rowling's imaginative lim...

Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . The Singapore Literature Prize is the top literary award in the country. The 2020 shortlist has just been announced and the category of poetry in English rightly includes the debuts of two bright young stars who have dared to craft highly experimental and yet totally absorbing books. Our SP Blog reviewer concludes that "In parsetreeforestfire Hamid Roslan has constructed an ingenious collection out of a melange of Singaporean languages." In a separate review of Marylyn Tan's Gaze Back , its reviewer enthuses that "This is a poetic collection told from the voice of the goat, from the eye on that spit, that has already been in the flames and now is going to de-code that experience for you." All the stranger then that the shortlist also includes the latest tired poetic offerings of Singapore's unofficial "poet laureate." Padded out by what the publisher calls ...