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Love and Life at the Gallery
“These poems testify to the remarkable harmony between poetry and the visual arts. They offer a timely reminder about the miracle of being alive.”
— Edwin Thumboo
Love isn't just about chocolates and flowers. Love is inseparable from the heartaches of life. As Nicole Emma Low writes, "An artist's palette/May not be pretty, but paints/A lovely portrait."
What does it mean to be in love, to love, to be loved? What does it mean to render that in art? Last year, we invited thirty-four poets to pen poems on love and life inspired by the National Gallery Singapore, home to the world’s largest collection of Southeast Asian art. Drawing upon the rich tradition of ekphrasis—imaginative, spirited writing on art—our poets reframed paintings, chiselled new lines into sculpture, and exposed the unseen. In this collection, you'll find images of love and life in every incandescent, infinitesimal brushstroke of being, no matter how unlikely.
Based on artworks spanning centuries and countries, Love and Life at the Gallery is a multigenerational, multilingual, and multicultural exploration of the dimensions of love and life. Here, you’ll discover an installation by Thai artist Montien Boonma transmuted into a reflection on life cycles by Edwin Thumboo, the Indonesian activist Hendra Gunawan’s revolutionary War And Peace rewritten as a tale of change and immigration by Theophilus Kwek, as well as many other interpretative pairings between art and poetry that will change the way you look at love, life, and how it all intertwines.
Poets / Contributors include:
Amira Yunos | Angeline Yap | Ann Ang | Ashish Xiangyi Kumar | Cheong Yun Yee
Chow Teck Seng | Darienne Sim | Deanna Lim | Diana Rahim | Djohan Abdul Rahman
Edwin Thumboo | Euginia Tan | Faridah Taib | Heng Siok Tian | Iain Lim | Kamaria Buang
Loh Guan Liang | Nicholas Quek | Nicole Emma Low | Oliver BH Seet | Ow Yeong Wai Kit
Pooja Nansi | Raymond Tham | Robert Yeo | Subha Senthilkumar | Swetha Senthilkumar
Subiksha Raman | Tan Chee Lay | Theophilius Kwek | Werner Kho | Yeow Kai Chai | Yong Shu Hoong
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Ow Yeong Wai Kit is an educator, editor, and writer. He co-edited the nature poetry anthology From Walden to Woodlands (Ethos Books). As a teacher of English and Literature, he has an M.A. (with distinction) in English Literature from University College London. He is also an interfaith harmony advocate in the Holland-Bukit Timah Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC).
Genevieve Wong is a teacher, writer, editor, and museum docent. She has an MFA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the City University of Hong Kong and an M(Ed) (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning) from the National Institute of Education, Singapore. She co-edited 50 Years, 50 Voices: 50 Years of English in Singapore Schools (MOE) and poetry anthology Sound of Mind (Ethos Books). Her works have appeared in various journals and anthologies.
ISBN: 978-981-14-5352-6
Published: 2020
Dimension: 14cm x 21 cm
Extent: 128 pages
Finish: Paperback
How to Purchase
To purchase this book, please visit this site or email to poetryfestivalsg@gmail.com with the following details:
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Mode of payment: Cheque / Bank Transfer
Love at the Gallery
Writing about love is a challenge. How does one verbalise an intimate and inexpressible feeling? How does one top the Bard and a steady flood of poets and songwriters? But still we persist in writing love poems.
Art becomes a muse for most of the 26 love poems in this collection. Those poems are ekphrastic—that is, they engage in the imaginative act of describing, narrating, or reflecting on situations limned in paintings or sculptures, expanding and amplifying on the meaning that they evoke. The artworks that inspire these poems belong to the National Gallery Singapore, which offers an unparalleled vantage point for representations of love in the country’s rich history and cultural heritage.
The 26 love poems are arranged according to common threads based on the four different kinds of love as first outlined by the ancient Greeks: éros, storgē, philía, and agápē. We hope that readers will be continually led back to the poems and their respective artworks.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Ow Yeong Wai Kit is an educator, editor, and writer. He co-edited the nature poetry anthology From Walden to Woodlands (Ethos Books). As a teacher of English and Literature, he has an M.A. (with distinction) in English Literature from University College London. He is also an interfaith harmony advocate in the Holland-Bukit Timah Inter-Racial and Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC).
Genevieve Wong is a teacher, writer, editor, and museum docent. She has an MFA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from the City University of Hong Kong and an M(Ed) (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning) from the National Institute of Education, Singapore. She co-edited 50 Years, 50 Voices: 50 Years of English in Singapore Schools (MOE) and poetry anthology Sound of Mind (Ethos Books). Her works have appeared in various journals and anthologies.
ISBN: 978-981-11-3885-0
Published: 2017
Dimension: 130mm x 200mm
Extent: 64 pages
Finish: Paperback
Selling Price:
SGD $15.60
(include local postage and packaging)
To purchase this book, please email to poetryfestivalsg@gmail.com with the following details:
Name:
Contact:
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Mode of payment: Cheque / Bank Transfer
CATHARSIS 2018 CHAPBOOK
Sometimes, only words can reveal our deepest motivations. Words reveal, unveil, and expose our innermost desires and feelings. Only then can we even faintly hope to get a glimpse of ourselves at our most vulnerable, and real moments.
"Sometimes what we call tragedy, at least in the theater, are really case histories. They're based on the central figure, and things happen to that person, and they're called tragedy because they're extremely sad. But tragedy always has a glorious thing happen at the end of it. That's what the catharsis is." - Derek Walcott
This Chapbook showcases 17 poems written in English, based on the theme of Catharsis. Each poem comes with their individual folded sheet. You can customise the page of the Chapbook by writing your own version of 'Catharsis'. The poems were selected as part of an Open Call in 2018, from over 90 entries. Selected poets were also chosen to perform in Poetry Festival Singapore 2018.
Edited by Elijah Chai. Foreward by Kirpal Singh. Comments by Adrian Pang.
Sample pages can be viewed here.
Prices include local postage and package handling.
Orders are processed in the first week of each month.
Online sales will open from 9 August 2019. Book sales goes into subsidising printing expenses. Please email us at poetryfestival@gmail.com with your address after purchase.
Several Catharsis-themed workshops are planned in various public spaces from Oct 2019 to Dec 2020. Do look out for announcements on our social media.
For schools / English HODs who wish to have complimentary copies, please email us at poetryfestivalsg@gmail.com.
To submit for the next 'Catharsis' Open Call (2020), please click here.
Contour: A Lyric Cartography of Singapore
Sample pages can be viewed here.
Please email to poetryfestivalsg@gmail.com to order your copies.
or purchase your copy online at Ethos Books or Kinokuniya.
Synopsis
How do we understand the history and landscape of our country? In this bicentennial year, Contour charts a lyric cartography of Singapore, taking in events from the past seven hundred years while also reflecting on the current state of our nation. Drawing on poems written in all four of Singapore’s official languages, this anthology weaves them into a lyrical tapestry showcasing both the unity and diversity of Singapore’s poetic voices.
Poets / Contributors include:
Aaron Maniam | Akash Mattupalli | Ally Chua | Alvin Pang | Angeline Yap | Anurak Saelaow | Cally Cheung | Carissa Cheow | Cheyenne Phillips | Crispin Rodrigues | Cyril Wong | Darienne Sim | DEREK TRUEMAN | Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé | Eddie Tay | Edwin Thumboo | Ee Tiang Hong | Elancharan Gunasekaran | Eric Tinsay Valles | Esther Vincent Xueming | Euginia Tan | Farah Nadia Jamalludin | Gwee Li Sui | Heng Siok Tian | Janet Liew | Jerrold Yam | Joel Kenneth Gwee | Lauren Lee | Leonard Ng | Leong Liew Geok | Low Kian Seh | Margaret Devadason | Ng Yi-Sheng | Nicholas Quek | Pierre Vinclair | Robert Yeo | Rodrigo Jr Dela Peña | Rosa Pereiro | Ryan Yeo | Sarah See | Stephanie Chan | Tan Ju-Lyn | Theophilus Kwek | | Othman Bin Suhot | Ahmad Md Tahir | Farah Nadia Jamalludin | Hamed Ismail | Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar | Dr Pitchay Gani Aziz | Hartinah Ahmad | K.T.M. Iqbal | Latha | Harini Palanivel | Murugathasan | Chitra Ramesh | 希尼尔 Xi Ni Er | 小昭 | Xiao Pei | Sun Zhiwei | Ow Yeong Wai Kit | 林也 | Chow Teck Seng | Liang Wern Fook | Tan Chee Lay
Price: $24.00 including postage and handling fee to one Singapore address
ISBN: 978-981-14-2161-7
Published: 2019
Dimension: 200mm x 125mm
Extent: 180 pages
Finish: Paperback
Published by: Poetry Festival Singapore
Please email to poetryfestivalsg@gmail.com to order your copies.
or purchase your copy online at Ethos Books or Kinokuniya.
SG POEMS 2017 - 2018
This anthology showcases a representative sample of Singapore poetry written in or translated into English, our common language, in 2017 and 2018. Several poets who published collections during that period or were featured in the National Poetry Festival
﴾NPF﴿ were invited to contribute to this anthology. The emerging poets in this volume have been winners or finalists in Poetry Festival Singapore (formerly known as National Poetry Festival)’s National Poetry Competition 2017 and 2018.
The poems have been arranged according to the themes of Poetry Festival Singapore, namely “Regardless of Race" ﴾2017﴿ and “In Spirit” ﴾2018﴿. Some poems are originally in English and others translated from Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
Edited by
Leonard Ng
Tan Chee Lay
Chow Teck Seng
Azhar Ibrahim
Krishnasamy Kanagalatha
ISBN: 978-981-11-7806-1
Published: 2018
Dimension: 155mm x 225mm
Finish: Paperback
Price per copy:
$19.90 at bookstores
$21.50 online purchase
$25.00 for local registered mail
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SG POEMS 2015-2016
This anthology showcases a representative sample of Singapore poetry written in or translated into English, our common language, in 2015 and 2016. Several poets who published collections during that period or were featured in the National Poetry Festival
﴾NPF﴿ 2015 were invited to contribute to this anthology. The emerging poets in this volume have been winners or finalists in Poetry Festival Singapore (formerly known as National Poetry Festival)’s National Poetry Competition over the past two years.
The poems have been arranged according to the themes of Poetry Festival Singapore, namely “Home, Nationhood and Identity" ﴾2015﴿ and “Reflections” ﴾2016﴿. Some poems are originally in English and others translated from Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
Edited by
Eric Tinsay Valles,
Tan Chee Lay,
Ian Chung,
Ow Yeong Wai Kit,
Chow Teck Seng,
Azhar Ibrahim
and Krishnasamy Kanagalatha
ISBN: 978-981-11-1022-1
Published: 2016
Dimension: 155mm x 225mm
Extent: 152 pages
Finish: Paperback
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