January 18, 2021
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Singapore’s literary movement had a strong grassroots beginning, largely organised by writers themselves, so it makes sense that Singapore’s writers are as diverse as its population.
Some of the writers in this list came from that movement, and some took other avenues to develop their craft, but all of them have created work worth reading.
There’s no better time than a new year to dedicate yourself to supporting our local writers.
Marylyn Tan
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Marylyn Tan started making waves in Singapore’s spoken word scene in the early 2010s with her unapologetically queer, feminist poetry.
The Great Reclamation (forthcoming from Riverhead Books in 2022) and
Suicide Club (Henry Holt, 2018), which has been translated into ten languages worldwide and won the Gladstone Library Writer in Residence Award 2020. Rachel’s short fiction has appeared in
Glimmer Train,
Best Small Fictions,
Best New Singaporean Short Stories, and elsewhere. An excerpt from her story “Coffins Patch” can be found here. It appears in the Jan/Feb 2021 issue of the
What was your original impetus for writing “Coffins Patch”?
I’ve always wanted to write a story about work, specifically, what it is to be female and to be deeply passionate about one’s work. And though I never wanted to be a marine biologist, I did use to scuba dive! The weightlessness, the clumsy equipment, the heartbreaking experience of visiting bleached or dying reefs all of it is very dear to me.