Writing Singapore: An Historical Anthology on Singapore Literature

Writing Singapore is the first comprehensive historical anthology of English-language literary works from Singapore. The volume provides readers in Singapore an easy point of access to compelling narratives and poems that have been forgotten or are now difficult to obtain. For readers outside Singapore, it introduces a neglected but important range of works that represent the historical and contemporary imaginaries and realities of one of the world's most cosmopolitan countries. Singapore writing in English covers over a century of literary production in a variety of genres. Uniquely in Southeast Asia, the importance of the English language in Singapore continued to grow after independence, and the country's English-language literature documents and reflects on the possibilities and tensions brought about by Singapore's rapid economic transformation and changing society. Because of Singapore's small size and the lack of international reach of many of its publishers, most of this literature has received relatively little international exposure, in contrast to writing in English from the Caribbean, West Africa, or South Asia. Within Singapore itself, a number of major works have gone out of print. This pioneering anthology is a first attempt to place the texts that have imagined the territory and the people who are now recognizably Singaporean in a historical narrative, to be read, studied, critiqued, and treasured.