The unseen poem by Butch Dalisay

I had a wonderful time in Singapore last week with my fellow guest writers at Lit Up: the Singapore Young Writers Festival. No, I don’t think I can be called a “young writer” any longer — I crossed that threshold at least 20 years ago — but I was invited to the festival as a resource person and keynote speaker, to help in firing up the imagination of young Singaporeans (by which I mean high schoolers and junior college students around the ages of 13 to 19).

The festival (www.litup.sg) is being held under the auspices of Word Forward, a kind of literary NGO that’s made it its mission to promote writing, reading, performing, and creative thinking among young Singaporeans, with support from the National Arts Council. I’d met Word Forward program director Chris Mooney-Singh and his gracious wife (and festival director) Savinder Kaur at a British Council seminar in Singapore early last year, so this was a pleasant reunion. This time, we were joined by a group of highly accomplished writers and performance artists from around the region. They included:

• David Oliveira, a poet originally from California and now based in Cambodia, the founder of the Santa Barbara Poetry Series and founding editor of Solo, an award-winning poetry journal.

• Paul Kooperman, an Australian screenwriter who’s published two books on screenwriting and whose work has taken him to Hollywood;

• Arianna Pozzuoli, a Canadian poet now based in Singapore, winner of various poetry slam competitions in the US and Canada.

• Arka Mukhopadhyay, an Indian poet, director, actor, teacher, and performance artist whose work involves theater in conflict and bringing Shakespeare to children from all backgrounds.

• George Wielgus, a UK-born, Malaysia-based community arts worker, writer, and spoken-word artist who works with marginalized groups.

• Jacyntha England, a Canadian educator, writer, and theater artist whose work has taken her as far as Kazakhstan, Tanzania, and Romania.

Read More

Send article as PDF to