A versatile and prolific young Chinese writer, Tan Chee Lay has produced works in many different genres, and also engages in cross-genre writing, including lyrical plays and prose-poetry.

He was among the first to bridge textual literature with theatrical performance with the staging of a performance literature in August 2005. In 2006, Chee Lay initiated the “Singapore Literary Archive”, a multimedia, multi-lingual and multi-genre digital literature archive to record the vibrant and multicultural nature of the local literary scene.

For his literary brilliance and unwavering dedication in fuelling passion for the Arts in youths, Tan Chee Lay was conferred the Singapore Youth Awards 2006.


Born in 1974
Tan graduated from the University of East Anglia with First Class Honors in English Literature. Foreign Bodies (1997), her first novel, was published while she was a graduate student at Oxford. It was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal for being the first novel by a Singaporean author to receive critical acclaim in the UK and the US.

With a New York Times Foundation fellowship (1997-2000), Tan obtained an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Mammon Inc. (2001), her second novel, was written in New York, and inspired by her nomadic, cross-cultural life.

Tans fiction is characterized by wit, irreverence, and exuberant, improbable plots. She received the NAC s Young Artist Award in 2003. Mammon Inc. won the 2004 Singapore Literature Prize.


Born in 1970
Tan s debut collection of 58 poems, Curious Roads (1994), was published while he was an Honors student at NUS. It won a Commendation Award in the 1993 Singapore Literature Prize. Driving into Rain (1998) won the Merit Award in the 1997 Singapore Literature Prize.

Although Tan writes about the various countries he has visited. It is his acute sense of his Singaporean environment that strikes home. A recent collection, First Meeting of Hands (2006), includes a series of engaging poems about insects, and zoo animals.

Tan has worked in broadcast journalism, tourism promotion, and the media. He is currently based in Tokyo as a Regional Director for the Singapore Tourism Board.


Writer and labourer. Born 1939. Publications: Son of Singapore, Heinemann Asia, 1974; Man of Malaysia, Heinemann Asia, 1974; Eye on the World, Heinemann Asia, 1975; Three Sisters of Sz, Heinemann Asia, 1979.


Tan Mei Ching holds a Master of Fine Arts in English - Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Her novel, Beyond the Village Gate, was awarded Commendation Prize in the 1992 Singapore Literature Prize (SLP). Her short story collection, Crossing Distance, received Merit Prize in the 1994 SLP and Commendation in the NBDCS Book Awards 1996. Her short stories have won first prizes in the U.S. and were subsequently published in journals there. A short story, "Never Mind Father", was published in More Than Half the Sky: An Anthology of Writings by Singaporean Women.

Her short story, "Sunny-side Up" was included in Asian Women's Writings (Penguin India) and another short story, "The Running Game" was included in Singapore Literature in English: An Anthology. Her one-act play, Water Ghosts, won first prize in the NUS-Shell Short Play Contest. This and her full-length play, Quiet the Gorilla, have been published in anthologies, and have been, as with her other plays, staged by theatres in Singapore. In 1997, she received the National Arts Council of Singapore’s Young Artist Award for Literature. Her travel narrative, Towards the Blue: Adventures Of A City Wimp, was published in 2007.


Consultant Physiotherapist, counsellor and sex educationist. Born 1923, Ipoh, Perak; married physician Tan Joo Liang. Educ: MGS Ipoh; Univ of Malaya in Singapore (MBBS). Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, National Univ of Singapore. Sunday Times columnist (You). A short story The Goddess of Mercy was broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1975.

Genre/s
Non-fiction, Poetry, Short Stories

Poetry and Short Stories
Emerald Autumn and Other Poems, 1976
The Gift and Other Poems, Federal Publications, 1978
(short stories) Hearts and Crosses, 1989

Non-fiction
Beyond Your Navel, 1977
You Need to Know, 1978
Nalla on Sunday, 1985

Prizes and awards
1990 2nd Prize Asiaweek Short Story Competition for What You Asked


Born in 1943
Tan is an artist and writer. He graduated from the Nanyang University with a BA in Modern Linguistics. He was for 24 years, the press secretary at the French Embassy in Singapore, but is currently a full time writer-artist. One of the most celebrated multi-talented artists in Singapore and Malaysia, his published works include a poetry collection, The Giant, and a contemporary novella, The Collection of Stories of the Antelope Slave. He has also published modern poetry, novels, allegorical tales, commentaries, prose, and translated works, both locally and overseas. He was conferred the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Honourary DLitt degree from the Nanyang Technological University.


Born 1967
Editor of Female magazine. Educ: Catholic Junior College; National University of Singapore (BA Hons English). 1989 1st Prize NUS-Shell Short Play Competition for Pistachios and Whipped Cream. Plays: Bra Sizes (performed by TheatreWorks 1992); Dirty Laundry (performed by TheatreWorks 1993).


Born in 1950
(Pseudonym: You Jin) Tan is a writer and was formerly an employee of the National Library of Singapore and the Nanyang Siang Pau newspaper. She is presently teaching at Pioneer Junior College. Her works, which have been published in Singapore and other countries number about 130 to date (including essays, novels, travelogues and prose). Among the awards she has received are the Montblanc-NUS centre for the Arts Literary Award and the Singapore Chinese Literature Prize. Chongqing Normal University has set up a “Centre for the study of You Jin”, making her the first non-china writer to enjoy such an honour. Her published prose collection, Waters of Sorrow, has been translated into Indonesian.


A world-renowned lawyer, political adviser and environmental policy expert, Professor Simon S.C. Tay teaches international law at the University of Singapore, and is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He has served three terms as a Nominated Member of the Singapore Parliament and has acted as a consultant to, among others, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Forum on Environment and Development.

In addition to his legal, academic and public work he is a prolific journalist and also a published poet and author - his first collection of short stories, Stand Alone, was considered an attempt to turn the tide away from sensationalistic pop-writing in favour of the higher forms of literature. Such was the quality of writing that made the anthology extremely popular on the mass market, even when there was no sex or horror in its content. Stand Alone was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize.


Teng Qian Xi’s first collection of poetry, Eye and Tongue, will be published next year. Her writings have been published in QLRS, Softblow, local indie magazine BigO (which is no longer in circulation), the London Underground and Today newspaper, among others. In 200 she was the first foreigner to win one of the UK Poetry Society’s Simon Elvin Young Poet of the Year Award. This year she was the publicist for the recent cinema release of Singapore GaGa, directed by Tan Pin Pin, and is now working on her own projects while freelancing as a writer and publicist when convenient. She will be returning next year to Columbia University to finish her degree in comparative literature.


Born 1950.
Practised law for 8 years before starting the first school in executive and personal grooming in the region in 1983. Director of Clea Consultants Pte Ltd and The Finishing School Pte Ltd. Feel, 1994 (Commendation Prize 1994 Singapore Literature Prize for Fiction.


(1970 - ) Teo Hsu-Ming was born in Malaysia but immigrated with her parents to Castle Hill, Sydney, when she was seven. She began studying medicine, but changed to arts in her second year of university. After completing a PhD at the University of Sydney in 1998, she taught postcolonial studies at the University of Southern Denmark. She is now a research fellow at the Department of Modern History at Macquarie University. Her first novel, Love and Vertigo, was awarded the Australian/Vogel Award.

Teoh Hee La (pen name Zhang Xi Na) is a senior correspondent with the Chinese newspaper LianHe ZaoBao. She has won 12 prizes in short story contests within the region. In 1990 and 1994, she won the acclaimed book award given by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and was also awarded the Golden Lion Award in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1991. In 2000 she won South East Asian Write Award. Zhang Xi Na has 9 published works of both fiction and nonfiction.


Born in 1967
Tham won two second prizes in the 1984 National Short Story Writing Competition, for Homecoming and Facist Rock. Her debut collection, Facist Rock: Stories of Rebellion (1990), secured the NBDCS Commendation Award (Fiction) in 1992. Saving the Rainforest and Other Stories (1993) won a Highly Commended Award (Fiction) from NBDCS in 1995.

Many of Tham s short stories are concerned with rebellion. Skimming (1999), her first novel, works out of a love triangle involving two men and a woman, all articulate and educated members of the middle class, who struggle with rebellion and conformity. The Gunpowder Trail and Driving Sideways won the Golden Point Award for Short Fiction in 1999 and 2001 respectively. They are included in The Gunpowder Trail and Other Stories (2003).


Michelle Tham first explored her love for drawing by creating her own paper dolls when she was young. Later in adulthood, she discovered a passion for animation and went into New Media Arts. Michelle also enjoys a good fantasy book where the heroine kicks ass! Her book One Fine Day is one of 14 books under the First-Time Writers & Illustrators Publishing Initiative Jointly organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and the Media Development Authority.


Born in 1933
One of the pioneers of Singaporean poetry, Thumboo edited some of the earliest anthologies of Literature in English from Singapore and Malaysia, giving writers a collective forum for expression.

Thumboo has authored four volumes of poetry: Rib of Earth (1956), published while he was still an undergraduate; Gods Can Die (1977); Ulysses by the Merlion (1979); and A Third Map: New and Selected Poems (1993). Gods and Ulysses won the 1978 and 1980 NBDCS Award for Poetry respectively, while Map won the Award in 1994. The unofficial poet laureate of Singapore, Thumboo favours national themes, and a role for the poet as the people’s spokesman.

The first recipient of the NAC s Cultural Medallion for literature in 1979, Thumboo was Head of the Department of English Language and Literature , NUS (1977-93) and Dean of its Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ( 1980-1991). He was conferred an emeritus professorship by NUS in 1997. Thumboo was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 2006.


Born in 1975
Toh graduated with First Class Honors in English at Oxford, and was President of the University’s Poetry Society in 1998.

Iambus (1994), Toh s first volume, collects poems which were written when Toh was under 16 and before he turned 18. Iambus shows a great interest in technique, in the cadences of rhymed verse, and the English literary tradition, but it is the Singapore poems which impress. The Enclosure of Love (2001), a more sophisticated and varied volume, came out of Toh's sojourn in England, and provides meditations on friendship, death, love or travel.

Toh founded the online journal, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (www.qlrs.com) in 2001, and is its chief editor. His third collection, Means to an End, is due for release in early 2008.