Poetry Shortlist
An Epic of Durable Departures
This new poetry collection records a friendship between two artists formed in the shadow of illness and mortality. Using the renga and haiku as departure points, Wee wrestles with the limits of art and of documentation even as he summons werewolves, ghosts, and other myths. Faced with the inadequacies of witnessing, An Epic of Durable Departures moves towards the living in reverse time, opening with obituaries and ending with a renewed beginning.
Author
Jason Wee
Jason Wee is an artist and a writer with two collections of poetry, An Epic of Durable Departures (2018) and The Monsters Between Us (2013). Jason edited Boring Donkey Songs (2017) by the late Lee Wen. His writings are in several art publications, including Love Gathers All, Lines Spark Code and Singapore Eye. His practice straddles architecture, drawing, sculpture and photography. He co-edits the poetry journal Softblow and founded the nonprofit artist-library and residency space Grey Projects in Tiong Bahru.