I'm doing a 24-Hour Reading of Singapore Literature!

I've set aside my international palate for a while to concentrate on domestic affairs. I'm involved in the Lit Up Indie Arts Festival this weekend - click here for the website.

Basically, from Sat 20 Jul 7pm to Sun 21 Jul 7pm at the Aliwal Arts Centre Courtyard, I'll be doing a 24-hour reading of Singapore literature together with performance artist Lee Wen. We did a mike test yesterday (Friday):

We'll be taking loo breaks and sleeping in shifts and hydrating regularly. Don't worry, we'll pull through! But feel free to join us for a read if you like!

Lee Wen's also creating an installation made up of the 397 Singaporean books I'm bringing over from my personal collection, packed into five suitcases and a rucksack:

Below is a list of books we've decided to read from - there's stuff in English, Malay and Mandarin, as well as translations of all this stuff into English. We won't get through them all, of course, but we revel in the diversity represented!

Excerpts from the Sejarah Melayu

Shaus Frazer’s The Crocodile Dies Twice

Stella Kon’s Emily of Emerald Hill

Suratman Markasan’s Penghulu

Isa Kamari's Sumur Asia 

Singai Ma Elangkannan's Flowers at Dawn

Kuo Pao Kun's Two Plays: Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral & The Spirits Play

Haresh Sharma's Off Centre

Quah Sy Ren’s Invisibility

Russell Lee’s True Singapore Ghost Stories 2

Gopal Baratham’s Memories that Glow in the Dark

Elangovan's Talaq

Susie Lingham's Serpent Says from FOCAS 2

Lau Siew Mei’s Playing Madame Mao

Robin Loon’s Destinies of Flowers in the Mirror

Alfian Sa'at's Collected Plays I and Malay Sketches

Grace Chia’s Womango

Alfian Sa’at, Alin Mosbit and Noor Effendy Ibrahim’s Bisik

Lee Wen’s The Republic of Daydreams

Ng How Wee's 𣲙封赤道

Pooja Nansi's Stiletto Scars

Ethos Books's Our Thoughts Are Free

Cyril Wong's Satori Blues

O Thiam Chin’s Never Been Better

Muhammad Jailani Abu Talib’s Susur Pendekar

Reflecting On the Merlion

Chris Mooney-Singh's The Bearded Chameleon

Masturah Alatas’s The Girl Who Made It Snow in Singapore

Gene Sha Rudyn’s Al-Ikhlas

Tan Tarn How's Fear of Writing

Ho Rui An's Several Islands

Dave Chua's The Beating and Other Stories

Jee Leong Koh's The Pillow Book

Boey Kim Cheng’s Clear Brightness

Christine Chia's The Law of Second Marriages

Aziza Ali’s Sambal Days, Kampong Cuisine

Jerrold Yam’s Scattered Vertebrae

Tan Lixin’s Keeping Skeletons

24 Flavours: Sushi

Hope to see you there! If there's anything you'd really like to hear read, thrust it in our hands and we might indulge you!