Gwee Li Sui

From the poet’s Preface: When love ends, what do you keep? Some autumns ago, I met a remarkable woman and we fell in love. She is a Korean novelist, I a Singaporean poet. Across oceans of differences and the habits of age, we forged a way to love and to keep faith. Then, as mysteriously as it all started, it ended about a thousand and one nights later. Modern storytellers beguile us. They bring such freshness to the endings of tales that we willingly hold our breaths in a promise of them. But the best bits are in the middle where often it feels like the adventure can never die. Every day is vast with possibilities as the heart marvels at the new way it beats. These are what I keep.

Love Poems

One Thousand and One Nights

2719

Following on the success of his 2017 hit, Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate, Gwee Li Sui is back with a series of three "Leeter" books covering the quintessential features of Singlish, Singapore's unofficial language - written in Singlish! In this first volume, we delve into what is known as the end-particle: "a modifier that primarily comes at the end of a sentence or a clause. Its appearance changes the meaning of the whole construction - yes, it is that powderful one! We will look at a whole bunch of them: lah, leh, ler, lor, loh, liao, ha, ah, hor, wor, mah, meh, siol, sial, sia, eh, nia, neh, and bah. Some are long-long oredi got use although their uses may have evolved. Others are sibeh new even to my ears!

Book 1: End-Particles

The Leeter Spiaking Singlish

Jason Erik Lundberg

Annaliza Bakri

The first volume of a brand new horror anthology series. Ghost stories and tales of fright have a long verbal and written tradition in Singapore, and so Epigram Books is proud to present a new annual anthology series of terrifying local fiction. Featuring all the winners of the 2022 Storytel Epigram Horror Prize, Fright 1 celebrates all subsets of the horror genre, told with a Singaporean twist. The contributors include Meihan Boey, Dew M. Chaiyanara, Dave Chua, Jane Huang, Wen-yi Lee, Kelly Leow, Kimberly Lium, O Thiam Chin, Quek Shin Yi, Tan Lixin and Teo Kai Xiang.

Winners of the 2022 Storytel Epigram Horror Prize

Fright 1

It feels unkind to reveal a long-held secret of Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems? published in 1988 – the published form, known and loved for years, is quite unlike the poet’s original manuscript. In 1998, when Landmark Books sought to introduce Gwee Li Sui, it reckoned that a slim, focused volume could showcase his distinct voice better. That decision had led to the manuscript being halved and its shape changed subtly. Also, Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems? was a very naughty book and, given the sensitivity of the times, a gentler text was published. The current book sees a couple of those changes reversed only because more readers today are able to bring the right frame of mind to their reading. While reading this unexpurgated edition, you may get a pricking sense of the poet being an excitable madman. What manner of madness he suffered remains unclear. With nothing left but silly speculations, do enjoy this recovered text or to correct your enjoyment of an old book you thought you knew.

Who Wants To Buy an Expanded Edition of a Book of Poems?

Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers is a stunning collection of original Singapore literature. The first of its kind, this two-volume anthology comprises 50 specially commissioned new works from past winners of the prestigious Cultural Medallion or Young Artist Award. Conceived as a celebration of Singapore literature to launch on the year of the nation’s jubilee, this anthology illustrates the richness and diversity of the island nation’s creative spirit. Traversing generations and genres, readers will encounter poetry, prose, comics and plays. Pieces written in mother tongue languages of Chinese, Tamil and Malay will be included in their original form, but will be accompanied by their English translations. These translations will ensure that, uniquely, many important literary voices will be heard in English for the first time. Edited by the literary expert, Dr Gwee Li Sui, Singathology is one of the most wide-ranging and important collections of Singapore literature ever published

Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers

Singlish is a punchy and witty patois used in Singapore. It mixes English with words, phrases, and syntaxes from the languages of different ethnic groups living in the country. This fascinating feature of Singaporean life favours efficient communication and humour and is well-loved by many. Spiaking Singlish doesn’t just describe Singlish elements; there are already several such references books. Rather, it aims to show how Singlish can be used in a confident and stylish way to communicate. Gwee Li Sui’s collection of highly entertaining articles shares his observation of how Singlish has evolved over the decades. To appeal to the “kiasu” nature of readers, each of the 45 pieces comes with a bonus comic strip. There is also a Singlish quiz at the end of the book for readers to test their grasp of Singlish! Spiaking Singlish is possibly the first book on Singlish written entirely in Singlish, complete with colloquial spelling. It may also be the most stimulating of them all. Fear not if you find this book too bizarre: all Singlish words and phrases are indexed and explained at some point in the book

A Companion to how Singaporeans communicate

Spiaking Singlish

The Merlion is the official tourism mascot of Singapore, but The Other Merlion of this anthology introduces the Singapore and Singaporeans that only those who truly know them know. Witty, caustic, naughty, irreverent and full of fun, the poet laughs out loud with his people. It seems odd — or it seems odd to me — that a volume of verse like Gwee Li Sui’s selection of poems and original illustrations, The Other Merlion And Friends, should answer so serious and fundamental a question as “Why do I love poetry?” But it does, and there it is, the truth: fizzy and slightly dizzying, like a secret sip of chilled champagne when you were seven. — Eric Norris. founding editor of the online poetry journal Kin (wearekin.org) and co-host of the Carmine Street Metrics reading series in New York City

The Other Merlion and Friends

This volume could well be subtitled the social history of Singapore in 120 haiku. There are haiku about MRT breakdown, rat infestation, haze, 377A, hungry ghosts and cavorting community cats. There are also those of matters of socio-political import: 2011 GE, population management, personal data protection, leadership renewal and compassionate meritocracy. Gwee adds to his army haiku that won prizes from the SAF with others of a military theme in Purple Light and Tekong diarrhea. Then there are newsy haiku reporting on NIMBY, the royal visit, that Holland V bank robbery plus The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. He does not forget the newsmakers either – the otters, the Little India Riot hero, A-Mei, Subhas Anandan, Phey Yew Kok, Joseph Schooling and that si geena who shall not be named. Also remembered is our dear Ah Kong in a pair of death anniversary haiku, and a sad one about the empty parade chair. There are haiku about our places we love, the hawker centre, cenotaph, kopitiam, Sungei Road, Singapore River.... This is a book of haiku for every Singaporean – kuku or not.

Haikuku

A landmark anthology of short fiction from Singapore.

Telltale: 11 Stories

Selected by the National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences as one of 85 Landmark Books A curious young boy opens a door and is thrust into the Architrave, a fantastical, fractured world upheld by four Columns. Arriving as the Great Gateway War draws to a start, Li-Hsu must fight bravely alongside a host of strange creatures in order to find his way back home. Gwee Li Sui’s Myth of the Stone, first published in 1993, is an endearing tale of one unlikely hero’s journey through an unfamiliar landscape. Epigram Books presents a 20th Anniversary Edition of Singapore’s first full-length graphic novel in English, with improved art and bonus features including notes from the author and new short stories that further explore the magical world of the Architrave.

Gwee Li Sui

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