Singapore Writers Festival
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Singapore Writers Festival
The Singapore Writers Festival is a literary event organised by the National Arts Council. Inaugurated in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well as presenting foreign writers to Singaporeans. SWF has hosted Singaporean writers Meira Chand, Cyril Wong, Suchen Christine Lim and You Jin, as well as international writers such as Steven Levitt, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Bi Feiyu, David Mitchell, Bei Dao, F. Sionil Jose, Taichi Yamada, Andrew Motion, Alexis Wright and Marc Smith. To date, it remains one of the few literary festivals in the world that is multi-lingual, celebrating works in Singapore’s official languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. History In 1986, Singapore Writers’ Week started as part of the Singapore Festival of Arts that focuses on the merit of the literary arts. In 1991, the Singapore Writers’ Week was renamed as Singapore Writers Fest ...
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National Arts Council (Singapore)
The National Arts Council (NAC) is a statutory board established on 15 October 1991 to oversee the development of arts in Singapore. It is under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. The NAC provides grants, scholarships, awards and platforms for arts practitioners, as well as arts education and programmes for the general public. History In 1989, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong, produced a report assessing the status of various aspects of arts in Singapore. The report would form the blueprint for cultural policy in Singapore, and led to the establishment of the National Arts Council and National Heritage Board to spearhead the development of arts in Singapore. In 1991, the National Arts Council (NAC) was formed from the amalgamation of the Singapore Cultural Foundation, Cultural Division of Ministry of Community Development, Festival of Arts Secretariat and the National Theatre Trust. Org ...
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Marc Smith (American Poet)
Marc Kelly Smith (born 1949) is an American poet and founder of the poetry slam movement, for which he received the nickname Slam Papi. Smith was born in 1949 and grew up on the southeast side of Chicago. He attended/graduated Charles P. Caldwell Elementary School and James H. Bowen High School. Smith spent most of his young life as a construction worker, but has written poetry since he was 19. He considers himself a socialist. Uptown Poetry Slam Smith started at an open mic night at the Get Me High lounge in November 1984 called the Monday Night Poetry Reading. Even as poets scoffed at artists "performing" their work, rather than genteelly "reading" it, the event grew in popularity. Smith saw his approach as an " up yours" to establishment poets he considered snooty and effete, because at their events, "no one was listening". According to Smith, who once attended a conventional reading with his manuscripts concealed inside a newspaper, With a like-minded troupe, Smith hoste ...
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Literary Festivals In Singapore
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject.''OED'' Etymologically, the term derives from Latin ''literatura/litteratura'' "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from ''litera/littera'' "letter". In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sun ...
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Recurring Events Established In 1986
Recurring means occurring repeatedly and can refer to several different things: Mathematics and finance *Recurring expense, an ongoing (continual) expenditure *Repeating decimal, or recurring decimal, a real number in the decimal numeral system in which a sequence of digits repeats infinitely *Curiously recurring template pattern (CRTP), a software design pattern Processes *Recursion, the process of repeating items in a self-similar way *Recurring dream, a dream that someone repeatedly experiences over an extended period Television *Recurring character, a character, usually on a television series, that appears from time to time and may grow into a larger role *Recurring status Recurring status is a class of actors that perform on U.S. soap operas. Recurring status performers consistently act in less than three episodes out of a five-day work week, and receive a certain sum for each episode in which they appear. This is ..., condition whereby a soap opera actor may be us ...
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1986 Establishments In Singapore
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter the European Community, which becomes the European Union in 1993. *January 11 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at this time the world's longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge, is opened. * January 13– 24 – South Yemen Civil War. * January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel. *January 24 – The Voyager 2 space probe makes its first encounter with Uranus. * January 25 – Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army Rebel group takes over Uganda after leading a five-year guerrilla war in which up to half a million people are believed to have been killed. They will later use January 26 as the official date to avoid a coincidence of dates with Dictator Idi Amin's ...
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Alfian Sa'at
Alfian bin Sa'at (born 18 July 1977), best known as Alfian Sa'at, is a prolific Singaporean playwright, poet, and writer. He is known for penning a body of plays, poems, and prose that often tackle issues considered taboo in the island-state, such as race, sexuality, and politics. Alfian has received a number of national literature awards, such as the 2001 Young Artist Award and three ''Life!'' Theatre Awards for Best Original Script. Alfian is the resident playwright of theatre group W!LD RICE. Biography Early life Alfian bin Sa'at is a Muslim Singaporean of Minangkabau, Javanese and Chinese Hakka descent. An alumnus of Tampines Primary School, Raffles Institution, and Raffles Junior College, Alfian was the chairman of the drama societies, both known as Raffles Players, in both RI and RJC. He also took part in the Creative Arts Programme twice – once at fifteen, and a second time at seventeen – both times under the mentorship of Haresh Sharma. He has since returned to the ...
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Pooja Nansi
Pooja Nansi (born November 27, 1981) is a Singaporean poet, musician and educator. Biography Pooja Nansi was born in Gujarat, India in 1981. Her family moved to Singapore when she was one and a half years old. She is the oldest of two daughters. She grew up in Katong and attended Telok Kurau Primary School and CHIJ Katong Convent from 1988 - 1997. She wanted to be a teacher from a young age and would teach her dolls as a child. She attended the National University of Singapore and started teaching upon graduation. She taught at Temasek Junior College for nine years and held the position of head of Language Arts and English Literature for part of her time there. She was a writer-in residence at Nanyang Technological University (2015-2016) and currently teaches creative writing part-time. Literary career Pooja Nansi was first inspired to write her own poetry upon her first encounter with Sylvia Plath's poem, Daddy, in a school library. It was the first time the 13-year-old fe ...
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Old Parliament House, Singapore
The Arts House (formerly the Old Parliament House) is a multi-disciplinary arts venue in Singapore. The venue plays host to art exhibitions and concerts. Built in 1827, the Old Parliament House is the oldest government building and perhaps the oldest surviving building in Singapore. The building was home to the Parliament of Singapore from 1965 to 1999, when it moved to an adjacent new building. History The building occupies one of the most historic sites of Singapore. During the refurbishment of the building in 1989, archaeological evidence of older habitation in the area was uncovered with stoneware and earthenware dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries found. The building's river frontage was also where Sir Stamford Raffles was presumed to have landed on 29 January 1819. The area was occupied by Temenggong Abdul Rahman and his family and followers. Raffles would later persuade the Temenggong to move to Telok Blangah in 1823 as he planned for the land to be used for pu ...
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Yeow Kai Chai
Yeow Kai Chai is a poet, former Straits Times journalist, and the former director of the Singapore Writers Festival. With writings influenced by music videos and other forms of artistic impressions, he is an MA graduate in English Literature from the National University of Singapore, and has published three poetry collections: Secret Manta (2001), Pretend I'm Not Here (2006) and One To The Dark Tower Comes (2021). He is also an editor of the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore ''Quarterly Literary Review Singapore'' (''QLRS'') is a Singapore online literary journal founded and edited by Singaporean poet Toh Hsien Min in 2001. Overview The first issue of ''QLRS'' appeared in October 2001. The journal is an online publi .... In 2014, he participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA. Appointed by the National Arts Council, he was the director of the Singapore Writers Festival from 2015-2018. The 2015 event reached an ...
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National Library Board
The National Library Board (NLB) is a statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Information of the government of Singapore. The board manages the public libraries throughout the country. The national libraries of Singapore house books in all four official languages of Singapore; English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Other than paper books, the libraries also loans CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, VCDs, video cassettes, audiobooks on CDs, magazines and periodicals, DVD-videos, Blu-rays and music CDs. Its flagship institution, the National Library, Singapore, is based on Victoria Street. History Although the NLB was first formed on 1 September 1995, its history had begun way back in the 1820s when Stamford Raffles first proposed the idea of establishing a public library. This library was to evolve into the National Library of Singapore in 1960, before expanding into the suburbs with the setting up of branch libraries in the various new towns throughout the ...
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Paul Tan (poet)
Paul Tan Kim Liang (born 1970) is a Singaporean poet and current deputy chief executive of the National Arts Council (NAC) of Singapore. Biography Tan only started writing poetry seriously during National Service. He attained his Bachelor of Arts (Second Upper Honours) in English Language and Literature from the National University of Singapore. During his undergraduate years, Tan won consecutive first prizes in the NUS Literary Society poetry competition in 1992 and 1993. He graduated with a Masters of Arts in Culture and Communications from the University of East Anglia in 2004. He worked as a broadcast journalist with the Television Corporation of Singapore (now Mediacorp). He then worked as Deputy Head, Editorial Promotion and Branding with the Singapore Press Holdings between 2004 and 2007. He also served as the Director (Strategic Marketing and Communications) in the Singapore Tourism Board until 31 January 2011. He was appointed as the festival director of the Singapore ...
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National Arts Council Singapore
The National Arts Council (NAC) is a statutory board established on 15 October 1991 to oversee the development of arts in Singapore. It is under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. The NAC provides grants, scholarships, awards and platforms for arts practitioners, as well as arts education and programmes for the general public. History In 1989, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong, produced a report assessing the status of various aspects of arts in Singapore. The report would form the blueprint for cultural policy in Singapore, and led to the establishment of the National Arts Council and National Heritage Board to spearhead the development of arts in Singapore. In 1991, the National Arts Council (NAC) was formed from the amalgamation of the Singapore Cultural Foundation, Cultural Division of Ministry of Community Development, Festival of Arts Secretariat and the National Theatre Trust. Org ...
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