Gwee Li Sui (; born 22 August 1970) is a poet, a graphic artist, and a literary critic from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Biography

Gwee went to the now-defunct MacRitchie Primary School and then Anglo-Chinese Secondary School and

Anglo-Chinese Junior College Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) is a Junior college (Singapore), junior college in Singapore that offers a two-year pre-university programme leading to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examination. Established in 1977, Anglo-Chin ...

. In 1995, he graduated from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

with a First-Class Honours degree in English literature and was awarded the NUS Society Gold Medal for Best Student in English. His Honours thesis was on

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (born Graß; ; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Da ...

's novel ''

The Tin Drum ''The Tin Drum'' (german: Die Blechtrommel, ) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass. The novel is the first book of Grass's ' (''Danzig Trilogy''). It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best ...

'' (German: ''Die Blechtrommel''). His Master's thesis was on

Hermann Broch Hermann Broch (; 1 November 1886 – 30 May 1951) was an Austrian writer, best known for two major works of modernist fiction: '' The Sleepwalkers'' (''Die Schlafwandler,'' 1930–32) and ''The Death of Virgil'' (''Der Tod des Vergil,'' 1945). ...

's novel ''

The Death of Virgil ''The Death of Virgil'' (german: Der Tod des Vergil) is a 1945 novel by the Austrian author Hermann Broch. The narrative reenacts the last hours of life of the Roman poet Virgil, in the port of Brundisium (Brindisi), whence he had accompanied the ...

'' (German: ''Der Tod des Vergil''). In 1999, Gwee began his doctoral research on the period from the

English Enlightenment The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the Hanoverian Kings George I, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the relatively short reign of Willi ...

to early German Romanticism at

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. His eventual thesis was on the discursive influence of

Newtonianism Newtonianism is a philosophical and scientific doctrine inspired by the beliefs and methods of natural philosopher Isaac Newton. While Newton's influential contributions were primarily in physics and mathematics, his broad conception of the unive ...

on the poetry of

Richard Blackmore Sir Richard Blackmore (22 January 1654 – 9 October 1729), English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an epic poet, but he was also a respected medical doctor and theologian. Earlier years He was born ...

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

, and

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

. From 2003 to 2009, he worked as an assistant professor at the NUS Department of English Language and Literature. Gwee has been a full-time writer since leaving academia. A popular speaker, he continues to instruct at various universities and institutions. He is sought for his opinions on literature, language, and religion and has been on the evaluation panel for several top literary awards in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. In 2010, he was an international writer- and critic-in-residence at the Toji Cultural Centre in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Between 2008 and 2011, Gwee hosted public interviews with Singaporean cultural figures at the

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...

BooksActually BooksActually is an independent bookstore operating online. It was formerly located in Singapore's Tiong Bahru district till 2020. History and description BooksActually was established by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai in 2005 on the second floor o ...

. Between 2013 and 2017, he ran

The Arts House 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 ...

's "Sing Lit 101: How to Read a Singaporean Poem" and gave five seasons of public lectures on important Singaporean poems. Since 2018, he leads the

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 librari ...

's "How to Fall in Love with Classics" series, which focuses on literary classics in different mediums and genres. He also fronts

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

Singapore's flagship TV programme "Singlish with Uncle Gwee".

Works

Gwee wrote what is considered Singapore’s first long-form

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

in English ''Myth of the Stone'', published in 1993. Earlier such collections had involved short comic stories. ''Myth of the Stone'' is part-children's story, part-fantasy, and part-allegory and follows a boy's adventures in a realm of mismatched mythical creatures. A twentieth-anniversary edition, with two new related stories among its bonuses, was published by

Epigram Books Epigram Books is an independent publishing company in Singapore. It publishes works of Singapore-based writers, poets and playwrights. History Epigram was originally set up in 1991 by Edmund Wee as a design agency. Epigram began the publish ...

in 2013. Gwee's poetry is known for its versatility and involves a wide range of styles and moods. His first book of verse was the well-loved ''Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?'', published in 1998. It is full of linguistic play,

Singlish Singlish (a portmanteau of ''Singapore'' and ''English'') is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. Singlish arose out of a situation of prolonged language contact between speakers of many different languages in Singapore, incl ...

rhymes, and jabs at social history and culture. About half of ''Who Wants to Buy an Expanded Edition of a Book of Poems?'', published in 2015, concerns all the poems that could not be published in the first edition. ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was established ...

'' named it one of the 50 greatest works of Singaporean literature in 2021. Gwee also famously writes on and in

. In 2017, He published ''Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate'', which is hailed by pioneering Singlish writer Sylvia Toh as "the definitive book on Singlish". In 2019, he translated

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...

's ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

'' into Singlish. ''The Leeter Tunku'' became the first literary classic to appear in Singlish. In 2021, his translations of

Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was he ...

's ''

The Tale of Peter Rabbit ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he gets into, and is chased around, the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns ho ...

'' and selections from the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

's ''

Children's and Household Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (german: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, lead=yes, ), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob and Wilhelm, first publis ...

'' were released. As an editor, Gwee worked on one of two seminal volumes on Singaporean and Malaysian literature in English ''Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature'', published in 2009. His introduction exposes the problems of ideology that continue to plague the countries' literature in the name of postcolonial studies. In 2010, Gwee edited the popular fiction collection ''Telltale: Eleven Stories'', which was adopted as a Literature O-Level text. In 2011, his human rights-based anthology ''Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore'' pays tribute to the life of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

and was launched in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In 2015, he edited the two-volume ''Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers'', a commemoration of

golden jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...

Controversies

In 2009, during the AWARE Saga, Gwee wrote an influential Facebook note to advise fellow Christians against supporting covert action. The AWARE saga was an event in Singapore's feminist, human rights, and LGBT history that involved the leadership of

Association of Women for Action and Research The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) is a not-for-profit organisation that advocates for gender equality and provides critical support services for women in Singapore. It is a registered charity with Institute of Public Charac ...

. In his note, Gwee objected to imposing religious beliefs on a secular organisation and warned against the implications on Christian witness. In 2014, the

controversially announced that it was pulping three children's books following a user's complaint that they had LGBT themes that undermined family values. Gwee, with fellow writers

Adrian Tan Adrian Tan Gim Hai (born 1966) is a Singaporeans, Singaporean lawyer and author. Known for writing the The Teenage Textbook, Teenage Texbook series of books in the 1980s, he is the current president of the Law Society of Singapore and a partner at ...

Prem Anand Prem Anand (Odia: ପ୍ରେମ ଆନନ୍ଦ) is an Indian music director and composer. He usually works in Cinema of Odisha, Odia film and television industry. In 2006, he started his career as a music director through the Odia movie Tu E ...

, and

Felix Cheong Felix Cheong is a Singaporean author and poet. Cheong has written two young adult fiction books used as part of a national education campaign – ''The Call From Crying House'' () and its sequel, ''The Woman In The Last Carriage'' (). Cheong ...

, cancelled their library event on humour. He further declined to give his keynote speech at a National Schools Literature Festival that weekend. Two books were eventually moved to the adults' section. In 2014, when Gwee was among the

Singapore Literature Prize The Singapore Literature Prize (abbreviation: SLP) is a biennial award in Singapore to recognise outstanding published works by Singaporean authors in any of the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The competition is organis ...

's English poetry judges, poet

Grace Chia Grace Chia (born 1973) is a Singaporean writer, poet, journalist and editor. Career Chia has published numerous books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, including a novel, ''The Wanderlusters'' and a short story collection, ''Every Moving Thing ...

, whose collection ''Cordelia'' was shortlisted, accused the prize of sexism. Gwee responded by saying, "All entries have an equal chance of consideration for winning, and we discussed it based on that point alone, and on the strengths of the collections." The other poetry judges were prominent female poet Leong Liew Geok and poet

Boey Kim Cheng Boey Kim Cheng (; born 1965) is a Singaporean Australian poet. As a student, Boey won the National University of Singapore Poetry Writing/Creative Prose Competition and has since received the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award (199 ...

. Gwee, in fact, wrote the preface to ''Cordelia''. In 2016, Gwee wrote an editorial in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

on the growth of

through the years. It was responded to in a statement by the Press Secretary of the

Prime Minister of Singapore The prime minister of Singapore is the head of government of the Republic of Singapore. The president appoints the prime minister, a Member of Parliament (MP) who in their opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of the majority of ...

and sparked a national debate.

Select bibliography

Graphic novels

* ''Myth of the Stone'' (East Asia Book Services, 1993) * ''Myth of the Stone: 20th Anniversary Edition'' (Epigram Books, 2013) * ''Old Man Solve Mystery'' (Self-published, 2018)

Poetry

* ''Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?'' (Landmark Books, 1998) * ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (Landmark Books, 2014) * ''Who Wants to Buy an Expanded Edition of a Book of Poems?'' (Landmark Books, 2015) * ''The Other Merlion and Friends'' (Landmark Books, 2015) * ''Haikuku'' (Landmark Books, 2017) * ''Death Wish'' (Landmark Books, 2017) * ''This Floating World'' (Landmark Books, 2021)

Non-fiction

* ''Fear No Poetry!: An Essential Guide to Close Reading'' (

Ethos Books Established in 1997, Ethos Books is an independent book publisher based in Singapore. It is an imprint of Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, a communications and design house. Ethos Books specialises in publishing literary works of fiction, non-ficti ...

, 2014) * ''Spiaking Singlish: A Companion to How Singaporeans Communicate'' ( Marshall-Cavendish International, 2017)

Translations

* ''The Leeter Tunku'' ( Edition Tintenfaß, 2019) -

translation of

's ''

''. * ''The Tale of Peter Labbit'' ( Edition Tintenfaß, 2021) -

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

edition of

's ''

''. * ''Grimms' Fairy Tales in Singlish: Ten Chewren's and Household Tales'' ( Edition Tintenfaß, 2021) -

translation of the

's ''

''.

Picture book

* ''Amazing Things'' ( Yinthway Foundation, 2019)

Fiction

* ''2719'' (

, 2020)

Monograph

* Mein Kampf ''Re-Examined'' (NUS Department of English Language and Literature, 1996)

Edited volumes

* ''Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature II'' (National Library Board and National Arts Council Singapore, 2009) (hbk), (pbk) * ''From the Window of the Epoch: An Anthology of Malaysian and Singaporean Poems'', edited with Shamsudin Othman, Mohamed Pitchay Gani bin Mohamed Abdul Aziz, Tan Chee Lay, and Seetha Lakshmi (National Institute of Translation Malaysia and National Arts Council Singapore, 2010) * ''Telltale: Eleven Stories'' (

and National Arts Council Singapore, 2010) * ''Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore'' (

, 2011) * ''Edwin Thumboo - Time Travelling: A Select Annotated Bibliography (With Recollections and Critical Essays)'', edited with Michelle Heng (National Library Board Singapore, 2012). (hbk), (pbk) * ''Singathology: 50 New Works by Celebrated Singaporean Writers'', 2 volumes (National Arts Council Singapore and Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2015) , * ''Written Country: The History of Singapore through Literature'' (Landmark Books, 2016) * ''Places: A Graphic Anthology on the East of Singapore'' (National Library Board Singapore, 2016) * ''Stranger to My World: The Covid Diary of a Bangladeshi Migrant Worker'', by MD Sharif Uddin (Landmark Books, 2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwee, Li Sui Living people National University of Singapore faculty Singaporean people of Chinese descent Anglo-Chinese School alumni Anglo-Chinese Junior College alumni National University of Singapore alumni Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Year of birth missing (living people)