Yong Shu Hoong (born 1966) is a Singaporean poet and educator.

Biography

Yong was born in Singapore in 1966. He grew up in a bilingual household and published his first story in a Chinese student literary magazine. Yong studied Computer Science at 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 ...

(NUS) after his National Service, and worked as a programmer at the

Development Bank of Singapore DBS Bank Limited, often known as DBS, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Dev ...

in 1990. It was at NUS that he began writing. He was a contributor to the campus newspaper, and would regularly publish tabloid articles. Two years later, Yong left his job at DBS and enrolled in

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

to read for a Masters in Business Administration. Hee started writing poetry in the form of love songs, emulating New Wave bands he looked up to like

Duran Duran Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...

and

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European Da ...

. Later, he joined the literary magazine '' Inkshed Press''. Yong is a part-time tutor at

Nanyang Technological University The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...

, and is a regular contributor to newspapers like ''

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 ...

'' and ''My Paper''.

Literary activities

In 1994, Yong submitted a manuscript of forty to fifty poems to 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 ...

and was shortlisted. It was through this that he met Enoch Ng, who would prove instrumental in his literary career. Ng's eventual founding of Firstfruits Publications gave Yong a platform on which to present his work, and his shrewdness of editing provided Yong with a literary rigor he had not been exposed to previously. Enoch would go on to publish four of Yong's poetry collections under the publishing house Firstfruits Publications. Yong's work has also appeared in journals like 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 ...

,'' ''

Asia Literary Review The Asia Literary Review was a quarterly literary journal published in English and distributed internationally. It included articles of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and the photography genre. The journal first published in Hong Kong in 2000 as ...

'', and anthologies like ''Language for a New Century'' (2008) and ''Balik Kampung'' (2012). Apart from writing, Yong has also contributed to the growth of the literary scene in various ways. In 2001, Yong founded subTEXT, a forum for readings by authors. He also managed the Mentor Access Project through Mediaexodus Limited Liability Partnership, which provided aspiring writers exposure to the Singaporean literary scene, and gave them access to guidance from older writers.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yong, Shu Hoong 1966 births Living people Singaporean poets Raffles Institution alumni Raffles Junior College alumni National University of Singapore alumni