What Storytellers Teach Us

Pulling out Google Map online, I typed out “Silat Road”. The class had heard an excerpt from “The House in Silat Road”, read out by co-author Sim Ee Waun. And what better way to extend their learning by showing them the exact location where the actual story took place, right on the very land they …

Science Fiction, Kidlit & Southeast Asia

I write science fiction and fantasy. It’s a genre I love since I was a child. Spaceships, shapeshifters, swords. You name it, I love them all. Professionally now, I have a few science fiction books under my belt; I have experience in game writing and narrative design. Even my picturebook is fantastical: a talking dragon! …

Owning Our Narratives

"It is probable that many people who would consider themselves extremely sophisticated and 'advanced' are actually carrying through life in an imaginative background which they acquired in childhood."George Orwell I’ve been fascinated for years about memory. How do we remember what we remember? What are our memories made of? And how our reading diet forms …

It all started over breakfast

It all started over breakfast at Tiong Bahru Bakery at the end of 2019. I was telling Eva about a recent talk I had given to an audience of teachers at the national library where I appealed to them to read more Singapore kidlit to their students. I was not sure whether my speech hit …