Day 1: 8 May, Saturday
10:30 AM
Introductory Remarks by Prof. Wee Wan-ling
10:45 AM
Uncharted Territories, 1965-1990
With the birth of independent ‘Singapore’ as a political entity, what new realities and imaginative landscapes did Singapore writers face? How did Singapore writers see themselves and their work in relation to independence, and how did they translate independence into their work? Was independence for them a finished work or a work-in-progress?
Chair: Prof. C. J. Wee Wan-ling
Speakers: Isa Kamari, Dr. Shirley Chew, Dr. Angelia Poon
1:30 PM
Landscapes Lost and Found, 1990-2010
A new generation of Singapore writers, growing up in newly-independent Singapore, was confronted by a changing landscape - altered beyond memory and recognition in tangible and intangible ways. How did they grapple with and represent these changes, and what new landscapes did they invent out of what remained? Did these landscapes extend beyond what a prior generation would have thought of as ‘Singapore’, and how did their new configurations of place influence what came later?
Chair: Dr. Alvin Pang
Speakers: Aaron Lee, Ann Ang
4:15 PM
New Fictions
How has the Singapore novel evolved since the days of Goh Poh Seng’s If We Dream Too Long and Kirpal Singh’s China Affair? And what are some possible future developments for this literary form? What is the impact of creative writing programmes in higher education institutions; and of fiction prizes such as the Epigram Books Fiction Prize? How does contemporary Singapore fiction enter into dialogue with international fiction? This panel explores the contemporary Singapore novel and the exciting directions in which Singapore novelists are taking the form.
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Chair: Dr. Barrie Sherwood
Speakers: Balli Kaur Jaswal, O Thiam Chin, Sharlene Teo
Day 2: 9 May, Sunday
1:45 PM
New Movements
This panel seeks to trace the new trajectories that Singapore writing has embarked on in the new millennium. What new concerns preoccupy contemporary writers and what old ones continue to haunt them? What new forms can literature take and how do we understand these forms in the context of Singapore’s literary traditions? Are genres, categories, and borders still relevant ways of structuring experience, given today’s globalized world? How do the formation of online communities through initiatives such as SingPoWriMo impact the development of the literary scene?
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Chair: Dr. Cheryl Julia Lee
Speakers: Marylyn Tan, Stephanie Chan, Nabilah Said
4:30 PM
New Tongues
Within a multicultural landscape, Singapore writing has always been engaged in the politics of language. This panel brings together Singapore writers whose works are important parts of the contemporary conversation about language and the way it informs our sense of self and belonging. Given that the panellists can all be understood as being involved in the act of translation, the panel will also discuss what it means to communicate in an age characterized by transnationalism. The panel will concern itself with more recent activity in the areas outlined, while being aware that the history of such language engagements is deep and longer.
Chair: Theophilus Kwek
Speakers: Yulia Endang, Tan Dan Feng, Annaliza Bakri
6 PM