drop by Aliwal Arts Centre's Multipurpose Studio on Sat Aug 3 at 8pm for the launch of "ownself say ownself", Joshua Ip's sixth(ish) collection, published by Landmark Books. there will be poetry read out by surprise guests. there will be kacang puteh. there will be some drinks. there will be dr ann ang asking me random questions, and me responding with poetry. in fact if you show up you will be entitled to ask me random questions too, if you shout loud loud. you might even get to buy the book! i am told by Eck Kheng that this is a thing. there will be book signings too!about the book:
ownself say ownself is a chaotic collection of new & selected poetry by joshua ip. half of it is 44 poems salvaged from the award-winning, out-of-print wilderness of his first five-ish collections, marked-up with mischievous metric marginalia in the newly-invented form of the tilde (tl;dr). the next half is 44 new translations, performance pieces and formal experiments written over the course of a practice research phd. so you get the best of six-ish books for the price of one, which fortuitously sums to 88 poems. see satirical singlish sonnets scrabble with spurned spoken word and shady pseudo-song-translations alongside snide summaries, split-screen cinemas, song-dynasty susurrus, scottish-civil-servant-salutations and circumlocutory sex scenes, in a singsong celebration of spurious sesquilinguality!
about the poet:
Joshua Ip is a Singaporean poet, editor, and literary organiser. He has published six-ish poetry collections, won the Singapore Literature Prize for his debut, sonnets from the singlish (Math Paper Press, 2012), and placed in three different categories of the Golden Point Award. His latest book, ownself say ownself (Landmark Books, 2024) gathers new and selected poems from his last decade-and-a-half of rude poetry. He has edited eleven literary anthologies, including the A Luxury and SingPoWriMo series. He volunteers at Sing Lit Station, an overactive literary charity that runs initiatives including SingPoWriMo, SEAPoWriMo and poetry.sg. He received Singapore’s Young Artist Award (2017). www.joshuaip.com
about the publisher:
Landmark Books is an independent Singaporean publisher specialising in high-quality illustrated books, Asian subjects, Singapore literature and children’s books. It was established in 1986 to give authors and those requiring publishing services an alternative to publishing conglomerates. The company believes in assembling small, talented teams to conceptualise, design and produce high-quality books.
Event Venue
Aliwal Arts Centre, Aliwal Arts Centre, 28 Aliwal St, Singapore 199918, Singapore,Singapore