Singapore Noir

Damon Chua is a playwright, poet, and film producer. His plays are published by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus, and his poetry by Ethos Books. A recipient of grants from UNESCO, Durfee Foundation, and the Singapore Film Commission, Chua is a lover of film noir and is delighted to be a part of this collection. His grandfather once operated a pig farm in Mandai village, a stone’s throw from Woodlands.

Dave Chua’s first novel, Gone Case, received a Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996. Gone Case: A Graphic Novel, Book 1 and Book 2 — with the artist Koh Hong Teng — were recently published. Chua’s latest book, The Beating and Other Stories, was longlisted for the 2012 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

Colin Goh writes and illustrates Dim Sum Warriors, the multiplatform children’s graphic novel series that Fast Company named one of the Top 10 Coolest Original Digital Comics of 2012. He also wrote and directed Singapore Dreaming, a feature film that won the Montblanc Screenwriters Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Best Asian Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Philip Jeyaretnam is a novelist and short story writer, whose first book, First Loves, topped Singapore’s Sunday Times best-seller list for eighteen months. His novel Abraham’s Promise was described by the New York Times as a “novel of regret for actions not taken and words unspoken, eloquent in the spareness of its prose and the gradual unveiling of the narrator’s self-deception.” Jeyaretnam has chaired the Singapore Writers’ Festival since 2007.

Johann S. Lee is the London-based author of a triptych of novels (Peculiar Chris, To Know Where I’m Coming From, Quiet Time) depicting the experiences of gay men in Singapore, where homosexual acts remain criminal under the country’s penal code. “Current Escape” is his second short story.

Suchen Christine Lim’s latest novel is The River’s Song. The winner of the Southeast Asia Write Award 2012, her other novels include Rice Bowl, A Bit of Earth, and Fistful of Colours, which won the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize. Other published works are The Lies That Build a Marriage, Hua Song: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora, and fourteen children’s books. Awarded a Fulbright fellowship, she was an international writing fellow and writer in residence at the University of Iowa.

Lawrence Osborne is the author most recently of The Wet and the Dry and the novel The Forgiven, both published by Hogarth in New York. His short story “Volcano” was selected for Best American Short Stories 2012. Born in England, he lives in Bangkok.

S. J. Rozan is the Edgar Award — winning author of fourteen novels and three dozen short stories. She’s also half of the thriller-writing team of Sam Cabot. She lives in New York City but travels widely and her goal is to write at least one story set in each place she’s touched down. She loves Singapore, especially for its food.

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is the New York — based author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family. A native of Singapore, she is working on her second book, a novel. A former staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, her work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post, among other publications. She has been an artist in residence at Yaddo and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.

Donald Tee Quee Ho (a.k.a. Simon Tay) is a writer who occupies roles in politics and academia. He has published five books of creative writing. His novel City of Small Blessings won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2010; Stand Alone (1991) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. He has been an International Writing Fellow at University of Iowa. One international magazine called him “Singapore’s answer to Haruki Murakami.”

Nury Vittachi is the author of more than three dozen books, spent part of his childhood in Singapore, and visits regularly from his current home in Hong Kong. He is the founding editor of the region’s top literary journal, the Asia Literary Review, and chairman of Asia Pacific Writers, the region’s largest author association. His works have been released by major publishers in Asia, the US, the UK, Europe, and Australia.