book
Featuring a selection of short stories written between the 1960s and 2000, this collection charts Yeng Pway Ngon's evolution in subject matter and style over time. The earlier stories, written at a time when Yeng was known for his modernist poetry, exude solitude and melancholy, and deal with themes such as the wanton rebelliousness of youth, or the poet's shuttling between death and dream.
Sarcastic, darkly humorous and surreal, Yeng's writing depicts everyday life in all its absurdism and glory. The original version of The Non-existent Lover and other Stories《不存在的情人》was published in 2007.
author
Yeng Pway Ngon is one of Singapore’s most prolific Chinese-language writer, having published over 25 volumes of poetry, essays, fiction, plays and literary criticism. He received the National Book Development Council of Singapore's Book Award in 1988, the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004, 2008 and 2012, and the S.E.A. Write Award in 2013. In 2003, Yeng received the Cultural Medallion for his contributions to literature in Singapore.
little red comma
Singapore fiction, reimagined. little red comma takes you between the lines of paragraphs and verses, in the digital space where you could see the ocean as an ant, think twice about your supermarket consumption, or bear the virtual weight of a kavadi. The project fuses Singapore fiction with new media, comprising digital adaptations of six diverse literary works that span the genres of poetry and short fiction, and featuring the following writers: Arthur Yap, Latha, Melissa De Silva, Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, Samuel Lee and Yeng Pway Ngon.
Commissioned by the National Arts Council, little red comma is produced by digital publisher Tusitala and presented by Esplanade. It is part of the #SGCultureAnywhere campaign that brings together the best of Singapore’s arts and culture digital offerings to be enjoyed and experienced, anytime and anywhere.