Prize Poetry Books to Watch For

I don't repost just everybody's e-mails. Mostly that's reserved for elected officials. Nevertheless, because Amazon changed its policy to prevent me from posting the reviews this nice publisher's nice books deserved, and because I think there is a local interest in reading some other Asian literature besides the memoir-novels from early twentieth century China...

From Jee Leong Koh at Gaudy Boy:

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NEW POETRY BOOK PRIZE: GAUDY BOY ANNOUNCES TWO CO-WINNERS

New York, NY - The Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize is awarded annually to an unpublished manuscript of original Anglophone poetry by an author of Asian heritage residing anywhere in the world. The winner receives book publication and USD1000.00. The inaugural prize is judged by Dublin-based poet and artist Wong May. We are pleased to announce two co-winners of the first Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize. THERE by Lawrence Ypil Judge's comment: "[In There] poetry is indeed a tool of exploration—towards mapping the world, a continual process of defining & modulation—always tentative. One lifts the pages of a family album with the poet, one falls under the spell." Lawrence Ypil is a poet and essayist from Cebu, the Philippines, currently based in Singapore. He teaches at Yale-NUS. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HORSE by Jenifer Sang Eun Park Judge's comment: "I admire the hypnotic, fever pitch of the obsession, the way the metamorphosis is handled. The vision if nightmarish—is broad & bold, never narrow or confining. One can breathe in this, there’s a hilarious sense of freedom." Jenifer Sang Eun Park lives in Tuscaloosa, the USA, and teaches at the University of Alabama, where she earned her MFA. The winning manuscripts will be published in Spring 2019 by Gaudy Boy, an imprint of the NYC-based literary non-profit Singapore Unbound. Established in 2017, Gaudy Boy publishes poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction of extraordinary merit by Asian voices. Our name is taken from the poem “Gaudy Turnout” by Singaporean poet Arthur Yap about his time abroad in 1970s Leeds, UK. From the Latin “gaudium , ” meaning joy, Gaudy Boy seeks to delight our readers with the various powers of art. Gaudy Boy's Inaugural Title: Malay Sketches by Alfian Sa'at An urgent collection of short stories from one of Singapore’s most celebrated voices, now published in America for the first time. Malay Sketches—"Pitch-perfect" Harold Augenbraum—gives us a prismatic window into the minoritized Malay-Muslim community in Singapore. Alfian Sa’at adopts the role of compassionate and creative demographer, tracing the inner lives of his fictional characters as they navigate individual and collective nostalgias, religious piety and doubt, and issues of class and race. Singapore Unbound Freedom of Expression. Equal Rights for All. Singapore beyond Singapore. Beyond territorial sovereignty and legal fictions. Beyond political controls and cultural straitjackets. Singapore Unbound is an invitation to dream new possibilities for the idea of Singapore. Starting in the USA, Singapore Unbound builds people-to-people understanding by facilitating cultural exchange, publishing literary works of merit, and presenting insightful events. Our flagship activity is the biennial Singapore Literature Festival in New York. Started in 2014, the festival brings together Singaporean and American authors and audiences for in-depth conversations about literature and society. Between festivals, we extend the dialogue by running the Second Saturdays Reading Series, a regular platform for the reading of Singaporean and American literatures in various intimate venues around New York City. Our independent press, Gaudy Boy, brings works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by authors of Asian heritage to a US audience. Finally, SP Blog publishes original works, book reviews, and artist interviews. Our activities are guided by three core values. We aim to be independent, innovative, and inspiring. A staunch proponent of the freedom of expression, Singapore Unbound upholds the creative autonomy of the committed writer. We challenge censorship of the arts and support fair opportunities for all artists. Motivated by a spirit of innovation, we create opportunities and collaborations where none exists before. In our audience outreach, we seek always to inspire a love for literature. The arts, for us, are not a hobby or a tool, but a way of life.

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