英文

After many years abroad, Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo for the funeral of their father Yusuf – and to reckon with their inheritance. A renowned palm-oil baron during Malaysia’s economic rise, Yusuf built the family’s immense wealth by destroying huge tracts of rainforest. What his children know is that he was also responsible for the violent disappearance of a man who stood in his way.

Harun has become a successful tech entrepreneur in Los Angeles, Roz is an artist struggling to stay afloat in Sydney. Now they want to return something their father stole from the forests of their homeland. In their quest for redemption they grapple with the legacy of power and corruption, dreamers and exiles, thugs and zealots. Most dangerous of all, they are haunted – by the ghosts of colonialism, the ghosts of family, the ghosts of language, and the ghosts of the forest itself.

A trailblazing journey across the globe, Fierceland weaves the past and the present into an emotionally powerful family saga that plays out at a mythical scale.

Growing up was never meant to be easy for Michelle Tan. Her older sister Meredith lies in a hospital ward, unconscious and barely breathing. Sorrow-stricken, the younger girl dives headfirst into her memories – the first time Meredith taught her how to swim, their first mid-autumn festival together and her father’s untimely departure. But that only accounts for Michelle’s worldly worries. She also thinks she’s being followed. By what – she can’t exactly put a finger on. Clumsily, she navigates the arduous process of growing up and coming to terms with who she truly is while a supernatural enigma looms.

Young Constable Michael Chakrabarti experiences strange happenings during his night shifts. Mysterious recurring phone calls from an exasperated girl, a ferocious, shadowy lion of mythological origin; there doesn’t seem to be an end to the peculiarity that haunts him. Demystifying the unknown has consequences.

Captain Ishaan heads the newly-inaugurated Department of Supernatural Oddities. Shouldering the burden of being at the forefront of a revolution in science that could potentially decipher the supernatural, Ishaan soon realises that he might be too close to the puzzle for his own good. Can he truly exorcise the demons of his past?

Reality is a luxury. The Truth is never linear.

The poetry of Wong Phui Nam (1935–2022) is foundational to Malaysian literature in English, and while his early work is often cited and quoted in this regard, this edited collection of his poetry and critical essays makes it clear that his lifelong trajectory as a poet and critic is of deep interest. In the Mirror by Wong Phui Nam is a critical exploration of Malaysia’s fractured post-colonial identity and literary landscapes.

The editors worked with Wong to prepare his latest works In the Mirror (2000–22) for publication. This volume combines these with his earlier achievements, starting with How the Hills are Distant (1960–64). An introduction by the editors links Wong’s work with contemporary poetry in the region. An afterword by Wong’s contemporary Edwin Thumboo completes a volume that will be treasured for its historical context-making, but more importantly for the literary rewards of Wong’s poetry, written in unblinking confrontation with the contradictions and difficulties of writing in English in the region.

“Wong Phui Nam is one of the giants of Malaysian writing in English, a pioneering poet whose early work captured the cultural desolation of the immediate post-independence years…. His poetry collections, especially those containing multi-part poems, deserve to be read and studied in their entirety.”
- Ann Ang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

Wong Phui Nam (1935-2022) was a Malaysian poet. 

Brandon K. Liew is a writer and editor, and currently a researcher at the University of Melbourne.

Daryl Lim Wei Jie is a poet, editor, translator and literary critic. His poetry collection Anything but Human (2021) was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize.

Ink Studies explores contemporary practices of calligraphy in China, situating them in both a precarious and dynamic position. While people are increasingly writing less due to digitization, calligraphy is experiencing a revival partly fueled by governmental directives that promote “creativity” as a powerful discourse contributing to economic development. This book unravels intertwined imaginations of contemporary calligraphy in five different visual cultural fields in China today: calligraphy education, water calligraphy in public parks, modern calligraphic art, digital calligraphy and calligraphic font design. The various visual representations of the calligraphic sign within these fields are approached as active agents, demanding various physical and moral behaviors from practitioners. While calligraphy and creativity are often pitted against each other, as the nature of calligraphy is sustained through a culture of copying, the book challenges the perception of calligraphy as a static art, arguing instead for its creative potential in both formal and grassroots contexts. 

"Vermeeren's volume is the long-awaited 'missing course' for understanding Chinese calligraphy beyond conventionalized narratives. Focusing on new forms of shufa practice in everyday lives of Chinese people, it offers rich and gratifying food for thought on creativity, modernity, and the value of art in cultural politics and broader human experiences."  -- Yu Li, Loyola Marymount University

Laura Vermeeren is Assistant Professor of Cultural Heritage and Cross-Media at the University of Amsterdam, with a background in Chinese studies and a focus on creativity, everyday practices, and visual culture.

A woman. A hospital room. A marriage coming undone.

In Singapore, an ambitious, emotionally depleted expatriate mother checks her barely ill daughter into an upscale hospital—not out of medical necessity, but as a quiet, desperate act of self-preservation. For two nights, in the stillness of white sheets and fluorescent light, she finally breathes.

Her marriage is stable but sexless. Her career, stalled. Motherhood has become a performance she can no longer sustain—especially when she feels little love as a wife to a man untouched by desire.

In this raw, daring autofictive debut, Thammika Songkaeo explores what happens when a woman on the brink dares to confront the demons in her mind.

Set in Singapore but emotionally borderless, Stamford Hospital is a piercing portrait of burnout, resentment, and the silent rebellions that so often go unnoticed. This is a novel for anyone who has ever felt imprisoned by loneliness inside the very family they built.

‘Dissecting motherhood, marriage, and the cost of selfhood with razor-sharp precision.’ — Elle Singapore

　　由南洋小學學生林子歡創作故事的精裝繪本。作者11歲，用自己的想像力，以逗趣的情節，敘述他升上中學後，學校「鬧鬼」的事件，並帶出了破除迷信的正面主題。

　　書中的「我」升上中學，開始了新一段的學習旅程：在還沒完全認識這個陌生的環境時，偏偏又聽到學校圖書館鬧鬼的傳言，危言聳聽，同學們都信以為真，人人自危。校長決定破除迷信，於是組織了露營活動，要和學生一起找出證據以攻破謠言。揭秘的好奇驅動了「我」報名參加，一次捉鬼的「壯舉」就次開始……

　　為了紀念建國總理李光耀百年冥誕，資深教育工作者林秀玉老師特別為小學生創作了圖畫書《新加坡河換上了新裝》，並邀請本地建築師李良海為新書創作插圖。

　　新書獲得李光耀雙語基金的支持，並獲得新加坡華文教育學會、陳詩龍醫師與黃鴻年先生的贊助。

　　《新加坡河換上了新裝》讓同學們對新加坡河改頭換面的歷史有所了解，並知道清河運動是在1977年由建國總理李光耀先生發起的。

　　當年，新加坡的清河團隊經過了十年的努力，終於讓新加坡河以全新的面貌展現在大家面前，為新加坡人提供了優美的河景和齊全的消閒設施。

　　同學可以掃描書中的二維碼，聆聽兩首詩的朗誦，感受新加坡河「變身」的喜悅。

作者簡介

　　林秀玉，曾於2002年獲頒全國傑出華文教師獎，2005年獲頒卓越教師總統獎，於2012 年  退休。

 繪者簡介

　　李良海是一名建築師，他在醫療保健行業工作多年。他對視覺藝術有著濃厚的興趣，尤其是有關亞洲的文化。為了紀念李光耀總理的百歲冥誕，他義務為這本書畫插圖。

Synopsis

A Pep Talk for Overachievers with ADHD Ever felt like your brain's running on panic, potential and pure guesswork? You're not alone – and you're definitely not broken.

This punchy, ADHS-friendly guide by neurodivergent educator Sharen Ong is your permission slop to slow down, reset, and laugh a little while figuring things out. Whether you're melting under your calendar, drowning in "shoulds", or procratinating with pride, this book gets you.

It's part pep talk, part toolkit, and part "you are not lazy" sticky note – all wrapped in humour, honesty, and real strategies that actually work for ADHD brains.

Inside, you'll find:

• For the burned-out, high-functioning chaos crew
• The perfect gift for your ADHD bestie (or yourself)
• Read it in one sitting or 37 – no pressure

About the Author

Sharen has 15 years of experience helping neurodivergent students, especially those with ADHD, Autism and Dyslexia, navigate a world that wasn't built for their brains. She's passionate about creating frameworks that actually works – so students can thrive, not just survive. 

When she's not leading support initiatives, for the SEN (special education needs) community at a university, Sharen enjoys making complex topics a little less complicated, whether through workshops or collaborative projects. Her goal? To turn the chaos of life into something that makes sense (or at least seems like it does).

When she's not working, you'll find her juggling 21 browser tabs, sipping her sixth cup of coffee, or laughing at her own ADHD moments (because let's be honest – there's always something). I Bit Off More Than I Can Chew is her first book, written to help others who often feel like they're holding it all together with nothing more than a to-do list and a prayer (or a song, maybe).

About the Book

A country’s history is like a jigsaw puzzle. The bigger picture of how a country and its people came to be can be pieced together through multiple narratives, perspectives, and stories. In Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves, Lio Mangubat reaches back into the depths of colonial archives and brings to life long-lost stories that would otherwise have been footnotes in Philippine history.

Featuring 13 essays inspired by his podcast series The Colonial Dept., Mangubat spins tales of galleons, triads, fickle spirits, long-lost maps, and the secret history of otters. In these pages, learn about how the entire country became mad for baseball; how Mexican fighter pilots flew dangerous missions over the Philippines during World War II; or how American occupiers fell victim to a mysterious illness called “Philippinitis".

Beyond revisiting days gone by, Mangubat also connects the threads of each story to the wider tapestry of world history — and how these can unspool even up to our current time. A masterful storyteller and podcaster, he proves that the past can loom larger than the present.


Praise for Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves

"Mangubat appears, more than anything, deeply invested in cultivating a joyful exploration of the country’s past."

Mekong Review
"Mangubat links past and present, knows a good character when he sees one, and writes engagingly .... Short-story collections are often a prelude for something longer: perhaps Mangubat can be the one to write a Filipino history that resonates with a wider English-speaking public. Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves is proof that there’s more than enough material."

Asian Review of Books
"We are, all of us, made of stories, Mangubat reminds us. Our families’ and individual lives’ tales are irremovable from the tidal wave of local and global stories. No story is too small, no person too inconsequential, as we all have parts to play in the never-ending drama of nation building."

Ex Libris Philippines
"For all intents and purposes, every chapter of Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves is a masterclass in RRL (Review of Related Literature)-writing, with Mangubat normalizing the practice for an enriched hold of history.While we see the same technique in the succeeding chapters, every page always surprises us as the author turns something we already know into its head and digs deep into the recesses of the past."

Esquire Philippines
"Philippine history is bursting at the seams with politics, intrigue, and  momentous events. With thousands of islands and several entry points serving as bases for business and exchange, there's no doubt these exchanges have resulted in byproducts that have left a mark on the culture. Author Lio Mangubat's podcast-turned-book Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves mines these many cross-cultural meetings and engagements to make unraveling the archipelago's past one entertaining ride."

SPOT.ph
"Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves tackles a wide range of topics, some peculiar and others a marvel to ponder."BusinessWorld

About the Author

Lio Mangubat is the creator of Philippine history podcast The Colonial Dept., which features long-lost stories from the country's past under Spanish, British, American, and Japanese rule. He is currently editor in chief of publishing house Summit Books, and is based in Manila. Follow him on Instagram at @liomangubat and @thecolonialdept.

About the Book

In the humid dark of a eucalyptus-scented room, a woman named Hui lies on a mattress telling stories about herself to her listener, a little girl. She talks about her identity as the child of an immigrant, her feelings about being in a mixed-race marriage, her opinions on mental health. But as her stories progress, it becomes clear a volatile secret lurks beneath their surface. There are events in Hui’s past that have great significance for the person she’s become, but that have gone missing from her memory. What is it, exactly, that is haunting Hui? Who is the little girl she talks to? And who is Hui herself? 

As the conversation continues, what unfolds is a breathtaking, unexpected journey through layers of story toward truth and recovered identity; a memoir that reenacts, in tautly novelistic fashion, the process of healing that author Shze-Hui Tjoa moved through to recover memories lost to complex PTSD and, eventually, reconstruct her sense of self. Stunning in its originality and intimacy, The Story Game is a piercing tribute to selfhood and sisterhood, a genre-shattering testament to the power of imagination, and a one-of-a-kind work of art.

Praise for The Story Game

"A unique memoir that constantly undermines and reworks itself as it braids together episodes from the author's life, a destabilising approach that calls into question how accurately we can remember the past while we are still processing it."
Jeremy Tiang, writer and translator

Reading The Story Game is nothing short of an immense privilege. Shze-Hui Tjoa writes with her heart on her sleeve and the sanctity of her soul risked on every page. I wish every writer could pay testament to life—and our tricky relationship to the writing of life—the way she has done so earnestly, thoughtfully and playfully here.
Daryl Qilin Yam, writer, editor and author of Be Your Own Bae

Shze-Hui Tjoa has written a book that understands that stories are built out of erasure and silence, but they are also made from a relentless belief in transformation. To tell the story, again. And maybe this time, we might finally reveal what is hidden, even from ourselves. What a beautiful, brave act this book is of reclaiming, forgiving but also of un-naming. Sometimes stories teach us to say yes. This one reminds me we can also say No.
Lawrence Ypil, author of The Experiment of the Tropics

The Story Game is a truly inventive memoir told in the form of autobiographical essays that ask what it means to be political in body and mind while aspiring to always be more than we are. Nothing is as it seems in this memoir that’s both reflexive and reflective, and Shze-Hui Tjoa’s careful excavation of disembodiment’s nature knits together the very mind-body separation her memoir interrogates in a journey of healing that will have the reader questioning the narratives we cling to in order to survive. What emerges is an act of courage, confrontation, and intimacy rendered in beautiful, lucid prose.
Jemimah Wei, author of The Original Daughter

About the Author

Shze-Hui Tjoa is a Singaporean writer who lives in Edinburgh, UK. Her debut, The Story Game, was named a best nonfiction book of 2024 by Electric Literature and Paste Magazine when it was first published in the US and Canada. Shze-Hui is an editor at Guernica and Adi Magazine. Her writing has received support from arts organisations in the US, Portugal, Singapore, and Morocco. You can read her author interviews and find out more about her creative philosophy via her website, www.tjoashzehui.com.