[Herald Interview] Take a step again, ponder what’s ‘in our nature’

The twenty seventh version of the Singapore Writers Competition kicks off this weekend, inviting audiences to discover the theme “In Our Nature.”

Working from Friday by way of Nov. 17, this 12 months’s competition will likely be held throughout venues all through Singapore, providing over 200 packages that delve into humanity’s relationship with the pure world.

For Yong Shu Hoong, the newly appointed competition director, poet and educator with a background in pc science, this theme took form throughout his walks throughout the pandemic.

“Through the worst days of the pandemic, once we had been in lockdown, I rediscovered the fun of being in nature and the therapeutic energy it offers, particularly throughout instances of concern and uncertainty,” Hoong mentioned in an interview with The Korea Herald final week.

“I walked commonly alongside Singapore’s park connectors, nature reserves and public gardens, not just for train but in addition a way of freedom within the open. It will need to have been throughout that point that the seeds had been planted in my head about our reference to nature.”

The director famous that the phrase has a double which means, inviting us to take a step again and ponder what’s really “in our nature” — as people, as writers and readers, as international residents — navigating the world we reside in.

Over 200 packages are unfold over two competition weekends, that includes two tracks of discussions: one centered on local weather change and the atmosphere, and the opposite on the human situation, exploring who we’re as people.

The Singapore Writers Competition has lengthy celebrated the intersection of literature and cultural dialogue, and this 12 months’s theme extends that mission by broadening the scope to incorporate fields like science and expertise.

Hoong brings his persona to the competition’s programming, drawn from his profession in each poetry and pc science.

“What I convey to the desk is probably this concept of getting extra critical nonfiction writers and teachers in different fields past the humanities or cultural research. I want to embrace people who find themselves writing about expertise and science, and environmental research which is relevant for this 12 months’s theme. But on the similar time, they’re additionally ‘writers,'” mentioned Hoong.

He added that whereas SWF has featured nonfiction and science writers previously, this 12 months it’s launching Tech Talks to attach expertise with literary arts.

An instance, Hoong famous one in every of this 12 months’s headliners is American researcher Cat Bohannon, who holds a Ph.D. within the evolution of narrative and cognition from Columbia College.

Bohannon’s 2023 ebook, “Eve: How the Feminine Physique Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution,” delves into the previous 200 million years to elucidate the particular science behind the event of the feminine intercourse.

“So I am hoping for extra of that type of interplay and intersection between science writing and inventive writing, or inventive writing and what’s usually thought of not literary, and whether or not that circle might be introduced in a little bit bit nearer in order that we will talk with each other.”

The director expressed hope that guests will embrace the spirit of exploration, venturing to find new concepts and experiences that they won’t encounter outdoors the competition.

Amongst notable audio system at this 12 months’s competition are Shehan Karunatilaka, the 2022 Booker Prize-winning novelist for “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” and 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gregory Pardlo.

Having began in 1986 and now organized by Arts Home Restricted, the Singapore Writers Competition is one in every of few multilingual literary festivals on this planet, celebrating the written and spoken phrase in Singapore’s 4 official languages: English, Malay, Chinese language and Tamil.

Korea in focus

Considered one of this 12 months’s highlights is the Nation Give attention to Korea, bringing Korean literature, webtoons and translators to the forefront.

Hoong famous that the Korean Wave is vibrant in Singapore. Other than meals and trend, literature has additionally been making an influence, even earlier than Han Kang’s current Nobel Prize win.

This 12 months, the SWF includes a extra “common” monitor with a lineup of three profitable Korean authors: Hwang Bo-reum, writer of “Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop,” Baek Se-hee, writer of the “I Wish to Die however I Wish to Eat Tteokbokki” sequence and Anton Hur, probably the most sought-after translators at present, who just lately debuted as a novelist along with his English novel “Towards Eternity.”

As well as, the Ok-Comics World Tour exhibition will showcase common Korean webtoons together with two webtoon artists — Choi Gyu-seok of “Hellbound” and Kwang Jin of “Itaewon Class” — sharing their tales about their unique webtoons which have been tailored into hit TV sequence.

The packages with Korean writers are scheduled for Nov. 16-17.