Local authors go global, but Singapore publishers worry - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE – From debut young-adult fiction author Kyla Zhao’s The Fraud Squad (Berkley Books) to Rachel Heng’s The Great Reclamation (Riverhead), which has a strong claim to be the latest great Singapore novel, 2023 has seen a bumper crop of local authors whose books have been picked up by international publishers.

In addition to novels by Zhao, 25, and Heng, 35, maid murder mystery Now You See Us (HarperCollins) by Singapore literature stalwart Balli Kaur Jaswal, 39, hit bookstores in March.

Meanwhile, Red Dust, White Snow (Fairlight Books), a Black Mirror-esque science-fiction work by new writer Pan Huiting, 25, is out on Aug 17.

Later in 2023, readers can look forward to Meihan Boey’s sequel to her successful The Formidable Miss Cassidy (2021), The Enigmatic Madam Ingram, which will be first released by Epigram Books and likely later by British independent publisher Pushkin Press.

Proving that the interest in the Republic’s stories has had ripple effects beyond the novel, a collection of personal essays by author and visual artist Tania De Rozario, 41, Dinner On Monster Island, is also set for February 2024.

It will explore, according to HarperCollins, “growing up as a queer, brown, fat girl in Singapore”.

Singapore ink’s going global has been a trend that has coagulated in the last few years, especially since Crazy Rich Asians (2013) by Singapore-born American author Kevin Kwan reached stratospheric heights with its 2018 Hollywood adaptation starring Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding and Gemma Chan.

That year alone saw at least two novels reach the international market: Rainbirds (2018), a small-town Japanese fever dream by Clarissa Goenawan, 35; and Ponti (2018) by Sharlene Teo, 36, whose tale of a misfit adolescent girl was praised by British author Ian McEwan even before the manuscript was finished.

Since then, a fresh crop of novels by recognised and fresh authors have found a ready audience among literary agents and British and American publishers.

It is a stark difference compared with the scene just one or two decades ago, when those in this rarefied club – including Catherine Lim, 81; Suchen Christine Lim, 75; Meira Chand, 81; and Shamini Flint, 53 – could still be counted with the fingers on one hand.

In this markedly different climate, it is possible to ask if Singapore’s novelists are just getting better and their craft now more sought after by readers far beyond the country’s shores – even if this international exposure also presents fresh challenges.

Daryl Qilin Yam, 32, author and managing editor of Sing Lit Station, the unofficial centre of Singapore literary activity, says the novel form is back in vogue.

He acknowledges the importance of Crazy Rich Asians in pushing Singapore into the Western consciousness, but says several important landmark titles in recent years have also been important in the revitalisation of the long form as a genre here.

He cites Ministry Of Moral Panic: Stories (2013) – written by Amanda Lee Koe, 35, and published by local publisher Epigram Books – which was the talk of the town when it was released.

Adblock test (Why?)