David Leo (b. 1948)
BIOGRAPHY
Born and schooled in Singapore, David Leo has published four books of poetry: Somewhere A Tiny Voice (1993), One Journey, Many Rivers (1997), iDENTiTY (2008) and Ubin Dreaming (You’ve Been Dreaming) (2012), and three novels: Different Strokes (1993), Shakespeare Can Wait (2009), and Cherry Days (2018).
He started dabbling in rhymes at a very young age, the interest in literature leading to his reading English at the National University of Singapore. Upon graduation he taught for five years before pursuing a career in aviation. Leo was a Writer in Residence at Toji Cultural Center, Wonju, Korea in the fall of 2014.
Reviewing his second collection, Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature describes Leo’s poetry as “intelligent, compassionate and often vibrant”. In the opinion of the same journal, “the lack of a large audience/readership for these poems is not really a drawback, as they are inward-looking, depicting a very personal moment in the poet’s life. Yet the evocative manner in which his grief finds expression lends them a quality of universality beyond their immediate milieu”.
Leo’s poems are anthologised in Rhythms: a Singaporean millennial anthology of poetry (2000), No Other City—The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry (2000), Love Gathers All—the Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry (2002), Man/born/free: writings on the human spirit from Singapore (2011), and Sound of Mind: a teacher-writers anthology of poems and prompts (2014).
Leo is also a writer of award-winning fiction and non-fiction. Some of his stories have been adapted for TV and film.
Author Photo and Biography © David Leo. All rights reserved.
