Yeow Kai Chai (b. 1968)
BIOGRAPHY
Yeow Kai Chai (b. 1968) is a poet, fiction writer, and editor from Singapore. He has three poetry collections: One to the Dark Tower Comes (2020), which was awarded the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize (SLP); Pretend I’m Not Here (2006); and Secret Manta (2001), adapted from an entry shortlisted for the 1995 SLP.
He graduated with a Master of Arts in English from National University of Singapore where he won top prizes in poetry and creative prose for two years in the Literary Society’s annual competition.
He co-wrote two verse collections, Lilla Torg: A Scandinavian Journey (2023), and Lost Bodies: Poems Between Portugal and Home (2016); as well as one collection of short stories, The Adopted: Stories from Angkor (2015), with three other writers. His writing has appeared in journals like Britain’s PN Review, United States’ Prairie Schooner, New Zealand’s Minarets, Sweden’s Ars Interpres, and France’s La Traductiere as well as anthologies like the W.W. Norton & Co.’s Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008). He co-edited Reflecting on the Merlion (2009) and Quiet Loving, Ravaging Search — 20 Years of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore (2022).
He was editor of 8 DAYS and deputy editor of the Life! section, The Straits Times, where he reviewed music and wrote on pop culture. He later became the editor of My Paper, a bilingual free-sheet.
He curated the multi-sensory performance, Modern: Resonance, commissioned by Goethe-Institut Singapore, as part of the Bauhaus centenary, in 2019. A co-editor of QLRS and a Fellow of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (2014), he served as Festival Director of the Singapore Writers Festival from 2015 to 2018, and launched the nationwide music platform, Hear65, in 2018.
Author Biography and Photo © Yeow Kai Chai. All rights reserved.
