We Take the Baby to BooksActually

Yesterday, We Rose Up Slowly arrived at Books Actually together with another nine titles from Math Paper Press. We took Sophia to see the team unpack 10,000 books (she snoozed the whole time), bumped into Cyril Wong and distracted Renee, Kenny & Ange long enough to get a group photo.

Today is BooksActually’s 24 hour Bookstore Event. Head on down to the bookstore at 9 Yong Siak Street, Tiong Bahru to hear:

• 7PM: Nine Cuts by Audrey Chin, Launch & Reading
• 8PM: Balik Kampung edited by Verena Tay, Reading, featuring Dora Tan, Rosemarie Somaiah, Secretmanta Ray, and Verena Tay
• 9PM: We Rose Up Slowly by Jon Gresham, Launch & Reading
• 10PM: The Lover's Inventory by Cyril Wong, Launch & Reading
• 11PM: From the Belly of the Cat edited by Stephanie Ye, Reading, featuring Jon Gresham, JY Yang, Joshua Ip, and Stephanie Ye
• 12AM: Introducing THE SIXES under the mentorship of the Manuscript Bootcamp. Works are in progress but the poets are reading works that will be published later this year & next. Featuring Jennifer Ann Champion, Amanda Chong, Samuel Lee, David Wong, Daryl Lim (absent), and Hao Guang (absent).
• 1AM: Poems After Midnight with Pooja Nansi

There will be cider and satay, and hijinks with cats.

Speakeasy #18: The Valentine Edition

Speakeasy #18 was held at a packed Artistry and featured poets, playwrights, DJs, academics, musicians, teachers and booksellers/publishers/institutions reading their favourite love poetry for Valentine’s Day.

The poetry was eclectic, exuberant and celebratory, and included Pablo Neruda, Dorothy Porter, Arthur Yap, Cyril Wong, ee Cummings, Carol Ann Duffy, Leonard Cohen (Alvin Pang knows him and I understand efforts will be made to get him to SWF this year) etc, etc.

There were several romantic moments including Rene & Kenny’s reading and Philip Holden’s rose for his beloved, not to mention a blow job poem and a couple of lyrical cow pieces.