Arthur Yap, Singapore Poet
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One of the more international cities in the world, with its closeness to Taiwan and to China, Singapore is a source of inspiration to a host of writers. Arthur Yap is, many would argue, the most important and influential writer out of Singapore. His poetry is extremely delicate and precise, and contains an enormous sense of playfulness and poise. He has the same preference that e. e. cummings had for using all lower-case letters, and his work contains a certain ambiguity of place that inspire a sense of universality among readers. His work also contains a deep sense of irony and uncertainty, which reflect an attitude toward modernity and tradition. There is a sense of pull between these forces, and the tension is one that never quite reaches a conclusion. The result is a potent memory that rests like an uneasy bird in the consciousness of the careful reader.
Educated between Singapore and Leeds and Singapore again, Arthur Yap split his time between writing and teaching, demonstrating a dedication to continuing the Singapore letters tradition for the next generations. Arthur Yap argued for a kind of autonomous literature, one that could stand on its own without reference to other disciplines. His books of poems have won the National Book Development Council of Singapore Award a couple times, and he’s won the Cultural Medallion for Literature, as well as the South-East Asian Writer’s Award. After a long bout with throat cancer, he died in his sleep in Singapore in 2006.
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