The Second Link: An Anthology of Malaysian and Singaporean Writing

ISBN 9789815066692

Daryl Lim Wei Jie Hamid Roslan Melizarani T. Selva William Tham

2023 marks the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia. This collection brings together writers from both countries to engage creatively and critically with this sense of entwinement, to reflect, to rue, and to celebrate.

Anthology

Categories:

Fiction

Synopsis

Specification

60 years after a fateful merger…

2023 marks the 60th year since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, comprising the Federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak – and Singapore. For Malaysians, 1963 is of profound national significance. For Singaporeans, the more memorable year might be 1965, the year of separation and subsequent independence. Yet for two fateful years, the destinies of the two countries were conjoined. The kinship, affinity, and tensions are still keenly felt today.

The Second Link brings together writers from both countries – in the tradition of volumes such as The Second Tongue (edited by Edwin Thumboo, 1976) – to engage creatively and critically with this sense of entwinement, to reflect, to rue, and to celebrate.

Contributors include:

Anitha Devi Pillai
Anna Onni
Arjun Sai Krishnan
Benedict Lim
Brandon Liew
Clara Chow
Clarissa Oon
Daryl Li
Elaine Chiew
Heng Jia Min
Ho Kin Yunn
ila
Jocelyn Marcia Ng
Jonathan Chan
Joshua Ip
Kevin Martens Wong
Malachi Edwin Vethamani
Mohamed Shaker
Ng Yi-Sheng
Noor Iskandar
Paul Augustin
Rachel Fung
Sharmini Aphrodite
Sheena Gurbakhash
Sofia Mariah Ma
Sreedhevi Iyer
Sumitra Selvaraj
Tse Hao Guang
Yu Kai Tan
Zhang Ruihe

Daryl Lim Wei Jie is a poet, translator and literary critic from Singapore. His poetry collection, Anything but Human, was shortlisted for the 2022 Singapore Literature Prize. He won the Golden Point Award for English Poetry in 2015. Daryl co-edited Food Republic: A Singapore Literary Banquet, an anthology of literary food writing from Singapore, which received a Special Award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023.

Hamid Roslan is the author of parsetreeforestfire, a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize 2020. His prose and poetry have been published in Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation, New Singapore Poetries, and numerous literary journals.

Melizarani T. Selva is a Malaysian writer and spoken word poet. Her first book, Taboo, is a poetic interrogation of the Malaysian Indian identity. She co-published an anthology of 100 poems by 61 poets from Malaysia titled When I Say Spoken, You Say Word! Her play Kudumbam was staged as part of the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition 2021 winners’ showcase.

William Tham is a researcher and academic editor with a background in English from Universiti Malaya. He has been published in NANG, PR&TA, The Best of World SF: Volume 2, and the Southeast Asian Review of English.