back in the +65

after a year of wandering, i'm back home! on the writing front, this means a few things:

1. reprint of first collection:  always thought i had planned the timing somewhat wrong, releasing sonnets from the singlish barely weeks before i left SG for a year. and it's been with trepidation and excitement that i've watched from far away as kenny and the booksactually team have pushed it hard over the past months, mixed with some regret that i wasn't around to share my work. 

but after one year, sonnets from the singlish is virtually sold out! there are about 10 copies left in booksactually, and 5 copies in my possession - other than that, the print run of a thousand has been moved, and you can look forward to a 2nd edition in november! with typo fixes (so exciting right) and a new spin on the cover. (probably also a short disclaimer that 'sonnets from the singlish' does not mean 'sonnets all written in singlish'.)

2. launch of 2nd collection: making love with scrabble tiles is near completion, and should be on schedule to launch at singapore writers' fest this year. after another month of 24 hour poetry, its about double its former size (though that will shrink as my friends take the editing knife to it), and i'm finally feeling more comfortable about unleashing it on the public.

on the negative side, this might be my last poetry collection for a while...

3. pivot to prose: ... as i am venturing into more prosaic activities. balik kampung and from the belly of the cat, two math paper press collections themed around place and cats respectively, are both on track to launch at SWF. i have a story in both, thanks to the benevolence of the editors- verena tay and my cat-atastic sister stephanie ye- and will probably pop up at the launch(es) in costume. 

beyond those two furtive fiddlings, you can look forward to seeing something slightly longer, and something with pictures innit sometime in 2014.

4. shameless self-promotion. aside from the above 3 paragraphs of shameless self-promotion, as i'm back in town, i'm very much available to talk to students about writing and poetry in general. i did a few gigs at acs and ri before i left last year, and greatly enjoyed sharing my stuff with the kids - unfortunately had to cancel a few more sessions because i was leaving town. but whether it's just doing a straight-up 'how to pract crit an unseen poem' class, or talking about sing lit, or something more masturbatory like a poetry reading, it's all good if i can help add a bit of fun to a lit lesson. you can reach me at joshua dot ip dot man at gee mail dot com. 

(i'm not doing this for money, as this is purely just about shameless self-promotion.)