November 18, 2019

Did you know that November is the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? Launched in 1999, NaNoWriMo is a fun, Internet-based creative writing project where participants from all over the world attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript between 1 and 30 November.

Today we feature These Foolish Things & Other Stories, a collection of prose (definitely under 50,000 words), by Dr. Yeo Wei Wei, former Assistant Professor at the NUS Department of English Language and Literature. Written in crystalline prose, many of the stories are infused with traces of a uniquely Singaporean experience, such as the relocation from the kampung to the HDB during Singapore’s post-independence movement, the lyrics of Teresa Teng’s songs, and even Georgette Chen, one of Singapore’s pioneer artists. More importantly, they explore the realms between private selves, past and present, throughout vivid motifs—a singing bird, a lost soul in a yellow umbrella, an ivory carving, and even the diary of an ex-boyfriend’s father.

Get the book here.