The story of Kampong Gelam—a cosmopolitan village named after the Gelam (Kayu putih or Melaleuca cajuputi) tree which once grew in abundance in the area—was birthed some two centuries ago. It began with the signing of a treaty between Sultan Hussein Mohamed Shah, Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Sir Stamford Raffles of the East India Company, whereby Sir Stamford Raffles was given permission to set up a trading post in Singapore.

Although the beginnings of Singapura could be traced to a much earlier time, the historic treaty was instrumental in propelling the Lion City into prominence in the Southeast Asian region, and later the world.

Once the centre of trade and commerce connecting Singapore to the rest of the Malay Archipelago, Kampong Gelam served as a religious, intellectual and social hub for the Malays in Singapore. It also functioned as a Pilgrim Hub for would-be pilgrims bound for Saudi Arabia.

In 1989, the Singapore government gazetted Kampong Gelam and accorded it the status of a conservation area. A popular tourist attraction as it may be, Kampong Gelam’s rich history and heritage nevertheless extend well beyond the descriptions found in glossy tourism publicity blitz. More importantly, at the heart of it all, Kampong Gelam was home to modern Singapore’s pioneers, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and residents including the author, Hidayah, who was born in Gedung Kuning (Yellow Mansion).

To embrace the authentic spirit of Kampong Gelam, you are invited to embark on a journey to Leluhur, returning to the land of our Ancestors.

Before Min Joon leaves to fight the Japanese in World War II, he gives his lover Leng half of a jade pendant, promising that he will carry the other half and they will be reunited when the war is over. But when he returns, she has married someone else.

Twenty-seven years later, Leng's daughter Jeanette interviews Min Joon for the history book she is publishing and discovers a decades-old secret.

Wee, a retired secondary school department head of English and literature, based her debut novel on her late mother's journal and a stack of letters written to a man who was not Wee's father.

Inspired by artworks in National Gallery Singapore, 34 poets - from veterans like Edwin Thumboo to up-and-comers like Theophilus Kwek - pen musings on love and life, inspired by artworks in National Gallery Singapore.

In 1933 Penang, a debutante's incredible shoes are the talk of town, but she keeps the identity of her shoemaker a secret.

In present-day Singapore, a New Zealand expatriate, faced with an unplanned pregnancy during Seventh Month, attends a getai concert.

In a future where the flora of the world are endangered species, a young woman with a green thumb called Ixora enrols in flower school.

This anthology is filled with star-crossed love stories by local authors, from veterans Robert Yeo and Meira Chand to recent debut writers such as Yeoh Jo-Ann, Linda Collins and Inez Tan.

Many of these tales are inspired by real love stories. Editors Anitha Devi Pillai and Felix Cheong both contributed stories from their own families.

These poems walk through cities in bodies that don’t belong. They speak through moments in migration, music, film and pop culture. These are poems as acts of resistance, renewal and reclamation. Poems that make shrines of grimy corners. They are dancing till the sun comes up and laughing in the face of anyone who says they cannot take up space.

From a crow and his famous pitcher to a story about a spiteful bee, Aesop’s fables have been known to instruct or affirm universal truths. For Cyril Wong, however, many of them have much to answer for, their allegorical messages leaving much to be desired in a world potentially without meaning or grand design. Animal Season takes over from where the more familiar fables left off, interrogating the originals or rewriting them, in the hope that new truths might be unearthed.

This collection contains Prof Thumboo’s latest works. Especially interesting are the poems based on biblical characters, something very close to his heart in recent years. Some evergreens of his works are included, such as “A poet reading”, to make this a most collectible set of his published works.

The sections are named: Chin (for his wife), Tribes, Togetherness, Cultures, I to i, By Quiet Waters and Words.

A tribe of nomads journeys through a post-apocalyptic Singapore devastated by environmental collapse, for the promised land of the Kallang Basin. While searching for shelter, they rescue a starving young boy and his musically-inclined android, who upend the tribe’s dynamic. When machines become symbols of our aspiration and extensions of our will, what role do they serve when we fight to survive? A testament to the strength and endurance of the human spirit.

Nine years after his last volume of poetry, Felix Cheong makes a comeback - this time, a collection of poetic outtakes and more recent writings.

B-Sides and Backslides: 1986 - 2018 puts together an unrelenting and honest portrait of the poet as a young man - an undergrad hung up on T.S. Eliot - through the ups and downers of career and marriage, to middle age. It is at once an insightful mapping of his craft over 30 years and a typography of turns and returns of themes and images.

Collected here is the full range of Felix's oeuvre, from odes to love to social observations, from religious musings to political satire.

Complete with liner (linear) notes documenting the periods between his four books, this anthology will offer you a rare look at a poet's growth and creative process from the inside out.

Rosie “Aunty” Lee—feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant—is back in another delectable, witty mystery set in Singapore.

Slightly hobbled by a twisted ankle, crime-solving restaurateur Aunty Lee begrudgingly agrees to take a rest from running her famous café, Aunty Lee’s Delights, and turns over operations to her friend and new business partner Cherril.

The café serves as a meeting place for an animal rescue society that Cherril once supported. They were forced to dissolve three years earlier after a British expat killed the puppy she’d adopted, sparking a firestorm of scandal. The expat, Allison Fitzgerald, left Singapore in disgrace, but has returned with an ax to grind (and a lawsuit). At the café one afternoon, Cherril receives word that Allison has been found dead in her hotel—and foul play is suspected. When a veterinarian, who was also involved in the scandal, is found dead, suspicion soon falls on the animal activists. What started with an internet witch hunt has ended in murder—and in a tightly knit, law-and-order society like Singapore, everyone is on edge.

Before anyone else gets hurt—and to save her business—Aunty Lee must get to the bottom of what really happened three years earlier, and figure out who is to be trusted in this tangled web of scandal and lies.

In Volume 1: Foundations, we begin Akar’s journey of exploration at home. Foundations features musings on faith, nature and tradition through photography, essays, visual art and poetry by fellow Singaporeans. This issue also includes interviews with Singapore’s principal storyteller Kamini Ramachandran, veteran angklung music instructor Faridah Jamal and plant medicine expert Ajuntha Anwari.