[the poetry billboard] - the poet : Alvin Pang

Alvin Pang


ALVIN PANG holds First Class Honours in Literature from the University of York in England and an Honorary Fellowship in Writing from the University of Iowa's International Writing Program (2002). His first volume TESTING THE SILENCE (1997) was listed as one of Top Ten Books of 1997 by The Straits Times and was nominated for the National Book Development Council for the Book Awards in 1998/9. CITY OF RAIN, published in 2003, is his second volume of poetry.

He is the co-editor of the seminal volume, NO OTHER CITY: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry (2000), one of the Straits Times' Top Ten reads of 2000 and a key text on university syllabuses. In 2001, he was one of a quartet of bilateral editors who developed a joint anthology of Singapore-Filipino love poetry, released as LOVE GATHERS ALL: A Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry (Ethos Books / Anvil Press, 2002). The volume won the Global Filippino Literary Award for Poetry in 2003.

Pang was the featured poet of the Spring 2002 issue of the Atlanta Review (USA), a journal which counts Nobel Prize laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott among its contributors. His work has been featured in journals such as the English Review (UK), Paper Tiger (Australia), Interlogue: Studies in Singapore Literature, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore and RHYTHMS: The Millennium Anthology of Singapore Poetry, for which he was also the English Language Poetry Editor. He is also the Country Editor (Singapore) for the forthcoming Penguin Book of Southeast Asian Verse.

A recipient of several Singapore International Foundation and National Arts Council grants, Pang frequently assists the National Arts Council in literary projects. He served on the organizing committees of the Singapore Writer’s Festivals in 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003.

A former teacher, bureaucrat, journalist and web-producer, Pang is also the founder and editor of online poetry anthology, The Poetry Billboard, the Literary Singapore news website and mailing list (info@writer.per.sg). His articles, essays and commentaries also appear on www.verbosity.net.

Pang has made international appearances in support of Singaporean writing. He led a delegation of Singapore writers to Australia in July 2001, another to the Austin International Poetry Festival in April 2002, and attended the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2003 as an invited international writer.

Pang is a founding organiser of WORDFEAST, Singapore's first poetry festival.


alf@poetic.com



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