Singapore writers’ fest kicks off Mid-November
Writers from Asia and elsewhere gather in Singapore from Nov 13-22 for the island state’s writers’ festival, now in its 29th year with the theme “Hidden in Plain Sight.”
Among those scheduled to deliver talks or participate in fora are Granta-published Indian American author Amitav Ghosh, who will deliver the keynote address on opening weekend, on reimagining the planet’s future at the crossroads of crises; Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng, whose Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asia Literary Prize; and Bulacan-based children’s author Caris Avendaño Cruz, one of whose books is under the imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giraux.
Awarded India’s highest literary honor, the Jnanpith prize, Ghosh is best known for The Sea of Poppies, the first novel of the “Ibis” trilogy, and the non-fiction In an Antique Land published by Granta Books. Eng’s other novels are The Gift of Rain and The House of Doors. Avendaño Cruz, who works as copywriter for internet brands, wrote The Boy, the Mountain, and The Serpent Who Ate the Moon.
On Saturday afternoon after Ghosh’s keynote, delegates are to be brought to the Funan Underground Pedestrian Link to experience Undercurrents, a walk-through site-specific installation.
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At around the same time on Saturday, though not on the official program, Island Imaginaries, featuring poems from the Philippines and Singapore, will be launched at Book Bar on Duxton Road. The book features poems by Dinah Roma and Wendell Capili and is co-edited by Joel Toledo, and is seen as a much-awaited sequel to the poetry collaboration between the two states decades ago, Love Gathers All.
In the evening, Avendaño Cruz joins Singapore writers Nuraliah Norasid and Ng Yi-Sheng in a panel titled “Spirits, Serpents and Sacred Fears: Mystical Belief in Fiction.” Running simultaneously is Poetry Game Night with Ella Frears, where the British poet introduces her co-created literary game, Poetry Fruit Machine, with writing prompts and exercises that could be a staple in writers’ workshops.
Also on the festival slate are BAFTA-nominated filmmaker Shiori Ito, New Zealand poet Rachel Smythe, and MacArthur fellow Ruha Benjamin.
A new festival spotlight is on crime and mystery fiction, with Canada’s Silvia Moreno-Garcia (author of Mexican Gothic), Ireland’s Louise Hegarty and China’s Shuang Xuetao tapped to be on hand, while Korea’s queen of mystery Seo Mi-Ae anchors a panel on the making of a serial killer.
The festival extends its offerings city-wide, including a walking tour that explores Singapore’s lost cinemas, and a closer look at the island’s indigenous communities such as the Orang Laut.
Ghosh returns Sunday afternoon after the walking tour to panel with Jemimah Wei and Balli Kaur Jaswal for “What the Family Doesn’t Say,” where, according to program notes, the novelists discuss “migration as inheritance, ambition as a fault line, and the particular ache of watching a family bend – or break – under history’s weight.”
Arts House Group organizes the Singapore Writers Festival 2026, where festival director Yong Shu Hong is on his third and last year. “Hidden in Plain Sight invites audiences to look closer at the stories, assumptions and truths that shape how we see the world,” a program primer says.
Also not on the slate but strongly suggested is a walk through Bras Basah Complex with its array of bookstores and art supply stores, like a Book Sale exponentially multiplied. Surely delegates will find something here that delights and keeps the Merlion of the mind satisfied.
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