Joshua Ip
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Joshua Ip (born 1982, Singapore) is a Singaporean poet, and writer.


Biography

Joshua Ip attended Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and
Raffles Junior College The Raffles Junior College (RJC) was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The college was founded in 1982, following a separation from the pre-university section of Raffles Institution (RI). Raffles Junior College ...
before completing a degree in Creative Writing at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. He was mentored by Lee Tzu Pheng and Heng Siok Tian.


Works

Ip has published four volumes of poetry with
Math Paper Press BooksActually is an independent bookstore operating online. It was formerly located in Singapore's Tiong Bahru district till 2020. History and description BooksActually was established by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai in 2005 on the second floor ...
and edited nine anthologies. His first collection, "sonnets from the singlish" (
Math Paper Press BooksActually is an independent bookstore operating online. It was formerly located in Singapore's Tiong Bahru district till 2020. History and description BooksActually was established by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai in 2005 on the second floor ...
, 2013) co-won the
Singapore Literature Prize The Singapore Literature Prize (abbreviation: SLP) is a biennial award in Singapore to recognise outstanding published works by Singaporean authors in any of the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The competition is organis ...
in 2014. The collection has been referred to in The Straits Times as "a playful subversion of the form's rhythm and rhymes". Ip's work in "sonnets from the singlish" has been described as building "a distinctly contemporary Singapore slant through the formalism of his verse", and " isgreatest strength lies in crafting these absurd scenarios, which vividly and concisely capture the gist of his philosophising." Ip's focus on formal poetry has been compared to the "freeer approach to the writing of poetry of Singapore's first generation of postcolonial poets." Of his latest collection, "footnotes on falling",
Rain Taxi ''Rain Taxi'' is a Minneapolis-based book review and literary organization. In addition to publishing its quarterly print edition, ''Rain Taxi'' maintains an online edition with distinct content, sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival, hosts read ...
wrote that "Ip's work binds together the morbid curiosity of our sourest livelihoods and the relief of wordplay", and
The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...
described the collection as "poems that work as puzzles to be decoded.". Ip is a often-cited editor of contemporary Singapore poetry anthologies, having co-edited with Christine Chia the collection "A Luxury We Cannot Afford", a response to the 1969 pronouncement by then-PM of Singapore
Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...
that "poetry is a luxury we cannot afford."The collection brings together "a rich variety of poems by both established figures and newly emergent voices", and "endeavors to imagine and create spaces for literature in Singapore.". More recent anthologies include "Unfree Verse" (2015), the first collection of Singaporean formal poetry spanning 80 years of history, which "represents an unprecedented attempt to plug the gap where Singaporean formal poetry is concerned", and "Call and Response"(2019), reviewed in
The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...
as " akingSingapore's burgeoning migrant worker poetry scene a step further by pairing works by more than 30 migrants, the bulk of them low-wage transient workers, with poems written in response by locals." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature notes that "he has emerged as a prolific contributor to the genre... avingeither individual collections or edited volumes each year." Ip won the Golden Point Award for Prose in 2013 for his short story, "The Man Who Turned Into a Photocopier", and was first runner-up for Poetry in 2011. He was selected as one of the National Arts Council's "New Voices of Singapore" in 2014. He was the recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2017.


Literary Activities

Ip founded the inaugural Singapore Poetry Writing Month in April 2014, a movement which gathered poets online to write a poem a day for 30 days. Recent editions reached an audience of 6,000 and included physical events such as MRT-based poetry readings and performance-poetry-professional-wrestling hybrid performances. He co-founded Sing Lit Station, a literary non-profit that was awarded a National Arts Council seed grant to develop writing in Singapore through literary bootcamps and workshops. Ip has represented
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
at international literary festivals and publishing conferences including the
Griffith Review ''Griffith Review'' is a quarterly publication featuring essays, reportage, memoir, fiction, poetry and artwork from established and emerging writers and artists. Each edition focuses on a contemporary theme, enabling pertinent issues to be aired ...
New Asia Now tour of Australia, Asia-Pacific Writers Festival in
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
, the
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
Literary Festival, the
London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and di ...
, and the New York Singapore Literature Festival. He has been a featured writer at the
Singapore Writers Festival The Singapore Writers Festival is a literary event organised by the National Arts Council. Inaugurated in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well ...
since 2012.


Selected bibliography


Poetry

* ''sonnets from the singlish'' (
Math Paper Press BooksActually is an independent bookstore operating online. It was formerly located in Singapore's Tiong Bahru district till 2020. History and description BooksActually was established by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai in 2005 on the second floor ...
, 2012) * ''making love with scrabble tiles'' (Math Paper Press, 2013) * ''sonnets from the singlish upsize edition'' (Math Paper Press, 2015) * ''footnotes on falling'' (Math Paper Press, 2018) * ''Farquhar'' (
Ethos Books Established in 1997, Ethos Books is an independent book publisher based in Singapore. It is an imprint of Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, a communications and design house. Ethos Books specialises in publishing literary works of fiction, non-fict ...
, 2020) *''translations to the tanglish'' (Math Paper Press, 2021)


Anthologies (edited)

* ''SingPoWriMo 2014: The Anthology'' (Math Paper Press, 2014) * ''A Luxury We Cannot Afford'' (Math Paper Press, 2014) * ''SingPoWriMo 2015: The Anthology'' (Math Paper Press, 2015) * ''A Luxury We Must Afford'' (Math Paper Press, 2016) * ''SingPoWriMo 2016: The Anthology'' (Math Paper Press, 2016) * ''UnFree Verse'' (
Ethos Books Established in 1997, Ethos Books is an independent book publisher based in Singapore. It is an imprint of Pagesetters Services Pte Ltd, a communications and design house. Ethos Books specialises in publishing literary works of fiction, non-fict ...
, 2017) * ''Twin Cities: An anthology of twin cinema from Singapore and Hong Kong'' ( Landmark Books, 2017) * ''Call and Response: a migrant/local poetry anthology'' (Math Paper Press, 2018) * ''11 x 9: Collaborative poetry from the Philippines and Singapore '' (Math Paper Press, 2019) *''to let the light in: an anthology'' (Landmark Books / Asia Pacific Hospice Network, 2021)


Prose

* ''Peace is a Foot Reflexology Parlour'', Balik Kampung 2A, 2013 * ''ROBOTZ ATTACKZ THE CITEH'', From the Belly of the Cat, 2013 * ''The Man Who Turned Into a Photocopier'', Golden Point Award, 2011


Awards

* Young Artist Award Singapore, 2017 *
Singapore Literature Prize The Singapore Literature Prize (abbreviation: SLP) is a biennial award in Singapore to recognise outstanding published works by Singaporean authors in any of the four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil. The competition is organis ...
– Co-winner (English Poetry), 2014 * National Arts Council Creation Grant, 2014


References


External links


''poetry.sg'' profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ip, Joshua Singapore Literature Prize winners Living people Singaporean poets Singaporean literature Male poets Anglo-Chinese School alumni Raffles Junior College alumni 1982 births