Joshua Ip

Joshua Ip (born 1982, Singapore) is a Singaporean poet,[1] and writer.

Joshua Ip
BornSingapore
OccupationPoet, writer and editor
NationalitySingaporean
EducationBA (English), University of Pennsylvania
Notable awardsSingapore Literature Prize (co-winner; 2014)
National Arts Council Golden Point Award (2015) (2013) (2011)
National Arts Council Arts Creation Fund (2014)
National Arts Council Young Artist Award (2017)

Biography

Joshua Ip attended Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Raffles Junior College before completing a degree in Creative Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. He was mentored by Lee Tzu Pheng and Heng Siok Tian.[2]

Works

Ip has published four volumes of poetry with Math Paper Press and edited nine anthologies. His first collection, "sonnets from the singlish" (Math Paper Press, 2013) co-won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2014.[3][4] The collection has been referred to in The Straits Times as "a playful subversion of the form's rhythm and rhymes".[5] Ip's work in "sonnets from the singlish" has been described as building "a distinctly contemporary Singapore slant through the formalism of his verse"[6], and "[his] greatest strength lies in crafting these absurd scenarios, which vividly and concisely capture the gist of his philosophising."[7] 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."[8] Of his latest collection, "footnotes on falling", Rain Taxi wrote that "Ip's work binds together the morbid curiosity of our sourest livelihoods and the relief of wordplay",[9], and The Straits Times described the collection as "poems that work as puzzles to be decoded."[10].

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 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"[11], and "endeavors to imagine and create spaces for literature in Singapore."[12]. 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",[13], and "Call and Response"(2019), reviewed in The Straits Times as "[taking] Singapore'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."[14] The Journal of Commonwealth Literature notes that "he has emerged as a prolific contributor to the genre... [having] either individual collections or edited volumes each year."[15]

Ip won the Golden Point Award for Prose in 2013 for his short story, "The Man Who Turned Into a Photocopier",[16][17] and was first runner-up for Poetry in 2011.[18] He was selected as one of the National Arts Council's "New Voices of Singapore" in 2014.[19] He was the recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2017.[20]

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.[21][22] Recent editions reached an audience of 5,000 and included physical events such as MRT-based poetry readings [23][24] and performance-poetry-professional-wrestling hybrid performances.[25] He runs 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.[26] [21][27]

Ip has represented Singapore at international literary festivals and publishing conferences including the Griffith Review New Asia Now tour of Australia,[28] Asia-Pacific Writers Festival in Bangkok,[29] the Goa Literary Festival,[30] the London Book Fair,[31] and the New York Singapore Literature Festival.[32] He has been a featured writer at the Singapore Writers Festival since 2012.

Selected bibliography

Poetry
  • sonnets from the singlish (Math Paper Press, 2012) ISBN 978-981-07-1550-2
  • making love with scrabble tiles (Math Paper Press, 2013) ISBN 978-981-07-4779-4
  • sonnets from the singlish upsize edition (Math Paper Press, 2015) ISBN 978-981-09-7884-6
  • footnotes on falling (Math Paper Press, 2018) ISBN 978-981-11-5283-2
  • Farquhar (Ethos Books, 2020) ISBN 978-981-14-2705-3

Anthologies (edited)
  • SingPoWriMo 2014: The Anthology (Math Paper Press, 2014) ISBN 978-981-09-2652-6
  • A Luxury We Cannot Afford (Math Paper Press, 2014) ISBN 978-981-09-2653-3
  • SingPoWriMo 2015: The Anthology (Math Paper Press, 2015) ISBN 978-981-09-7322-3
  • A Luxury We Must Afford (Math Paper Press, 2016) ISBN 978-981-09-8661-2
  • SingPoWriMo 2016: The Anthology (Math Paper Press, 2016) ISBN 978-981-11-1294-2
  • UnFree Verse (Ethos Books, 2017) ISBN 978-981-11-3726-6
  • Twin Cities: An anthology of twin cinema from Singapore and Hong Kong (Landmark Books, 2017) ISBN 978-981-4189-81-1
  • Call and Response: a migrant/local poetry anthology (Math Paper Press, 2018) ISBN 978-981-11-8919-7
  • 11 x 9: Collaborative poetry from the Philippines and Singapore (Math Paper Press, 2019) ISBN 978-981-14-3000-8

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 – Co-winner (English Poetry), 2014
  • National Arts Council Creation Grant, 2014
  • SPH-NAC Golden Point Award – Honorable Mention (Chinese Poetry), 2015
  • SPH-NAC Golden Point Award – Winner (English Prose), 2013
  • SPH-NAC Golden Point Award – First runner-up (English Poetry), 2011

References
  1. "A conversation with Joshua Ip, poet". The Mindful Company. The Mindful Company. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  2. "Young Artist Award 2017: Joshua Ip" (PDF). National Arts Council. 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  3. Council, Singapore Book. "Singapore Literature Prize | Awards | Singapore Book Council". bookcouncil.sg.
  4. "S'pore Literature Prize 2014 winners announced". TODAYonline.
  5. Tan, Corrie (2 September 2012). "Poetry in Motion". The Straits Times. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  6. Tse, Hao Guang (December 2017). "The Postcolonial Sonnet". Axon. 7 (2). Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  7. "Twice the fun with upsized edition". The Business Times Singapore. January 2016.
  8. Talib, Ismail S. (2019). "Malaysia and Singapore". The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 53 (4): 643–660. doi:10.1177/0021989419877064.
  9. "Four recent poetry titles from Singapore's Math Paper Press". Rain Taxi Review.
  10. "Poems that work as puzzles to be decoded". The Straits Times. 14 August 2018.
  11. "The Myth That Dare Not Speak Its Name". Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
  12. Gui, Weihsin (November 2017). "Contemporary Literature from Singapore". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford Research Encyclopedia. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.189. ISBN 9780190201098.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. "An Open Prison". Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.
  14. "Poetic pairings on the migrant experience". The Straits Times. 4 February 2019.
  15. Talib, Ismail S. (2019). "Malaysia and Singapore". The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 53 (4): 643–660. doi:10.1177/0021989419877064.
  16. "S'pore Writers Fest: Golden Point Award 2013 winners announced". TODAYonline.
  17. http://stcommunities.straitstimes.com/show/2013/11/07/young-writers-take-lions-share-prizes-golden-point-award%5B%5D
  18. https://www.nac.gov.sg/events/competitions/golden-point-award#2011 Archived 6 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  19. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. "Meet this year's Cultural Medallion and Young Artist Award winners". The Straits Times. 25 October 2017.
  21. "Read Poets Society: Singapore's poetry scene is booming". TODAYonline.
  22. "New Poems by Ten Singapore Poets: A Postcript | Blue Lyra Review".
  23. "Singapore poetry in motion". The Straits Times. 1 May 2016.
  24. Heng, Tan Teck (10 June 2016). "Poetry 2.0". The Business Times.
  25. "Poets take wrestling classes for Sing Lit Body Slam". The Straits Times. 3 October 2017.
  26. "Singapore's literary scene enjoying revival". The Straits Times. 17 May 2016.
  27. Anjum, Zafar (7 April 2015). "The words are what they are: Interview with Joshua Ip".
  28. "New Asia Now". Griffith Review.
  29. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  30. "Speakers 2014 | Goa Arts and Literature Festival". www.goaartlitfest.com.
  31. "Local lit in London book fair". The Straits Times. 15 April 2013.
  32. http://www.singaporeliteraturefestival.com/authors/
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