52. Lines Of Tropical Sensibility with Ng Yi-Sheng

In this episode of Before We Get There, host Nicholas Braman interviews Ng Yi-Sheng, a poet, playwright, novelist and activist who has spent three decades writing the parts of Singapore that official stories leave out.

He grew up loving fantasy and science fiction at a time when Singapore's literary scene looked down on both. It took a novel from Colombia, read during national service, to show him that his dad's kampung stories counted as literature. Since then he's written about pre-colonial kingdoms, queer Singaporeans and ghosts, and he's learned what it means to end up on a gray list instead of a blacklist.

We talk about why he never settled on one form, what it was like to publish SQ21, why he came home from New York, what he thinks makes Singapore Singapore, and why his newest readers are kids.

Before We Get There is a podcast about the moments that shape us, the ones we plan for and the ones we don't. New episodes every other Thursday.

Yi-Sheng's links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yishkabob/

Website: https://www.ngyisheng.com/ Podcast links:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2h9gsrWKH9C1KY1OzR12kr?si=2a4d19970632465f Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/before-we-get-there/id1775182252 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beforewegettherepodcast/Linktree: https://linktr.ee/nicholasbraman Website: https://nicholasbraman.com/podcast

00:00 Poetry In Prose

04:26 Finishing Utama

06:05 Genre And Respectability

08:46 Oral Tales And Colonial Lens

12:07 SQ21 Coming Out Stories

17:23 Queerness In Fiction