Ng Yi Sheng

Photo of Ng Yi-Sheng 2004

Ng Yi-Sheng (born 1980) is a Singaporean writer. He has published a collection of his poems entitled "last boy" and a documentary book on gay, lesbian and bisexual Singaporeans called SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century in 2006.

Early life and education

Ng lived in Hong Kong with his parents for three years during his childhood. His mother is Ng Gim Choo[1], founder and managing director of EtonHouse International Education Group. On his return to Singapore, he attended the Anglo-Chinese School. He graduated from Columbia University, USA, where he majored in Comparative Literature and Writing. His writing teachers at Columbia University included Louise Rose, Steve Austin, Paul Violi and Timothy Donnelly.

Through the initiative of the Creative Arts Programme, he underwent mentorship schemes with the poets Lee Tzu Pheng and Angeline Yap, as well as worked on playwriting under Theatrework's Greenhouse Project and The Necessary Stage's Playwright's Cove.

Publications

His poems have been published in the poetry anthologies "First Words", "onewinged", "No Other City" and "Love Gathers All", as well as the journals "the2ndRule", "QRLS", "Softblow", "Quarto", "Asian Journal" and "Queer". In 1998, he won first prize in the NUS Poetry Competition, and in 2003, fared similarly at the Writers' Week Poetry Slam.

He won the SPH-Theatreworks 24-hour Playwriting Competition two years in a row, in 1998 and 1999, and has been published in the play anthology "5 under 25". His performed plays include "Serve' (The Ordinary Theatre), "Snake" (Stage Right), "Redhill Blues" (Creative Arts Alumni Programme, Republic Polytechnic), "Hungry" (Theatreworks, Singapore Polytechnic, Anderson Secondary School and International Islamic University, Malaysia). One of his plays formed the core of "Poetic Licence", a performance poetry production by STAGES presented in 2002 and 2005.

In August 2006, he published a collection of gay, lesbian and bisexual Singaporeans' coming out stories, "SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century". In October 2006, he published his first collection of poetry, "Last Boy".

In 2007, Ng completed his work on "251", a play about the life of Singaporean porn star Annabel Chong and "Georgette", a musical about the artist Georgette Chen.

Performances

Ng also regards himself as a performance artist, in addition to being a writer. He performed slam poetry pieces for ContraDiction, Singapore's first gay poetry reading event held in 2005, and was a co-organiser and performer in its sequel, ContraDiction 2, in 2006.

He delivered a lecture on Western gay history during IndigNation 2006, Singapore's second gay pride season.

He continues to perform his poetry at various events, namely at his book launches, at literary events and at charity functions in support of arts venues such as The Substation.

Works

• "last boy", by Ng Yi-Sheng (2006, firstfruits publications), ISBN 981-05-6309-4

External links

• Ng Yi-Sheng's careerblog
• Interview with Ng on the Singaporean arts website "we live in a strange world"
• Video of IndigNation lecture
• Videos by Brian Gothong Tan of 2 of Ng's poems: kami/kaze: a correspondence and Virgo.