BNSSS

Series · 5 books · 2013-2023

By Jason Erik Lundberg, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Cyril Wong, and more

Books in series

Best New Singaporean Short Stories

Volume One

2013

Singaporean literature has begun experiencing a sea change, with the short story form enjoying a renaissance. As a result, an explosion of short fiction with a Singaporean flavour has been produced to incredible effect, both by emerging and established writers. For the prose enthusiast, it is a very exciting time. The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume One curates the finest short fiction from Singaporean writers published in 2011 and 2012. This ground-breaking and unique anthology showcases stories that examine various facets of the human condition and the truths that we tell ourselves in order to exist in the everyday. The styles are as varied as the authors, and no two pieces are alike. Here are twenty unique and breathtaking literary insights into the Singaporean psyche, which examine what it means to live in this particular part of the world at this particular time. Contents: Introduction | Jason Erik Lundberg The Tiger of 142B | Dave Chua The Hearing Aid | Vinita Ramani Mohan The Illoi of Kantimeral | Alvin Pang Lighthouse | Yu-Mei Balasingamchow Seascrapers | Stephanie Ye Because I Tell | Felix Cheong Sleeping | O Thiam Chin Agnes Joaquim, Bioterrorist | Ng Yi-Sheng The Dispossessed | Karen Kwek Harmonious Residences | Jeremy Tiang Randy’s Rotisserie | Amanda Lee Koe The Protocol Wars of Laundry and Coexistence | Koh Choon Hwee Zero Hour | Cyril Wong Walls | Verena Tay Copies | Eleanor Neo Welcome to the Pond | Wei Fen Lee Scared For What | Ann Ang Joo Chiat and Other Lost Things | Justin Ker Anniversary | Phan Ming Yen The Borrowed Boy | Alfian Sa’at

Best New Singaporean Short Stories

Volume Two

2015

The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Two gathers twenty-four of the finest stories from Singaporean writers published in 2013 and 2014, selected from hundreds published in journals, magazines, anthologies and single-author collections. These pieces examine life in Singapore, beyond its borders to Toronto, California, Shanghai, Andhra Pradesh, Pyongchon and Paris, as well as to the distant past and the far future. Accompanying the stories are the editor’s introduction and an extensive list of honourable mentions for further reading. Contents: Introduction | Jason Erik Lundberg A Day in the Death | Evan Adam Ang The Cat That Disappeared | O Thiam Chin Patterns of a Murmuration, In Billions of Data Points | JY Yang Toronto | Jeremy Tiang Certainty | Tania De Rozario White Noise | Samantha Toh Visiting | Yu-Mei Balasingamchow A Red Meteor in the Margins | Cheryl Julia Lee Why Do Chinese People Have Slanted Eyes? | Amanda Lee Koe Mama at Owen Road | Gemma Pereira Anaesthesia | Andrew Cheah Foreign and Domestic | Kirstin Chen I m d 1 in 10 | Victor Fernando R. Ocampo A Short History of the Sun | Wong Shu Yun The Crocodile Prince | Ng Yi-Sheng Tenali Raman Redux | Jennani Durai Off Duty | Jinny Koh A Dream in Pyongchon | Daryl Qilin Yam Meat Bone Tea | Stephanie Ye The Moral Support of Presence | Karen Kwek Coast | Sharlene Teo Reel | Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan The Man Who Turned Into a Photocopier | Joshua Ip The Judge | Claire Tham

Best New Singaporean Short Stories

Volume Three

2017

The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Three gathers the finest Singaporean stories published in 2015 and 2016, selected by guest editor Cyril Wong from hundreds published in journals, magazines, anthologies and single-author collections. Accompanying the stories are the editor’s preface and an extensive list of honourable mentions for further reading. Contents: Preface | Cyril Wong Introduction | Jason Erik Lundberg These Foolish Things | Yeo Wei Wei The Thing | Yeoh Jo-Ann See It Coming | Jennifer Anne Champion Walking Backwards Up Bukit Timah Hill| Jon Gresham Salvation Solution | Ovidia Yu A Century of Loneliness | Andrew Cheah Thing Language| Daryl Qilin Yam The City Beneath the City | Jason Wee Last Night I Dreamt That Harry Was In Love With Me | Amanda Lee Koe Prices | Sam Ng Dark Shades | Yeow Kai Chai Love in a Time of Dying | Andrew Yuen Junk Mail | Joelyn Alexandra Falling Water | Leonora Liow Claire | SC Gordon Madam Jamilah’s Family Portrait | Nuraliah Norasid Better Places | Jollin Tan In the End | Noelle Q. de Jesus Peelings | Su Leong The Sensualist | Verena Tay Baba Ganoush | Eva Aldea It Happened at Mount Pleasant | Melissa De Silva Campfire | O Thiam Chin Want Less | Clara Chow Library | Philip Holden The Tigers of Bengal | Manish Melwani

The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories

Volume Four

2019

"Our stories are everywhere we look, and those stories matter; they are as varied and as manifold as we are. The pieces here are by student writers, full-time writers, hobbyists—some of the writers are based in Singapore, some are away from the city, and others call this city home, however momentarily. But all these stories speak to the very human truths of loss and desire in one way or another." –from the preface The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Four gathers the finest Singaporean stories published in 2017 and 2018, selected by guest editor Pooja Nansi from hundreds published in journals, magazines, anthologies and single-author collections. Contents: Preface | Pooja Nansi Introduction | Jason Erik Lundberg Limassol, Cyprus | Balli Kaur Jaswal The Tunnel | Patrick Sagaram Fusings | Rachel Heng Just the Green Bit | Daryl Qilin Yam Blindness | Cyril Wong Regrettable Things | Jennani Durai The Angel Tiger | Barrie Sherwood Not Yet Pekak | Ikmaliah Idi In Between Houses | Zhu Yuan Laura Love in Singapore | Nidhi Arora Edison and Curie | Inez Tan As If We Could Dream Forever | Victor Fernando R. Ocampo Oh-Chien | Lydia Kwa Wings for Marie | Shreya Acharya Land of a Thousand Smiles | Jinny Koh SIN | Ng Yi-Sheng

Best New Singaporean Short Stories

Volume Five

2023

The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume Five gathers the finest Singaporean stories published in 2019 and 2020, selected by guest editor Balli Kaur Jaswal from hundreds published in journals, magazines, anthologies and single-author collections. Contents: Preface | Balli Kaur Jaswal Introduction | Jason Erik Lundberg Harihara | Cyril Wong Fish | Ashish Xiangyi Kumar The Prayer Mat | Wisha Jamal The Visit | Jon Gresham Fling | Jayashree Panicker To Ashes | Wayne Rée The Panasonic | Prasanthi Ram The Prisoner | Yu-Mei Balasinghamchow Who’s Your Daddy? / Siapa Bapak Kau? | Suffian Hakim A Minor Kalahari | Diana Rahim Xingzhou | Ng Yi-Sheng Sacred Scalp | Anittha Thanabalan Buddha was an Aries | Adeline Chia A Trip to the Beach | Barrie Sherwood The Kapre | Patricia Karunungan The Best of Times | Samantha Toh The Unsullied Tongue of Saint Anthony | Arin Alycia Fong

Authors

Jason Erik Lundberg

Author · 7 books

Jason Erik Lundberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has lived in Singapore since 2007. His latest publications are his first novel (and 25th book), A Fickle and Restless Weapon (2020), a related novella, Diary of One Who Disappeared (2019, recipient of a 2013 Creation Grant from Singapore's National Arts Council), and a "greatest hits" short fiction collection, Most Excellent and Lamentable: Selected Stories (2019). He is also the author of many books for adults—including Red Dot Irreal (2011), The Alchemy of Happiness (2012), Strange Mammals (2013), and Embracing the Strange (2013); books for children—the six-book Bo Bo and Cha Cha picture book series (2012–2015) and Carol the Coral (2016); and more than a hundred short stories, articles, and book reviews. His writing has been translated into half a dozen languages, and seen publication in venues such as Mānoa, the Raleigh News & Observer, Farrago’s Wainscot, Hot Metal Bridge, Strange Horizons, Subterranean Magazine, The Third Alternative, Electric Velocipede, and many other places. His work has also been shortlisted for the SLF Fountain Award, Brenda L. Smart Award for Short Fiction, SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Award, and POPULAR Readers’ Choice Award; he was honourably mentioned twice in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Lundberg has been the fiction editor at Epigram Books since 2012, where he jump-started the publisher's fiction line; many of the books he's edited since have won multiple national awards, and made various year’s best lists. He has also served as a prose mentor with Singapore's Creative Arts Programme and Ceriph Mentorship Programme. In addition, he is the founding editor of LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction (2012–2018), series editor for the biennial Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series (est. 2013), editor of Fish Eats Lion Redux (2022) and Fish Eats Lion (2012), and co-editor of A Field Guide to Surreal Botany (2008) and Scattered, Covered, Smothered (2004). From 2005–2008, he facilitated an occasional podcast called Lies and Little Deaths: A Virtual Anthology. An active member in PEN America and a 2002 graduate of the prestigious Clarion Writers Workshop, Lundberg holds a Master's degree in creative writing from North Carolina State University, and was a 2023 International Writer-in-Residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation Residency Program in South Korea.

Balli Kaur Jaswal

Author · 6 books

Balli Kaur Jaswal's latest novel is The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters (Harper Collins/William Morrow). Her previous novels include Inheritance, which won the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelist Award, and Sugarbread, a finalist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize and the Singapore Literature Prize. Her third novel Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was translated into 15 languages and chosen by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine book club.

Cyril Wong

Author · 21 books

Cyril Wong is a two-time Singapore Literature Prize-winning poet and the recipient of the Singapore National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Literature. His books include poetry collections Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light (2007) and The Lover’s Inventory (2015), novels The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza (2013) and This Side of Heaven (2020), and fiction collection Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me (2014). He completed his doctoral degree in English Literature at the National University of Singapore in 2012. His works have been featured in the Norton anthology, Language for a New Century, in Chinese Erotic Poems by Everyman’s Library, and in magazines and journals around the world. His writings have been translated into Turkish, German, Italian, French, Portuguese and Japanese.

Pooja Nansi

Author · 4 books

Pooja Nansi is an educator and poet who believes in the power that speech and performance can lend to the written word. She has published two collections of poetry, and co -written a teacher’s resource for using Singaporean Poetry in the classroom . She also curates a monthly Spoken Word and Poetry showcase called Speakeasy at Artistry Cafe.