The printed word has long shaped how we view the world - from shedding light on society to coining buzzwords that have permeated everyday speak. Using John Berger's iconic work, Ways of Seeing, as a springboard, join book lovers - Cyril Wong, an award-winning poet and writer, Jeremy Fernando, reader, writer and fellow of Tembusu College, and Pooja Nansi, Festival Director of the Singapore Writers Festival - who will share their favourite books that have blown their mind and expanded their ways of seeing.

About Critical Conversations

As part of the CFA’s vision to nurture creative minds and inquiring spirits through the arts, the NUS Arts Festival presents Critical Conversations – a series of talks and panel discussions aimed at deepening the discourse and engagement with the themes raised during the festival. The series is moderated by Dr Kamalini Ramdas, NUS Arts Festival Academic Advisor.

Profiles

Cyril Wong

Cyril Wong is the Singapore Literature Prize-winning author of poetry collections such as Unmarked Treasure and The Lover's Inventory. He has also published Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me and Other Stories. A past recipient of the National Arts Council's Young Artist Award for Literature, he completed his doctoral degree in English Literature at the National University of Singapore in 2012. His poems have been anthologised in the Norton anthology, Language for a New Century and Chinese Erotic Poems by Everyman's Library.

Jeremy Fernando

Jeremy Fernando reads, and writes; and is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at The European Graduate School. He works in the intersections of literature, philosophy, and the media; and his, more than twenty, books include Reading Blindly, Writing Death, in fidelity, writing skin, and resisting art. His writing has also been featured in magazines and journals; and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Serbian. Exploring other media has led him to film, music, performance-talks, and the visual arts; and his work has been shown in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Seoul, Vienna, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He is the general editor of both Delere Press and the thematic magazine One Imperative; and is a Lecturer & Fellow of Tembusu College at The National University of Singapore.

Pooja Nansi

Pooja Nansi is the author of two collections of poetry. Her key performance work includes her one-woman show, You Are Here which explores issues of migration through personal family histories. She also wrote and performed Thick Beats for Good Girls with Checkpoint Theatre which opened in April 2018 and explored the intersections between feminism, identity and Hip Hop. She was a recipient of the Young Artist Award in 2016. She is also the co-founder of Other Tongues, a literary festival of minority voice. She teaches creative writing at Nanyang Technological University and is the current festival director of the Singapore Writers Festival.