MFA Writing Colloquium: Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05: Documentary Poetics

In this reading and talk, Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05 will read from and discuss poems from his book Sample and Loop: A Simple History of Singaporeans in America (Gaudy Boy, 2023). Called “a new Canterbury Tales for our time”, Sample and Loop tells the story of the migration of Singaporeans to the United States of America, rendering the surprising trajectory of lived experience in musical verse. This reading and talk will discuss documentary poetics, the process of interviewing for a book-length project, and the author’s work in founding the transnational literary organization Singapore Unbound and Gaudy Boy press, and in organizing the upcoming Singapore Literature Festival in NYC.

Jee Leong Koh MFA ’05 is the author of Steep Tea (Carcanet), named a Best Book of the Year by UK's Financial Times and a Finalist by Lambda Literary in the US. His hybrid work of fiction, Snow at 5 PM: Translations of an insignificant Japanese poet won the Singapore Literature Prize. His latest book Sample and Loop: A Simple History of Singaporeans in America is shortlisted for this year's Singapore Literature Prize in creative nonfiction. Jee founded and heads the NYC-based transnational literary organization, Singapore Unbound, which publishes literary works through the Gaudy Boy press and the SUSPECT journal and organizes events such as the Singapore Literature Festival and the Second Saturdays Reading Series.

This event is colloquium credit eligible and will be held both in person and over Zoom. Register for the Zoom livestream HERE.