Singapore Writers Festival 2021 returns from Nov 5 to Nov 14

The Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) returns for its 24th edition this November and will bring together a pool of international and local writers, hosts, and musicians. 

The event, which takes place from Nov 5 to Nov 14, invites local and international authors to share their candid thoughts and juicy opinions while creating safe spaces for the public to enjoy literary pleasures.

Presented by Arts House Limited (AHL) and commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), the SWF will facilitate a hybrid festival this year – with online and in-person programmes.

This year’s theme is “Guilty Pleasures” and the SWF wants audiences to discover things they love but are too shy to speak up about. Both audiences and authors will be able to explore the complicated relationship between guilt and pleasure, as well as discover others with similar interests. 

“By exploring complicated relationships between guilt and pleasures, we are hoping that these novel pursuits will appeal to a wider audience and signal that the festival is not afraid of pushing boundaries to move Singapore’s literature scene forwards,” said festival director Pooja Nansi in a statement.

She added that this year’s cheeky theme hopes to bring some cheer and laughter to local and international literary communities. 

With a pool of local and international writers, hosts and musicians, the event is sure to be exciting.

This year’s exhilarating lineup features authors across different genres and thinkers from various facets of the literary sphere such as award-winning children’s horror story writer R.L. Stine and television host Tan France.

They will be joined by T.S Eliot Prize-winning poet Ocean Vuong, Marvel Comics writer G. Willow Wilson and Hamed Ismail, a veteran writer in Singapore’s Malay community. 

Aspiring poets can look forward to Ocean Vuong’s appearance as he shares about finding our voice in a world rife with narratives. Award-winning poet Geetha Sukumaran and two other festival authors will also share their views on the evolution of modern Tamil, Chinese, and Malay Poetry.

The lineup also includes Singaporean personalities like Bjorn Shen of MasterChef Singapore, Pamelia Chia, the author of Wet Market To Table, and Sivadorai Sellakannu, one half of singing duo Jack & Rai.

Early-bird tickets will go on sale starting Friday (Sep 3) at 12pm for the 24th edition of the annual SWF. Ticket prices start from $16.

Interested participants can book their tickets via SISTIC or find out more about the programme here.