The Straits Times Applauds Marylyn Tan: First Woman to Win Singapore Literature Prize for English Poetry

At the Straits Times, Olivia Ho congratulates Marylyn Tan who made history this year as the first woman to win the Singapore Literature Prize for English poetry for her debut poetry collection, Gaze Back (Ethos Books). Tan is also the first solo female poet to win the prize in any category. Ho notes that Tan's "experimental, subversive debut collection, Gaze Back, was praised by the judges as 'a clarion call for gender and linguistic reclamation'." Further: 

This made Tan, who was one of the youngest shortlisted for the prize this year, a pioneer at the tender age of 27.

"I don't know that it's changed my life," she says of her win. "Maybe it just gives greater power to the point of the writing - which is to make the world a safer, more equitable place, and to overturn the dominant ideologies that perpetuate daily fear for disenfranchised minorities."

Gaze Back, which was published by Ethos Books, takes its title from French feminist theorist Helene Cixous' essay The Laugh Of The Medusa, which refers to the Greek myth of the Gorgon whose gaze turns men to stone.

It pushes boundaries, both in form and content, and tackles taboo topics such as menstruation, female sexuality and witchcraft.

It was also shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards, a notable United States-based prize for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender works.

Continue reading at the Straits Times.