The Season for Ghost Stories
The Hungry Ghost Festival has started! I only became aware when my friends mentioned it while we were planning a late-night out, and one of them (she's also reading this) said, "Just to over-inform…tomorrow is the night before the gates open," which made us all laugh!
It's a great time to dive into ghost stories. NLB reports that Singaporeans' most borrowed title is the True Singapore Ghost Stories. Although I loved ghost stories as a teen, as an adult, I don't quite have the stomach for them. I would rather not ponder certain supernatural mysteries! 😐
Nonetheless, I know some or many of you enjoy them, so here are my recs for this season.
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The Mystical Mister Kay (Book 3) The Mystical Mister Kay, a ghost-seer from Singapore, arrives in Tolwich searching for his friend Miss Cassidy. A princess is found dead. A cult-like fashion house holds the city in its grip. And gods from Ancient Greece and Asia have slipped into the mortal world. Follow him to Tolwich |
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Fright 1: Winners of the 2022 Storytel Epigram Horror Prize Ghost stories have a long tradition in Singapore, and Fright 1 gathers all eleven winners of the 2022 Storytel Epigram Horror Prize, including Meihan Boey and Dave Chua, spanning every subset of the horror genre, told with a Singaporean twist. Eleven writers, eleven frights |
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Ghost Hunters of Geylang At sixteen, Zhong Su Lynn dreams of becoming an official ghost hunter, battling everything from pontianak to shuigui. Her grandfather, the legendary Zhong Kui, is building an undead army, and she has fallen for a jiangshi he created. One of the undead has her heart |
Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2027 Update
We've received 79 manuscripts for this year's Epigram Books Fiction Prize, the highest since the prize began! The team is busy reading and evaluating them. It's an exciting period for us. After every weekend, we have impromptu discussions over "Has anyone read xxxx?" or "Does anyone like xxxx?" Fun times!
We have enlisted the help of about 200+ readers this year, out of the 400 of you who signed up. Thank you! How has it been for you?
We'll be announcing the longlist sometime in early October, so do watch out for that!
New Zines!
We've started stocking zines at Epigram Bookshop, made by a collective of creators called benjamiiiiiiiiin. Here's what we have:
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A zine that documents abandoned furniture in Seng Kang, a young neighbourhood in Singapore. Purposefully designed to model after an IKEA catalogue, this zine aims to reintroduce abandoned furniture to new residents moving into the neighbourhood, encouraging them to see the potential in what's been left behind. Get the SNGKNG catalogue |
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This zine looks at temporary structures in People's Park, Chinatown—one of the oldest public parks in Singapore. Diving into the rich historical context of the park, the area is framed as an urban living room. It captures various DIY strategies used to create such temporary structures and the importance of these spaces as social spaces. Love the DIY elements in this |
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Keep Warm (2025) contains a collage of images and writings exploring food, memories, colours, textures, environments, habits, rituals, beliefs, and systems embedded in the act of eating, the warm architecture within which she grew up in and will grow in. Plain chicken rice paper wrapping a whole lot of colour. Food is love |
Upcoming events
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📅 29 Aug, 2–3.30 pm · Book Bar |
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📅 5 Sep, 5–7 pm · Book Bar |
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📅 6 Sep, 11 am–12 pm · Wardah Books |
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📅 6 Sep, 2–3 pm · Book Bar |
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📅 12 Sep, 2–4 pm · Malay Heritage Centre |
Still my favourite ghost.
Warmly,
Chloe
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