{"product_id":"clear-brightness","title":"Clear Brightness","description":"\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePraise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #404040;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSelected by \u003cem\u003eThe Straits Times \u003c\/em\u003eas one of the Best Books of 2012\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #404040;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/0041\/files\/ClearBrightness-Sample_8bfda027-bdb3-4948-98a4-a3f2e13ddf74.pdf?589\" style=\"color: #404040;\"\u003eLook inside the book\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn poems that shuttle between Singapore and Australia, award-winning poet Boey Kim Cheng seeks to establish a new senseof self and home on the shifting ground between memory and imagination. A noodle-maker in Melbourne triggers connective threads to the poet’s birthplace. A train crossing over the Johor-Singapore Causeway evokes the dislocating experience of interstitial existence. After six long years, one of Singapore’s greatest modern voices returns with a work of profound insight and erudition. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eClear Brightness\u003c\/em\u003e has since been selected as an ‘A’-Level literature text in Singapore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y5eon9m9064\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Boey Kim Cheng perseveres in drawing poignant bridges between a vanishing past and that ever-indifferent future. Each poem marks a destination that has disappeared, or is disappearing, marked by a sense of both public and intensely personal loss, accumulating in what the poet has himself described as a growing ‘list of the disappeared’—full of heartfelt inventory, difficult reconciliations and a thoughtful compassion. \u003cem\u003eClear Brightness\u003c\/em\u003e is Boey’s best collection yet.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e—\u003c\/em\u003eCyril Wong, author of\u003cem\u003e \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/shop.epigrambooks.sg\/products\/the-last-lesson-of-mrs-de-souza\"\u003eThe Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/shop.epigrambooks.sg\/products\/ten-things-my-father-never-taught-me\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eTen Things My Father Never Taught Me and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e“The poems in \u003ci\u003eClear Brightness\u003c\/i\u003e continue the story of the writer’s life in Australia while harking back to the rhythms of his birthplace. The result is verses juxtaposing contrasts such as the Qing Ming grave-cleaning ritual with the menace of a bush fire. Haunting and mesmerising.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Akshita Nanda, \u003ci\u003eThe Straits Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e“There is a mellowness to the writing, a new sensuality to sense memories invoked with vivid clarity, and, dare I say it, even clear notes of happiness. The deft interplay of images, drawn from tapestry and music, are a swoonsome delight to read.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Ong Sor Fern, \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“No other writer from Singapore influences the country’s current batch of poets more than Australia’s new citizen Boey Kim Cheng.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Gwee Li Sui, author and illustrator of \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/shop.epigrambooks.sg\/products\/myth-of-the-stone\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eMyth of the Stone\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“Boey Kim Cheng’s poems gather as they go powerful rhythmical force precisely by being rooted in the specifics of experience and feeling. They are deeply moving for their grand (and sometimes sorrow-shot) amplitude, as they take in the plurality of this breathtaking world.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Judith Beveridge, winner of the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“The best post-1965 English-language poet in the republic today.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Shirley Geok-lin Lim, author of \u003ci\u003eAmong the White Moon Faces\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“There is no denying the power of his poetry, a poetry so often, one feels, energised by its need to break through.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Anne Lee Tzu Pheng, Cultural Medallion recipient for Literature\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e“Boey’s words freeze moments across cities, and landscapes of the mind wedged in different slices of time. The longtime reader will find that the sojourning impulse through his earlier poems now settle into a less restless beat, and the anxious search for home gives way to an acceptance of multiple ones.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Wei Fen Lee, co-editor of \u003ci\u003eCeriph\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCoast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoey Kim Cheng\u003c\/strong\u003e is a multi-award-winning Singapore-born poet, and a 1996 recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award. He emigrated to Australia in 1997, but returned in 2013 as one of Nanyang Technological University's writers-in-residence; he is currently Associate Professor in the NTU Division of English. He co-founded \u003ci\u003eMascara Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e in 2007, the first Australian literary journal to promote Asian Australian writing, and in 2013 co-edited the groundbreaking anthology \u003ci\u003eContemporary Asian Australian Poets.\u003c\/i\u003e Boey has published five collections of poetry, including \u003ci\u003eClear Brightness\u003c\/i\u003e (selected by \u003ci\u003eThe Straits Times\u003c\/i\u003e as one of the Best Books of 2012), as well as \u003ci\u003eBetween Stations\u003c\/i\u003e, a celebrated travel memoir reissued by Epigram Books in 2017. His writing is frequently studied in tertiary and university institutions in Singapore and abroad. \u003ci\u003eGull Between Heaven and Earth\u003c\/i\u003e is his first novel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Epigram Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":804280195,"sku":"9789810741822","price":20.9,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/0041\/products\/ClearBrightness-CVF-100.jpg?v=1409048985","url":"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/products\/clear-brightness","provider":"Epigram","version":"1.0","type":"link"}