SING LIT STATION

Spoken Word: Sass and Substance with Don Shiau

First Course Run: 11 Oct (This date comprises two sessions) & 18 Oct 2025
Second Course Run: 22 Nov, 29 Nov, & 5 Dec 2025

If you’re new to spoken word, it may surprise you. This direct, energetic form of poetry is highly relatable and growing in popularity. In this introductory course, performance poet and arts organiser Don Shiau will give you the tools you need to start writing, performing, and connecting with audiences. You will gain an appreciation for the difference between written and spoken poetry, and learn ways of creating safe spaces for unapologetic self-expression.

Writing the Fantastic with Ng Yi-Sheng

First Course Run: 18 Oct, 19 Oct, & 25 Oct 2025
Second Course Run: 6 Dec, 7 Dec, & 13 Dec 2025 (TBC)

Author, editor and researcher Ng Yi-Sheng guides you on a journey into writing fantasy, science fiction and horror. Participants will learn the basic history of the field, conventions of worldbuilding, tropes and genre, and opportunities to share their work through publication. There will also be in-class writing and workshop sessions, so we can better understand, reflect on and critique one another’s ideas and writing. The intention is to encourage people with an interest in speculative fiction to create work of their own, and to help them understand how to orient themselves in a market that is hungry for fantastical literature of all kinds, as well as visual art, performance and games. It is open both to amateur and experienced writers.

Fiction 101: Back to the Basics of Story, Plot and Narrative with Daryl Qilin Yam

First Course Run: 25 Oct, 26 Oct, & 2 Nov 2025
Second Course Run: 13 Dec, 14 Dec, & 20 Dec 2025

Novelist and editor Daryl Qilin Yam takes you through a crash course on reading and writing fiction by getting you to understand the important functions of story and plot within any literary work; the building blocks of narrative technique vital in making any piece of creative writing sing; as well as an opportunity to hear and receive feedback on a work of fiction in a session of peer-led critique.

Computational Poetry: Large Language Models for Creative Writing with Joses Ho

First Course Run: 1 Nov 2025
Second Course Run: 12 Dec 2025

This course, run by poet and data scientist Joses Ho, will empower participants to explore and harness large language models on their own for artistic and poetic purposes. This course will allow people with no experience writing poetry or code to get direct hands-on experience in running and manipulating LLMs for artistic and poetic text generation. Experienced poets will gain additional technical skills in exploring LLMs, and those with coding experience will be inspired to use their technical knowledge towards creative and artistic ends. Participants will gain a critical understanding of how LLMs work under the hood, and also begin to appreciate how poetry uses language as a medium to create emotional responses in readers.

Writing in Poetic Forms: From Haiku to Liwuli to Sonnet with Joshua Ip

First Course Run: 5 Dec 2025
Second Course Run: 29 Dec 2025

Award-winning poet Joshua Ip introduces you to the intricate world of formal poetry, and why poets from Shakespeare to Li Bai write in form. You will even be exposed to rarely-seen formal poems written by Singapore’s pioneering leaders and poets. You will then progressively experience how writing in form can loosen up poetic muscles not usually exercised; from entry-level forms like the haiku, to more complex syllabic forms like the liwuli, to advanced forms like the sonnet. You will also have opportunity to receive feedback on your newly-written poems. The session will enable people new to writing poetry to try out formal poetry writing, and build a repertoire of 3-5 poems in a day.