Yeow Kai Chai to head Singapore Writers Festival

In an August 4 statement, he said: “Returning to SWF feels both familiar and exciting. In my roles as attendee, participant and organiser over the decades, I am glad to see how much the Festival has grown, and how it continues to spark unexpected conversations across languages, generations and art forms. As we mark its 30th edition, I hope to honour everything the Festival has achieved while creating space for new voices and new ways of experiencing literature.”

Yeow is the author of three poetry collections, including One To The Dark Tower Comes (2020) – a dense poetic tour de force about grief, self-discovery and the limits of language – which won the Singapore Literature Prize for English poetry in 2022. He spent 15 years as a journalist with Singapore Press Holdings, including stints as Straits Times Life deputy editor and My Paper editor.

As festival director, Yeow led four editions of SWF themed Island Of Dreams (2015), sayang (a Malay term expressing endearment, 2016), aram (a Tamil word meaning goodness, 2017) and jie (a Chinese world meaning world, 2018).

In the press statement, AHG also said that the National Arts Council – which commissions the festival – will implement a Festival Leadership Development Programme “to strengthen the pipeline of literary leadership for the sector”.

Founded in 1986, SWF started as part of the Singapore Festival of Arts and is one of the few multilingual festivals in the world. Former SWF directors have all been poets – Paul Tan (2011 to 2014), Yeow (2015 to 2018), Pooja Nansi (2019 to 2023) and Yong (2024 to 2026).