- Aaron Lee
Aaron Lee Soon Yong (born 7 June 1972 in
Malaysia ) is aSingapore an prize-winning poet who writes in English.Aaron began writing poetry during his days at Raffles Institution, a secondary school in Singapore where he befriended other students who would eventually go on to become published Singaporean writers.
By 1990, he had, along with other ex-school mates, Jonathan Kuan Wei Han, Tong Jo Tze, Alvin Pang and Jeffrey Lim, interested a Singapore publisher, VJ Times, in the publication of an anthology of poems contributed by the five writers. This collection, In Search of Words, was released on or about 1991 [ http://www.thecore.nus.edu.sg/post/singapore/literature/poetry/soonyong/bio1.html, accessed 17 September 2007 ] .
His first collection of poems released fully authored by him, "A Visitation of Sunlight", was named one of the best books of 1997 by
The Straits Times [ "A Visitation of Sunlight", Ethos Books, 1997, ISBN No: 981-00-9536-8, http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=69, accessed 17 September 2007 ] . The collection was well received and played a part in a late 1990s resurgence of interest in Singapore poetry centred around a new generation of Singapore poets.In 1999 the title poem of his book was selected for the National Arts Council’s "Poems on the Move" programme, a national initiative to bring poetry to the masses on public transport.
Lee’s work has been anthologised in such publications as "Rhythms: a Millennial Anthology of Poetry" (Singapore), the "
New Straits Times " (Malaysia) and "Anglistik" (Germany).Lee is the co-editor of "No Other City: the Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry" [ "No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry", Ethos Books, 2000, ISBN No: 981-04-2276-8; http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=79, accessed 17 September 2007 ] and "Love Gathers All: the Philippines- Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry" [ "Love Gathers All: The Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry (PB)", Ethos Books, 2002, ISBN No: 981-04-5105-6 (PB); http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=78, accessed 17 September 2007 ] (for which the editors were given an award by the
Singapore International Foundation ).In 2007, Lee released his second, long awaited poetry collection, "Five Right Angles" [ "Five Right Angles", Ethos Books, 2007, ISBN 978-981-05-8368-2; http://www.ethosbooks.com.sg/store/mli_viewItem.asp?idProduct=198, accessed 17 September 2007 ] .
He is active in the literary scene in mentoring young poets and conducting school workshops and seminars on creative writing. He is married to an artist and educationist,
Namiko Chan . He is a Christian, and his work displays a range of Christian themes and imagery.He is not the son of Alan Lee see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lee as previously and erroneously claimed on this page.
References
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