Felix Cheong

Felix Cheong is a Singaporean poet who was born Felix Cheong Seng Fei.

Biography

He was educated at the National University of Singapore where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in 1990, and at the University of Queensland, Australia, where he obtained a Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing in 2002.

He was the recipient of the National Arts Council's Young Artist of the Year for Literature Award in 2000 and has published three books of poetry: "Temptation and Other Poems" (1998), "Watch the Stars Go Out" (1999), and "Broken by the Rain" (2003). He has also published a non-fiction book, "Different" (2005) which includes interviews with more than 50 successful Singaporeans, and a children's fiction book, "The Call from Crying House" (2006)

Cheong's works have been published in newspapers, poetry websites, foreign journals, six anthologies of Singaporean poetry and two tele-movies: "The Man in the Cupboard" (2001) and "Love Poetry" (2004). He has also written a poetic drama, "One Night Standing" which was staged at the Singapore Arts Festival.

Cheong has been invited to read his poems at writers' festivals in Edinburgh, Brisbane, Christchurch, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Ubud, and Singapore. He has also read in London, Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, and Manila and was instrumental in organising a Singapore contingent of writers on reading tours in the Philippines (2001), Australia (2001), U.S. (2002), and the United Kingdom (2003).

A literary activist, Cheong has been involved in promoting Singapore literature. A mentor under the National Arts Council's Mentor Access Project since 2001, he has facilitated many creative writing workshops for schools and institutions. In 2004, he edited "Idea to Ideal: 12 Singapore Poets on the Writing of Their Poetry" which featured Singaporean poets Goh Poh Seng, Robert Yeo, Kirpal Singh, Chandran Nair, Leong Liew Geok, Angeline Yap, Boey Kim Cheng, Heng Siok Tian, Paul Tan, Alvin Pang, Yong Shu Hoong, and Cyril Wong.

Cheong is currently an adjunct lecturer at the LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Works

Poetry collections

* "Temptation and Other Poems" (1998)
* "Watch the Stars Go Out" (1999)
* "Broken By the Rain" (2003)

Anthologies (editor)

* "Idea to Ideal: 12 Singaporean Poets on the Writing of their Poetry" (2004)

Children's Fiction

* "The Call from Crying house" (2006)

Non-Fiction

* "Different" (2005)

Awards

* National Arts Council's Young Artist of the Year for Literature (2000)

References

* [http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/singapore/literature/poetry/cheong/cheongov.html Singapore Ministry of Culture Website]